Features

AAPRC Weekly: Janice Littlejohn

Janice Littlejohn
Lifestyle/Entertainment Writer
Los Angeles



As a top entertainment journalist, Janice Littlejohn writes regularly for the nation's biggest media outlets, including the Associated Press news wire, the Los Angeles Times and many others. It wasn't until she landed in Disney magazine, however, that she gained the recognition that means the most to her––the awe of her then-four-year old niece who called her up when she saw Littlejohn's piece on the popular animated feature "Lilo and Stitch." Littlejohn tells the story in her best Muppet voice: "She was so excited, 'You write for Disney magazine! That's so great!…Did you talk to Lilo?' For her that was the greatest thing."

When she's not thrilling her niece with stories about Disney's latest, Littlejohn is traveling the country writing primarily about the film, television and music industries. As it so often happens, Littlejohn never planned it that way. She started her post-high school education in a trade school with visions of fashion merchandising. "I was taking all these business and accounting classes because I was going to do the retail end," Littlejohn recalls. "I was going to be the president of Nordstrom's––that was my goal."

As it turns out, someone else would have to run Nordstrom's. During Littlejohn's freshman year she took a writing class. She'd always enjoyed writing and expected the class would be an easy "A" and relief from the intense business classes. What she didn't expect was the writing teacher's reaction. The instructor, who was a fashion editor for what had been The Herald Examiner, was impressed with Littlejohn and suggested she switch from fashion to the writing track. Littlejohn was intrigued––and a little concerned about how the future financial rewards of writing would compare to her plan for the corner office at Nordstrom's––but took the instructor's suggestion that she test the waters with an internship.

The rest, as the cliché goes, is history. In 1986, Littlejohn interned with the top fashion trade, Women's Wear Daily, and fell in love with journalism. "I loved just getting out and talking to people and writing stories and telling other people's stories and feeling like I had affected change and progress."

She finished Los Angeles Trade Technical College as a journalism and fashion merchandising major and went on to Loyola-Marymount University where she got a degree in communications. Throughout her schooling Littlejohn continued to intern, at LA Weekly and at Motown. The Motown experience, in particular, would be a big boost to Littlejohn's postgraduate career. During her time at the venerable record label, she had the sort of access to parties and events––not to mention Motown's roster of hot young artists––that facilitated Littlejohn's entertainment stories for her college newspaper. She graduated with a writing folder full of clips.

With the help of those clips, her first job out of college was as an assistant editor at Lee Bailey's Radioscope. "It couldn't have been a better job. It was a small operation. It was three women in the editorial department––my editor, myself and a reporter who was under me," Littlejohn says. "We had to cover everything––the Oscars, the Emmys, the MTV Awards, the Grammy Awards–– anything that the big boys were covering. Even though we were only covering the Black side of the entertainment industry, we still had to go to all these events and talk to all these publicists and meet all these people and it was the most incredible training ground that I could have ever asked for."

Littlejohn worked at RadioScope until December of 1998, when the company began having financial problems––the staff had been cut to bare bones and the week Littlejohn quit there was no money for salaries. She was out of work for the first time since she was 14 and fully intended to find another fulltime job. Full-time freelancing, she thought, was not for her.

While working at Radioscope, Littlejohn had done a little freelancing, though, writing for websites such as what is now Zap2it.com. When she let Zap2it know she'd be looking for a new job, the website hired Littlejohn to cover the annual television critics' press tour. "When I got to the press tour the talk amongst my colleagues was 'oh, Janice is freelancing now,'" Littlejohn recalls. "I'd tell them, 'Oh, no, no, I'm just doing this little thing until I can get another job.' I wasn't owning that! Freelancing sounded incredibly scary to me."

It may have sounded scary, but by September of 1999 Littlejohn had made more money in nine months than she'd ever made at her full-time gig. A freelancer was born. "As word got around––'Janice is freelancing'––the work just seemed to come without an extraordinary amount of effort. It was a challenge, don't misunderstand, but the idea of being on my own didn't seem as terrifying and un-doable," says Littlejohn looking back. "It was wonderful how my colleagues put the word out for me."

