Miriam Gottfried: The Wall Street Journal reporter's front row seat to the ubiquitous world of private equity

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Scroll down to follow along with the transcript of my conversation with The Wall Street Journal's Miriam Gottfried, and listen to the episode on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or by simply clicking the graphic below.

Russell Sherman 

Hello again, everyone. This is Russell Sherman, and you are listening to Press Profiles where we turn the tables on some of the top business reporters and editors in the industry. These are the folks that are used to asking the questions, now they're answering them. Today we're joined by Miriam Gottfried, private equity reporter for The Wall Street Journal, and if you follow finance, you know that private equity is kind of the place to be over the last 10 or so years, and Miriam's had a front row seat leading the coverage for one of the most respected publications out there. We'll talk about some of her favorite stories, where she thinks the industry is headed, her upbringing, her unique style, how she met her husband, all sorts of things. All that and a whole lot more, here now is Miriam Gottfried on Press Profiles.

Miriam Gottfried

Hello!

Russell Sherman

Hey, you are our first in person recording.

Miriam Gottfried 

Wow, I'm honored.

Russell Sherman 

So when we're you know, when Press Profiles episode 500 comes out, you'll be able to tell your family that you were the first one that was in person. We are at the Milken conference, the Milken Institute in Los Angeles, doing this, how's the conference been so far?

Miriam Gottfried 

It has been a whirlwind, as always, but so inspiring. I've gotten to meet with a ton of interesting people back-to-back to back, and I have a lot of ideas.

Russell Sherman

How many meetings do you think you do over the course of the two and a half, three days?

Miriam Gottfried

I think I did. 20, maybe.

Russell Sherman 

Most interesting takeaway?

Miriam Gottfried

The biggest theme in private equity right now is the democratization of alternatives. And what that means basically is allowing regular people to invest in private equity, private credit, private real estate and get access to private markets. And everybody's been talking about that.

Russell Sherman

Is that a good idea?

Miriam Gottfried

I mean, I'm not a regulator, so it's not really for me to say what's safe but I think the reason that regular people increasingly might want access to these companies is that they become a huge swath of the existing market. And right now, only the wealthy and institutions can invest in these companies. There are more private companies than there are public companies. We have a totally different profile of the type of company that's a public company than we used to have. Many of the more stable cash generating businesses are in private hands, so, there is definitely an argument that retail investors would want access to that.

Russell Sherman 

How did you land the private equity beat at the journal? Because,you weren't doing that when you originally got there.

Miriam Gottfried 

Right. When I first got to the journal, I was writing for the Heard on the Street column, I covered media, telecom, and retail and got to write commentary about investing in public companies, IN those very interesting sectors. After five years of doing that, I wanted to try something new, and I really wanted a beat that would challenge me to use my financial knowledge, because at Heard on the Street you build models, you become an analyst, and I wanted to be able to apply my knowledge of valuation and investing into a different lens, and private markets seemed really interesting, and it was an area that the journal wanted to elevate a bit more, and just to kind of underscore how important it and its growing importance in the financial industry.

Russell Sherman

Was someone already covering it? Did you replace someone?

Miriam Gottfried 

Someone was, but they were leaving, so there was an opening,and I said, this seems like the right fit for me.

Russell Sherman 

It's more than just private equity, I would assume, these days, right? Private Markets, overall private credit is booming. So, is it all under your purview?

Miriam Gottfried 

We do have reporters who cover real estate and credit, but what I like to think of as my beat is anything that these firms could do. Anything that the biggest private equity firms do, I could cover, and I hope to cover.

Russell Sherman 

Well, that's pretty exciting.

Miriam Gottfried

Yeah.

Russell Sherman

If you look at what private equity firms are doing, they have their hands in almost every single industry.

Miriam Gottfried

Totally.

Russell Sherman

Let's go back and talk about how you got into reporting. Grew up in Oregon…

Miriam Gottfried

I did… in Portland.

Russell Sherman

Made the move all the way to the east coast to go to Wesleyan. What drew you to the East Coast?

