By Steve Seepersaud
Since she was a kid, Emily Gandolfo '14 dreamed of having an office at 30 Rock. Short for 30 Rockefeller Plaza, the Manhattan address is synonymous with NBC, the television network headquartered there. And it's where, as coordinating producer, she sets the editorial direction of MSNBC's Morning Joe.
"Each evening, I'll pour through the day's headlines and find the stories that will be most relevant to our show's focus and interesting to our audience, and decide what we'll cover the next day," Gandolfo said. "I'll coordinate with our booking producers to establish which of our guests and panelists are the most well-versed in each topic we'll be covering, to really facilitate good conversations on air. I'll work with reporters and producers on Capitol Hill and at The White House and virtually every major newsworthy event happening around the world, to get the most up-to-date and accurate information and collect any videos and images and soundbites they may have."
This job is the perfect match for a voracious reader who is passionate about getting the story first and getting it right. Gandolfo spends a great deal of time looking at court filings and legal documents. Self-taught in basic Constitutional law, she wishes that she had taken more philosophy, politics and law courses at Binghamton. She feels a major part of her work is trying to become an expert on as many topics as possible to produce concise and informative summaries of every story her team will cover.
"I end up putting together a nightly report that can run anywhere from 10 to 30 pages, depending on how big of a news day it has been," Gandolfo said. "Our line producers will use that report to build the show's rundown and our writers and segment producers will convert it into scripts. Our hosts will read through it for a briefing before every show and use it as a reference throughout."
Ask Gandolfo how she got her current gig, and her answer of "luck" isn't all comedic. In her first job search, she applied at precisely 141 employers. That led to her first job as a producer at News 12 in the Bronx. Although she had extensive writing experience at Pipe Dream on campus, producing content for a television newscast wasn't a skill she was taught or had developed. As many of us do for other things, she first turned to Google. The results to her query of, "How do I write for news?" helped her get through the writing test at the interview.
Later, Gandolfo became a producer for WCBS, New York's CBS affiliate; she started as a writer and left supervising the station's weekend morning show. She chose which stories belonged in the newscast, wrote much of the show, booked guests, and sat in the control room making sure everything ran on schedule.
"When I applied to Morning Joe, I knew absolutely no one on the news side of NBC. I found out about the position in an almost serendipitous way. I was working in local news but I'd always had a particular interest in politics and I knew I wanted to transition to political journalism at some point in my career. I also knew, if I made the move over to cable, I wanted to work for MSNBC.
"In November 2021, we had just passed one year since the contentious 2020 election and I'd just finished reading a book about its aftermath, written by two prominent journalists. I wanted to be involved in influential, groundbreaking, historic reporting like that. The next day, I got a notification from LinkedIn about an open position at Morning Joe, my favorite cable news program! I hadn't been actively looking for a job, but the role seemed tailor-made for me. I applied and heard back from a recruiter within 20 minutes. Four rounds of interviews, six references and two intense writing samples later, I got the offer."
Gandolfo serves on the University's Alumni Media Advisory Council, which she sees as a way to give back to her alma mater, boost the University's recognition and ultimately create opportunities for students.
"I love Binghamton! I love the school, the education I received, the friends I made, and the experiences and opportunities I had. I love our campus culture and the special bond our alumni seem to hold. I'm so proud to be a Binghamton grad! People all over the world need to hear about our awesome students and faculty and the cool things they're doing, and our students and faculty have a lot of amazing things to say to the world. I hope we can help make that happen."