In spite of the fear that came with the income uncertainty–-not to mention the lousy healthcare benefits––Littlejohn's freelancing career has been both professionally and economically satisfying. She recalls the mini-victories of landing her first pieces in major print outlets such as TV Guide and Essence––a magazine she pitched for two years before getting in with a food story on "Soul Food." Her first freelance story for the Los Angeles Times was also a flashpoint for Littlejohn–-she is a born and bred Angeleno and the Times is her hometown paper. The writing of that Los Angeles Times piece was also a career milestone. The Lifetime series "Any Day Now" planned a two-hour special show on the N-word and Littlejohn followed the episode from script development to filming. "It was the first time I got to sit in the writers' room listening to how they go at writing a story," she recalls. "It was a particularly intriguing exploration because it was Black people and White people, very different generations, talking about the word nigger and what it meant to them. It was heated. It was fierce."

Another major flashpoint for Littlejohn was a project for Essence that sent her to Ghana, West Africa to write a piece on a travel show. The experience impacted Littlejohn profoundly and unexpectedly. "I'm 37 years old. I grew up in a middle class neighborhood in View Park…I connect with Black people, maybe more on a visceral level…but I never had this thing where I had to go to Africa because I really felt no connection there," Littlejohn admits. "But when I went I had the most incredible experience I ever had and I wrote several essays about how being in Africa informed the way I see myself and appreciate being a Black woman in America…It was a wonderful experience that turned into stories for three different publications."

Littlejohn has gone on to write for USA Today, InStyle, Vibe and many other publications. She has been an entertainment columnist for Blackvoices.com and L.A. Focus newspaper and is called upon as a respected pop culture commentator. For most of her freelance career, she admits, work has consumed much of her life. "I was making so much money, and then the bubble of the economy burst and I wasn't making money as easily and I had to pitch a lot harder…Seeing your income slip $10,000, $20,000, $30,000––you go 'Oh my God,' what is going on?" Littlejohn says. "You're doing twice as much work for half as much money…I had to change a few things in my lifestyle."

These days, though, she's takes things in stride, makes concerted efforts to connect with people and socializes regularly with other freelance writers as well as her parents, a brother, her childhood 'sisterfriend' and three nieces. "More so now than when I started," she says, "I have a life that's really rich and balanced, with time for my work, friends and family."

You've written about entertainment for more than a decade. Currently, what do you see as the most significant trends in prime time television programming?

While every network is trying to hit on the next big reality thing, in recent years, cable television has definitely led the charge for more innovative programming and programming formats for the scripted genre. The biggest thing right now in cable is the advent of the "limited series" (which is something I'm writing about actually) which allow networks an opportunity to run a series that tells an entire story for up to 13 episodes. It's become an attractive tool for pulling in audiences with edgy, interesting storytelling that is often done by big name creative talent behind and in front of the camera. Expect to see a lot more limited run series in the upcoming year on cable.

When "Entertainment Tonight" debuted in 1982, it was a radical idea––an entire newscast devoted to entertainment news. Two decades later, though, and the demand for entertainment/pop culture news seems to be never-ending. Do you believe there's been any one flashpoint that was the catalyst for this trend?

This subject has certainly come up a lot lately in conversations with my colleagues, and depending on who you talk to, there are a variety of reasons, none of which are conclusive. But, particularly in the magazine business, there are several signs that point to InStyle magazine for pioneering the idea that celebrities can drive magazine sales, and the booming crop of weeklies have proven that there is an insatiable consumer appetite for celebrity dish. In fact, the new syndicated entertainment show, "The Insider," is the highest rated new syndicated series. Even Associated Press is upping their entertainment coverage because more and more newspapers are demanding it. No one can say whether this trend will continue to grow or if it's just the trend of the moment. But at the moment, celebrities are big business in the news business.

As someone who's been watching the unveiling of the new fall television season for years, go ahead and let us know how you feel about the latest line-up. Who will sink? Who will swim?