Miriam Gottfried

I'm an ambitious person who has a little bit of a need to torture myself I guess [laughs] the need to really drive myself forward, and I felt like the culture at the East Coast small liberal arts schools was really what I wanted. It was people who were there because they were excited to learn, and especially at Wesleyan. Wesleyan really stood out to me as a school and continues to stand out to me as a school, where people they're not there to compete or to get good grades, they're there to learn and be the best at whatever subject matter they're passionate about.

Russell Sherman

You kind of had an activist mindset growing up and going to Wesleyan probably, which is a very liberal…

Miriam Gottfried 

Politically active school…

Russell Sherman

Politically active school. I would assume that appealed to you.

Miriam Gottfried

It did initially, but the journalist in me got to me pretty quickly. So, I got to Wesleyan, and I was like, I'm going to be very active, I'm going to be a very political. The first protest that came along, I was like, wait, I agree with these issues, but not these issues, but they were all lumped together in one protest. And I was like, I think I have too much of a nuanced way of thinking to be an activist. Just the way that the political landscape at Wesleyan worked, everything was lumped together, and it was like you had to buy into the full package, and so, I really threw myself into being involved in this campus newspaper. I covered the protests instead of being a protester and that is a role that I continue to feel most comfortable in today.

Russell Sherman

Yeah, it's interesting, I saw, a quote from you in the past and you sort of said, being a journalist allows you to be an activist in your own nuanced way. What do you mean by that

Miriam Gottfried

I would never call myself an activist now, but it allows you to elucidate the truth in a nuanced way. You don't say this is the truth, but you explain things with supporting evidence in a way that people come to realize what the truth is, ideally, through reading your work. And I think that that is much more powerful than a protest in some ways. I think that grabbing people by the lapels and saying, “read this story” in which I explain in great depth, how things work, is actually way more important and informative and potentially world-changing than a protest.

Russell Sherman

Yeah, I think obviously, you're a source of information for them, you're providing that information, you're educating people. You're educating people in a way that can have a real impact, I would think.

Miriam Gottfried

Yeah, and one thing you learn pretty quickly is politics is about messaging, or having one point of view that's like an easy, quick soundbite. That's not how the world works. Everything is a lot more complicated, and I'm pro nuance, and that does not come across in many other forms of journalism even.

Russell Sherman 

Well, it’s a real…

Miriam Gottfried 

Apart from newspaper, right, journalism.

Russell Sherman

I think it's a real issue, right?

Miriam Gottfried 

Yeah.

Russell Sherman 

I mean, we have very one-sided debates, people speaking very loudly, in favor of their opinions in different ways, and to be able to provide the overall picture and educate people is a challenge, but definitely necessary, I would think in today’s world.

Miriam Gottfried

Yes…yeah.

Russell Sherman 

Out of Wesleyan, you're interested in reporting. I thought this was fun: one of your first jobs was as a food critic in Chicago.

Miriam Gottfried 

Yeah.

Russell Sherman 

Not bad; they would pay you to go have three or four course meals at various fancy restaurants.

Miriam Gottfried

Exactly. So, what happened was, right after I graduated from Wesley, I got an internship at Forbes magazine in Chicago. So, I moved to Chicago, I didn't know anything about the city, and I also had a side interest in food criticism. That was sort of when the foodie thing was really taking off, and I did have food blog that I started too that was all about cheap eats, and if you go to certain restaurants around Chicago and New York you can still see my reviews hanging on the wall. It was an anonymous blog, so you would never know it was me. But, I wanted to keep up the food writing aspect of my interest at that time and there were so little infrastructure for that, that I knew an editor who knew somebody at Chicago Magazine, and I asked if I could basically be a food critic for them. And they said, well, we do need someone to help us update our listings, because they had their recommended restaurants in the back of the magazine, so they would send – I had a credit card and a fake name so that nobody would know that I was a reviewer – and they would send me to restaurants, and I had to go twice with another person and try as many different dishes as I could. It was like the coolest thing as like somebody who had just graduated from college, getting to go to all the fanciest restaurants in Chicago and having someone else pay for it.

Russell Sherman

That's fantastic. I'm sure you were a popular person at that point.

Miriam Gottfried

Yes, everyone wanted to go out to dinner with me.

Russell Sherman

You do that for a little while, you decide food’s really not that interesting to cover on a full-time basis, and the business bug gets you a little bit. Finance, business…

Miriam Gottfried

Yeah, I actually really became interested in covering finance when I was in college because I did a variety of internships, they were all journalism internships, one of them was at the News Tribune in Tacoma, Washington, a daily newspaper, and they forced their interns to serve on each of the different desks within the paper, and so business had never been an interest of mine. My parents worked for nonprofits my whole life. I have a lot of artists and my family. We’re just not really business minded people. But, when I got to the business desk, it was like, wow, this is fascinating. I'm an academic at heart and it satisfied that for me, because there was a lot of data to back things up. It was sort of like a framework through which to understand the world. It just unlocked something for me. I was like, there's this whole world that's been acting upon me that I didn't understand until now. And I just knew that I could continue to dig into that, and I would be unearthing the root of power in our society, really. It was like, this will be endlessly fascinating. So, I knew that it would never get boring.

Russell Sherman

I always think that there's a power in demystifying that world.

Miriam Gottfried

Totally. Most people don't understand it at all, but yet they are part of it.

Russell Sherman

It's almost the nerve center of everything going on. You can make the argument that politics, obviously is the nerve center, but really the nerve center for how our society works in so many different ways, is business.

Miriam Gottfried

Yeah. What drives politics? Business.

Russell Sherman

Yep. I don't know what your line is, “I cover finance, but I'm not in finance.”

Miriam Gottfried

[Laughs] Yeah.

Russell Sherman

Talk to me a little bit about that.

Miriam Gottfried

I think it's really important to continue to be an outsider to the industry that you cover. I have a pretty deep understanding of finance at this point, but I have no interest in becoming a financier. I mean, I have my own real estate investments, I bought a house and everyone's like, oh, your timing was great, you should join our firm or whatever. But, I think that the role of a journalist is to be a bridge between an industry that might be mysterious to people or might be opaque and to kind of enlighten them, and you need to maintain something of an outsider status to do that. Also, I'm like a funky, weird person who went to Wesleyan. I'm not a finance person. That's not my identity.

Russell Sherman

It's so funny. I saw you yesterday, we're at the Milken conference, and outside everyone is eating lunch and you can imagine everyone is dressed in full suits, even though we're in Los Angeles, and there comes Miriam walking through the crowd and she's got the leather jacket on and a funky skirt, and she's wearing heart shaped sunglasses. And I just smiled, keeping your personality amidst all of this, which I love.

Miriam Gottfried

Exactly. I figure, why not? It makes me more of an interesting person, maybe more inviting to talk to. You never know.

Russell Sherman

I certainly saw that. You are on Press Profiles, right?

Miriam Gottfried

That's true. I must be an interesting person.

Russell Sherman

How did you go about demystifying that finance world and really understanding it? Because it's one thing to say I want to learn it, it's another to really dive in and get to know it well.

Miriam Gottfried

Well, when I first started at Forbes, I had the privilege of working with a very seasoned reporter and co- writing a number of stories with him. He was the bureau chief there, Mark Tatge, he's a professor now of journalism. And, I personally think that working with reporters who have been in the business for a long time, is the best way to learn. I continue to do that today. I have co-written a number of stories with Mark Maremont, who's one of our most senior reporters...

Russell Sherman

Yeah, longtime investigative…

Miriam Gottfried 

Longtime investigative reporter, excellent teacher in a lot of ways, and that's a big reason I like working at the Journal. I don't want to be the smartest person in my organization, I want to be continuously learning from people who have more experience than me, so that's one big way that I've learned. The other thing I did is, I did end up going to Columbia to get a Master's in Business and Economics journalism. I'm not convinced that that is needed to understand this stuff, but it was the kind of degree that I knew could be helpful to me both in my career, but also in terms of practical knowledge, because I was able to take accounting and corporate finance as part of that degree. So, you start to understand a little bit more about the scientific underpinnings of finance. I don't think I could make a discounted cash flow model that easily right now, it's not something I do on a daily basis, but I understand the assumptions that go into making one and that is a huge window into the risks involved in evaluating a business.