If I could give absolutes on shows that would fail and succeed, I'd be running a network. It's all pretty much a crapshoot and these days when the success of a show can be determined by so many variables, the least of which is that it's well written (which explains my theory of why reality shows are so hot, but I digress.) Still, there's a lot of critical buzz around UPN's new dramas, "Veronica Mars" and "Kevin Hill," starring Taye Diggs and about The WB's new drama "Jack & Bobby." ABC has the strongest dramatic lineup it's had in many seasons, with the coming of age series, "Life As We Know It." The adventure thriller, "Lost," kicked butt last week [when its debuted] up against "Law & Order" and "CSI: NY." Seems ABC could have a chance to take on the franchise juggernauts if the ratings continue to do well. While I'm not the biggest fan of "Lost," I hope it can break through and give those crime and punishment procedurals a run for their money. Maybe the networks will pull back the reigns on some of these kinds of shows and start looking outside their crime time comfort zones. Either way, it looks like ABC might have its first real dramatic hit in years.

Actually, my favorite new show of the season is ABC's "Desperate Housewives"-–definitely the most unique and engaging new drama on broadcast television with an all-female lead cast (thank you Marc Cherry). Of course, every critic will be watching the crime time Wednesday night race between "CSI: NY" and the original "Law & Order" juggernaut as the two battle it out for who will be the king of New York cop shows. And "LAX" took off to a great start, with veteran favorites Heather Locklear and Blair Underwood at the helm. Though it was certainly not my favorite of the season, if it holds its numbers, it could definitely have a chance at a second season. As for the losers, my bets (READ: my hopes) are on an early demise of the CBS comedies "Listen Up" and "Center of the Universe," ABC's "Complete Savages" and The WB's "The Mountain." FOX has nothing remotely watch-worthy this fall, but I am looking forward to its mid-season show, "The Kelsey Grammer Sketch Show." If the pilot is any indication of the smart, funny stuff in store, Grammer will be back for another long run on television.

What does a typical day look like for you?

There really is no "typical" day for me, but the one thing that has been constant, at least in the recent few months, is that I start every day with an early morning hike at Kenneth Hahn Park or through my neighborhood in Baldwin Hills. Though my schedule tends to fluctuate from day to day, week-to-week, I try to schedule my interviews earlier in the day so I can spend the afternoon, after lunch, writing or screening shows for research or for stories that I want to pitch. Typically I try to read all my periodicals and trades in the evening or over the weekend.

One imagines your position calls for a lot of interaction with publicists. For you, what are the elements of a successful encounter with publicity staffers? What are your pet peeves?

I tend to have a pretty successful relationship with publicists, as I try to be as upfront as possible in terms of what I can or cannot cover…and why. I don't appreciate being badgered about a project, especially one to which I've already said "no," or those who would mislead me about a project or the availability of a client.

What do you see as your most significant contribution to entertainment journalism?

In a field still dominated by white men, I'd like to think that I provide a unique voice and diverse perspective in my entertainment coverage.

What's been your biggest career challenge thus far?

Balancing the creative and business aspects of my work as a freelance writer.

What's your best advice for young people who aspire to a career in entertainment news?

Read everything, meet everyone and learn as much as you can to be a well-rounded reporter. Don't be surprised if you start off your career on another beat, most people do. Entertainment news is not usually your first reporting gig in the news business.

You probably don't want to tell, but, what's your favorite television program?

Without question, it's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" on Comedy Central.

Tell us one thing people might be surprised to know about you?

I still watch the "Looney Tunes" cartoons on Saturday mornings with breakfast as I did when I was a kid (although I had to give up Fruit Loops and Capt'n Crunch for Corn Flakes and Shredded
Wheat).


AAPRC's Mission
The African-American Public Relations Collective (AAPRC) is an assemblage of professionals who provide communication conduits among clients, journalists, media and our communities. We come together as a collective because we recognize the importance of building those same conduits amongst ourselves.

A great deal of what we do is professional development––updating our skills, keeping pace with technology, refining and streamlining processes, providing a forum to tackle the issues that impact our work environment––but we believe our professional lives benefit most from the forging of effective alliances. Connected to one another, we possess the power of a nationwide body of committed, knowledgeable practitioners with an eye on the future.

As we move into the 21st century at lightning speed, mass media and its potent messages occupy an ever-larger part of our daily lives and our collective psyche. The AAPRC is focused on helping our members gain a deeper understanding of media's force and supporting their growth as powerful participants in the global communications network.

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