Russell Sherman

It’s imperative. You mentioned working with Mark. Does the investigative journalism interest you?

Miriam Gottfried

Definitely. There are a number of big questions out there, which I cannot disclose on this podcast, that I would love to be able to report in the course of my career, And some of them may be hard to unearth, I mean, they are very difficult, but you kind of have to begin somewhere and the investigative stuff is fascinating to me. I don't necessarily think that being an investigative reporter, while not being a beat reporter is the best thing, because being a beat reporter is how you understand what to investigate. Once you know an industry really well, you know where the secrets are, you know where the things are that need to be investigated, or the tips come to you about the investigation. So I think there's a symbiosis between writing the day to day stuff and getting to know people and becoming the person that people want to read on that subject and then being able to break the big investigations.

Russell Sherman

And it's probably part of your makeup as well, which is that, if we dial back to going to Wesleyan and being interested in activism, those things are probably related.

Miriam Gottfried

Yeah, I mean, I would say that I'm interested in accountability. I'm not interested in nitpicking, in my journalism, I'm interested in holding people’s feet to the fire when there's a big reason to do that. I think that when you start to see where these glaring things are, that's when you want to keep digging.

Russell Sherman

This topic scares all our listeners. Let's move on to the fun stuff.

Miriam Gottfried

[ Laughs] Just be a good person, and then I'll never investigate you.

Russell Sherman

Let's move on to the fun stuff. Tell us about some of the more fun stories you've covered while at the Journal. Which ones stick out in your mind that really tell the story about private equity or private markets in a meaningful way? I know that there was a good story related to PetSmart and BC Partners…

Miriam Gottfried 

Yeah

Russell Sherman

Maybe that’s one…

Miriam Gottfried

That was a great one. The reason I loved doing that story, it ran on the front page and it was sort of the anatomy of the deal for PetSmart, which BC partners bought, which wasn't going so well, and then they bought Chewy, they took a chance, they paid $3 billion for Chewy, which people thought was crazy at the time, and it really panned out well. I mean, we all know, Chewy, has a huge market capitalization…

Russell Sherman

I’m a customer.

Miriam Gottfried 

Right now, and it's become even more popular during the pandemic, and that became at least so far, a homerun deal for BC. But the reason it was a really good story wasn't because it ended well necessarily, it was because BC was willing to go through the trials and tribulations of getting there and how they were nervous about the deal at a certain point, and then how they took a chance, and so there was drama in the story and it showed how specifically the firm's Chairman Raymond Svider was really getting his hands dirty, like he was in the midst of the company, he was running the company for a period of time. It showed how he really cared about rescuing this investment and not only rescuing it but making it a huge success.

Russell Sherman

You mentioned that other firms ask you about that story.

Miriam Gottfried

Yeah, they say “why can't you write a profile about me?” Whether it be that story or a story that I wrote about Thoma Bravo, and Orlando Bravo. And I say, these stories take a lot of relationship building, and they require the person involved to trust me and to give me information, and you can't just come to me and say, “Here's my good news. Write a front-page story about it.” We have to get to know each other, we have to understand what the challenges were, it's not all just easy.

Russell Sherman

Yeah. I mean, I think you want the full picture.

Miriam Gottfried 

Yeah

Russell Sherman 

You want the positive and the negative. You want the highs and the lows.

Miriam Gottfried

I do. That's what makes for a good story, right? At this conference, a lot of people have said, “Oh, I have a great story for you: my ESG strategy.” Like, that's not a story, like you hiring more diverse people for your board is not a story. Let's figure out what a story would be, maybe related to your ESG strategy, but that's not a story, that's your marketing.

Russell Sherman

Another story you did that I thought was interesting was the Partners Group story, which they banned the word deal.

Miriam Gottfried 

Yes.

Russell Sherman 

Which was a fun story. And I believe for those that don't know, there's something called the A-Hed on The Wall Street Journal, which is the fun column towards the bottom of the front page.  Is that your first A-Hed story?

Miriam Gottfried

It was my first and only A-Hed that I've written in 10 years of the Journal.

Russell Sherman

How did that one come about?

Miriam Gottfried

I actually did a series of meetings with Dave Layton, the CEO of Partners Group and other executives there and I noticed that they had this funny earnestness to them. Dave's a good investor, and their firm has been very successful, but he made these comments to me like, “oh, we banned the word deal.” And I was like: What are you talking about? You’re a private equity firm, like, how could you ban the word deal? That's ridiculous. And then he's like, you know what I always like to say, we're like penguins. And I was like, what are you talking about? You know, he had these like, just funny statements that came out, and I was like, I think this firm's a little bit different. Partners had been trying to get me to come out to their office in Denver, they built this expansive campus, and they're like, we have this huge warehouse that we turned into our office. And I was like, this firm's different, there's something about them, that is different. And so, I ended up talking to some of their founders and getting the full picture of why they're quirky, and I thought, just think of the headline, “private equity firm bans the word deal.” It's like, hilarious. So even though to them, this is actually a true part of their culture, and it works for them, it is a funny premise. And so, I was able to sort of thread the needle between the funny framing and also talking about the fact that they are a legitimate and successful for her,

Russell Sherman

Do you then go to the journal and say, hey you know, I got something that I actually think would fit…?

Miriam Gottfried

Yeah, we have an A-Hed editor actually, who is in charge of editing that story every day, and they're desperate for ideas. So, if anyone listening to this podcast has any funny ideas, pitch them to me, I want to do more A-Heds. The biggest challenge in figuring out an A-Hed is the fact that we've done so many of them that many of them have already been done, and we want to have the stories be original.

Russell Sherman

I remember someone once telling me that to curb their spending habits, this was years ago, when they were much younger, they would freeze their credit card in the freezer, and if they really wanted something, they would wait till the thought out to buy the…

Miriam Gottfried

Oh my god, that's a good story.

Russell Sherman

I said that's a good A-Hed!

Miriam Gottfried

Definitely.

Russell Sherman

So, it's a fun column.

Miriam Gottfried

It's very fun.

Russell Sherman

As you're putting together a story – I like to ask about the leads and the kickers – what makes a good lead in your mind?

Miriam Gottfried

Something simple is the best lead if I can get it. Something too convoluted, people are like, I don't want to read this story, but if you can make a statement that's simple and declarative, that catches people's eyes, that can help a lot. And sometimes, it's just very straightforward. With a news story, don't try too hard, just do it.

Russell Sherman

We talk a little bit about putting them in the room where it happened.

Miriam Gottfried

Yeah.

Russell Sherman 

In Hamilton speak.

Miriam Gottfried

Yeah.

Russell Sherman

Is that often something you try to do?

Miriam Gottfried

I don't prefer to do an anecdotal lead. Well, also, The Wall Street Journal has a thing against them.

Russell Sherman

Okay…

Miriam Gottfried

Basically, some of our competitors who shall not be named, prefer to do these long and winding anecdotal leads and the only time that I can get an anecdotal lead passed my editors is if it's short and to the point. They don't like to have 300 words wasted in some wind up. They want the reader to understand the story.

Russell Sherman

That's interesting.

Miriam Gottfried

The Wall Street Journal's readers are there to get information that helps them make decisions and they don't want to read a bunch of convoluted information, they want to understand what the story is about quickly, and I think that's just a culture that permeates throughout the paper.

Russell Sherman

Maybe for a weekend feature something.

Miriam Gottfried

Yeah. But still keep it tight.

Russell Sherman 

That's a really interesting distinction. How about the kicker?

Miriam Gottfried

Something funny, ideally, if you can get it, or just something ironic or succinctly sums it up.

Russell Sherman

I do think sometimes it's an opportunity for a reporter to show a little bit what they're thinking or what their conclusion may be, even though it's not a column, it's certainly, it's an editorial, it’s a news piece, but…

Miriam Gottfried

Yeah, sort of the last word in many senses, right?

Russell Sherman

I promised we would talk about you meeting your husband.

Miriam Gottfried 

Okay.

Russell Sherman 

And I'm sure people are waiting just for that.

Miriam Gottfried

I mean, it was all the news that was fit to print.

Russell Sherman

Apparently. So, The New York Times wrote it up, because you and your husband met on the Subway, or at least saw each other on the Subway…

Miriam Gottfried 

We on the subway, yeah.

Russell Sherman 

Before he got off the subway, he asked, I think she was described as a curmudgeonly old woman, to pass you a business card with his name on it.

Miriam Gottfried

Yeah, we had not exchanged any words before then. We just saw each other and were smiling at each other.

Russell Sherman 

How far apart are you, would you say?

Miriam Gottfried 

I entered the door that was across from where he was standing, so we were across the car from each other, and it was the morning commute, so people started filling in in between us, so we weren't really next to each other. by the time he made the move to pass the business card.

Russell Sherman

And then keeping with the Subway theme, he's obviously a creative – We'll talk a little bit more about what he does – he actually proposed several years later…

Miriam Gottfried

…on the subway, I was totally oblivious to his plans. He took me to the Whitney Museum in New York, he was like, oh, we need to take the two, three to get to this bar that I want to go meet my friends at, and…

Russell Sherman

To watch a football game…

Russell Sherman

To watch a football game, and you're not a football fan.

Miriam Gottfried

That is one sport that I really don't care about, but he went to Georgia, and so the Georgia Bulldogs, whenever they're playing, you gotta watch them.

Russell Sherman

You’re supposed to say now the national champion Georgia Bulldogs.

Miriam Gottfried

Exactly, exactly. I forgot.

Russell Sherman

He'd be upset if you forgot to add that in there.

Miriam Gottfried 

So I agreed to go to this bar, and we got onto the Subway car and just sat down, and there were a bunch of people sort of mingling about and all of a sudden, a group of them started singing in harmony. And they sing, “Wise men say only fools rush in”

Russell Sherman

You got a good voice.

Miriam Gottfried 

Thanks. I was like, oh, you gotta love New York, there's an acapella group on the subway, and then they start walking toward us as they're singing, and my husband said, Why do you think they're walking toward us? And I said, oh, they're probably just trying to serenade us, they’re probably just having fun. And he's like, do you have a dolllar? And I said, I don't think they want money, these people don't seem like they're out here for money. And then he said, I think I know why they're coming over and he got down on one knee and took out the ring. It was amazing. And people on the subway car, half of them were asleep and like didn't notice or care and half of them were like clapping and cheering.

Russell Sherman

So that's fantastic.

Miriam Gottfried

Yeah.

Russell Sherman 

And I heard you got a wedding gift on the subway.

Miriam Gottfried

Yeah, right as we were getting off at Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn, a lady who had been on the car with us, stuffed some cash into my husband's hand and she said, I've taken the subway my whole life and I have never had like such a great experience or something like that. And she said consider this a wedding gift and then she just walks off…

Russell Sherman

Oh my gosh.

Miriam Gottfried

And it was $200 from a random stranger. It was a very auspicious start.

Russell Sherman

Paid for the acapella group.

Miriam Gottfried

Exactly. I don't know if it did, but, but I'm not gonna ask.

Russell Sherman

That's wonderful. So, your husband's name is Trevor Williams and is actually a creative as well. He writes and directs and videos and movies and other types of things. He put out a fun Wordle piece that ran in The New Yorker, it was a portrayal of the new head of Wordle now that the New York Times has bought Wordle, and it was a sinister character that he wrote about. Here's a clip:

 Josh Wordle technically invented Wordle, but once he sold it to my employer, The New York Times, I became the senior word engineer, and let's just say, heavy lies the crown. You might say, oh, you just have to come up with a dumb little word every day. But the truth is, whatever little five letter word I choose will become the most important goddamn thing on the internet. As a condition of the merger, we did have to retain a few of the original Wordle writers, and I'd be lying if I said they weren't a bit soft. So, I was thinking we could do Irish for St. Patrick's Day? A little on the nose, don't we think? How about drunk? How about fired, Barry? Is that a good five letter word?

Russell Sherman

Fun stuff.

Miriam Gottfried

Very funny. He is hilarious. He used to do standup comedy and his company Pig Apple focuses on comedic content. So, they're known for being humorous guys.

Russell Sherman

Makes for fun and interesting life, I would assume the two of you.

Miriam Gottfried

Definitely. We have a very good time.

Russell Sherman

Getting back to work: Where do you want to go with your reporting? I often ask people what their dream job might be. Where do you want to take your coverage at the journal? How do you want to continue to evolve it?

Miriam Gottfried

So, I am not ready to stop covering private equity anytime soon. I think it's a person-to-person business and it took me three years to get to know enough people where I was like, okay, I think I got this, I think I now am connected enough, and it's only now that I'm getting to write the big stories that I really should and want to be writing, so that's a big thing. I'm hoping to really elevate our coverage further, I'm hoping to do more big stories about the industry that depict how important it's become to the world of finance. It's the most dynamic area of finance, it's growing so quickly, it's much more important than the banks in many ways, because it's less regulated and because firms have taken over many of the areas that banks once dominated. And, it's filled with colorful personalities. I mean, it's an amazing story that keeps on giving, so I want to capture that in my coverage, and I think I'll be able to do that a bit more. We recently hired another person to help with the deals coverage, which can take a lot of time and has been a big component of my job, just breaking news on deals, high priority for the journal. And now I have a little bit more help doing that so that I can focus a bit more on the big stories.

Russell Sherman

I know you just broke a little bit of a news story on the potential purchase of Chelsea.

Miriam Gottfried 

Yes.

Russell Sherman 

The soccer club. Not bad when you're, for that story, up against all sorts of…

Miriam Gottfried

The full threat of the British press. I mean, we were very dubious that we would be able to break that story, and due to the credit of my colleague, Cara Lombardo, she's forced to be reckoned with in M&A and Ben Dummett, my colleague in Europe, who covers M&A (he's based out of London) we work together very closely, and I couldn't do it without them.

Russell Sherman

Let's finish off with some quick hits, if we can. Give us some of your thoughts and allow people to learn a little bit more about Miriam Gottfried.

 Favorite type of music?

Miriam Gottfried

Musicals. I'm a nerd.

Russell Sherman

Favorite musical then.

Miriam Gottfried

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

Russell Sherman

It’s a great play.

Miriam Gottfried 

Yeah.

Russell Sherman 

I think I saw it with Matthew Broderick.

Miriam Gottfried 

Me too.

Russell Sherman 

He was great. Favorite author? By the way, diving into your background there's a 78% chance that you're going to name someone I have no idea who it is.

Miriam Gottfried

Well, I wrote my thesis on Vladimir Nabokov and his reading of Don Quixote, so I would say Nabokov and Cervantes are definitely among my favorites, but currently, I'm really into Elena Ferrante.

Russell Sherman

78%. paid off. This is interesting, tidbit about you. You went away for a study abroad to Europe, learned a lot about wine, came back and actually petitioned the school to teach a course, an accredited course on wine tasting, and wine in general. Creative, shows initiative, a lot of fun. So, I want to ask you… favorite wine?

Miriam Gottfried

I'm a big fan of Loire Valley whites. I like Chenin Blanc Vouvray. I would say the Vouvray wines are probably my favorites.

Russell Sherman

That's great that you came back and that you had the idea and the initiative to do that.

Miriam Gottfried

Yeah, so one of my best friends actually works in the wine business today, and she and I both went to Europe at the same time, we both got really into wine. Wesleyan offers you the chance to create a class, so we got the Romance languages and literatures department to sponsor our wine tasting class, and helped a lot of seniors graduate, so…

Russell Sherman

That’s fantastic. Little known fact, my first job out of college was with Gallo Wine.

Miriam Gottfried 

That's very interesting.

Russell Sherman 

I lasted about 11 months, but I did learn a lot.

Miriam Gottfried

I worked in a wine store in Chicago for a year or two, so I learned a lot more there.

Russell Sherman 

What is streaming in your home these days?

Miriam Gottfried

So we're watching My Brilliant Friend, speaking of my love of Elena Ferrante, which is a show about her series, it's on HBO, and then we are watching the reat on Hulu.

Russell Sherman 

So good.

Miriam Gottfried

So funny. I laugh out loud.

Russell Sherman 

Are you in season two yet or season one?

Miriam Gottfried

Still in season one. We, we only got on to it recently, but I'm not usually somebody who likes comedies, and that show is just the best…

Russell Sherman

Huzzah! Huzzah!

Miriam Gottfried

It’s exactly my type of humor.

Russell Sherman

It’s great. It’s a lot of fun.

Miriam Gottfried

Huzzah!

Russell Sherman

Besides The Wall Street Journal, where are you getting your news these days?

Miriam Gottfried

Well, I read The New York Times like a good New Yorker. I really love New York Magazine, I like their in- depth profiles, and I'm a subscriber. Twitter. I mean, you got to verify but a lot of news surfaces to me there. And good old NPR, I love listening to NPR. It's the background audio of my childhood.

Russell Sherman

If I had asked you the most memorable story you covered during your career, what would you say?

Miriam Gottfried

One thing that really stood out because it was totally different and not my actual normal career is, I was in Portland during the protests during COVID, the Black Lives Matter protests in Portland, that everybody knew about from watching on cable news, and everything. And The Wall Street Journal realized I was there, and they called me into action. So, I donned a reflective vest and went out to cover the protests for a few nights and interviewed a lot of protesters, and it was a really interesting experience because that's not my normal area of coverage, I never expected to have to do that, I had to do like a safety training course. And I also got to reconnect a little bit with my home city, learn more about the failures of its local government and the struggles of the government there and a big issue facing the city. So, I thought that was really important and a unique experience.

Russell Sherman

Did you decamp to Portland during the pandemic?

Miriam Gottfried

Yeah, so at the beginning of COVID, my husband and I just took a chance, we were like, who knows, maybe the flights will even stop working. So, we got on a plane, and we flew to Oregon, and we went straight to my family's beach house on the Oregon coast, and we stayed there for six months, and a lot of people were like, oh, you're so lucky, you got to go to the beach for six months. And I was like, I was working so hard, and I was waking up at 5:30 every morning…

Russell Sherman 

That time change will kill you.

Miriam Gottfried

It will really kill you, but it was a unique time in our lives for sure.

Russell Sherman

If an executive is going to meet you, they will often ask us, as the intermediary: What’s she like? Is she tough? Is she investigative? Is she fun? Is she friendly? What should we tell them about Miriam Gottfried?

Miriam Gottfried

So, I'm not going to be tough on you when I first meet you in general, because my whole goal is to develop a relationship with you. Otherwise, why would I meet with you? I'm in it for the long run. I'm not here to call you out. I'm here to get to know you. And so, I think I am pretty interested in actually learning about your business and your background when I meet you because I'm trying to understand how you might fit into the puzzle of my coverage. Where does your piece fit? And how could you be helpful to me and how could I be helpful to you?

Russell Sherman

Final question. We all like thinking of headlines. We all secretly wish we worked for the New York Post and could write fun headlines…sure your husband could write.

Miriam Gottfried

My sister company.

Russell Sherman

I'm sure your husband could write some good headlines. Sum it up for us: write the headline on your career.

Miriam Gottfried 

Oh, wow.

Russell Sherman 

Having said that, your career is still very much in.

Miriam Gottfried

I'm sure I can't write a very good headline with a lot of pizzazz, but like, driven academic delves into mysteries of finance,

Russell Sherman

Demystifying the finance world for others.

Miriam Gottfried

Yeah. I really think of myself as a type of teacher. You're teaching your readers about what you've learned.

Russell Sherman

It's a great way to look at it.

Miriam Gottfried 

Yeah.

Russell Sherman 

Educating the world on private equity.

Miriam Gottfried 

Yeah.

Russell Sherman 

Miriam, this has been an awesome conversation.

Miriam Gottfried

I've really enjoyed it myself. Thank you for inviting me.

Russell Sherman

So much fun. That is Miriam Gottfried, everyone. She's just one of the many interesting and impressive people you will learn about on the Press Profiles Podcast, and you can of course find all the conversations at www.pressprofilespodcast.com, and subscribe wherever it is that you subscribe to podcasts. Thanks for listening and we will see you next time.