Michael de la Merced: The New York Times veteran on the early days of DealBook and his journalism school set back that turned out to be a blessing

Happy 2023, everyone.

Towards the end of 2022, we released some great episodes of Press Profiles. Over the next few days, I'll be sharing the transcripts of those episodes right here in the Press Profiles newsletter. Today I'm sharing my conversation with Michael de la Merced, the NY Times vet and an original member of the DealBook staff. You can listen to this episode wherever you get your podcasts (or by simply clicking on the graphic below), and of course, you can follow along with the transcript below.

What's their story?

Michael de la Merced was employee number four at a new “blog” from? 纽约时报 called DealBook. Now, almost twenty years later, DealBook is one of the first emails opened every morning by leaders across the financial industry. On this episode of Press Profiles, we talk about landing that first job at the Times, his “soft spot” for white collar crime, what it’s like being married to someone in PR, cooking, Taylor Swift, exotic dancers, and of course, a whole lot more.

Michael de la Merced?

This is Michael de la Merced, reporter at The New York Times, and you are listening to Press Profiles.

Russell Sherman?

Hello again, everyone. I'm Russell Sherman and this is Press Profiles. We're sitting down with the top reporters, anchors, and editors into business news to explore their journey into the world of journalism, how they got into the business, the triumphs, setbacks along the way, favorite memories, some quirky facts - we get to it all. Today, I'm excited to have the New York Times longtime DealBook reporter Michael de la Merced. We're going to talk about the early days of DealBook, his coverage of M&A, private equity, venture capital, hedge funds, the move to England, his wedding, his kids, paternity leave...all the important things. Here now is Michael de la Merced on Press Profiles.

Michael de la Merced?

Hello, thanks for having me.

Russell Sherman?

Good to have you here. Great to have you. So, you are back in London, back at it. What are you working on today?

Michael de la Merced?

Well, at the moment, it's a mix of things, including tracking what's going on with Twitter, because you know, the X has fallen, we're anticipating up to half of the employees being laid off, obviously, it's a big deal, and it's part of the ongoing consequences of Elon Musk buying the company for 44 billion, putting on a lot of debt and realizing that he needs to make the math work. Right now, it seems to be a cost story. So we're talking about up to maybe 50% of Twitter, 7500 employees, which is pretty drastic.

Russell Sherman

Significant, obviously - talk about covering the world from London. You've had these different perches in your career. You were obviously in New York City for a long time, then you went to San Francisco, now you're in London. We'll talk about what brought you back there. But, talk to us a little bit about what it's like to work from these different geographies and the challenges it poses for you, but also the opportunities.

Michael de la Merced?

I started my career working out of New York - was a homecoming for me - so that was nice.

Russell Sherman

Grew up in the city, right?

Michael de la Merced

Yeah, I grew up in Flushing, flushing, and then New Jersey, went away to Atlanta for college, went to Emory, came back for grad school at NYU journalism after a year of clerking at a law firm, to see whether I wanted to be a corporate lawyer. Turns out I didn't. And the fact that I applied for the LSAT three times, but didn't actually take it, that was probably a good sign that I didn't want to do that. But being in New York, when you're covering, you know, when you're working for The New York Times, you are at the epicenter of obviously, I'm biased, but I think it's the premier brand in journalism. So it's exciting. So a lot going on, you're on the hook for everything. It's fantastic. But by the time moved to San Francisco in 2015, I'd already been doing a lot of going back and forth. So moving to the West Coast, added a bit more of a tech flavor to what I was reporting on. So I started getting more venture capital than more Silicon Valley deals, but still maintaining my remit, which has always been pretty global, pretty worldwide. So I was in San Francisco proper for about a year and a half, and then moved to London, in mid 2017. My wife who is British was offered a job opportunity within our company move back. And we sort of discussed it and it made sense for deal but to have me over here as well. And part of that was to sort of reconceptualize the deal book newsletter, to help bring more of a reported and more analytical edge to it, bulk it up and make it even better, while also adding even more of an international component to my reporting. That's been the case. And I've been in London for five and a half years.

Russell Sherman

How is the New York Times perceived in London? Is it is well known as it is highly rated? Is it the same? How has it been working for that publication in the UK?

Michael de la Merced

So the New York Times is definitely well known. And I think that, as far as I've been able to determine, we've got a lot of respect within certainly business and government, people know the New York Times to respect the New York Times they will respond to us when we call, there's a slight thing about the rest of the UK thinking that the New York Times does it out for them, because we've run some articles that Brits seem to think are being a bit too hard on the country, little cultural things like not being up to date on what British cuisine is like. It's not all boiled mutton, for instance. So we've gotten a little bit of flack for that. But on the whole, I would say the New York Times is definitely well respected. I've had no issues with anyone's like, Oh, I'm not going to talk to you because you're at the New York Times and not a local paper or anything like that. I think people get what we're trying to do. And they also know that when they talk to us, they're reaching an American audience which for most multinationals aistear are elsewhere in Europe, they want to reach. They want to make sure that their customers and their employees that their partners in the US understand what they're doing. So far, it's been great. It's been a fun challenge, just sort of trying to fly the New York Times flag over here. But it's not been as tough as some people might assume.

Russell Sherman

Let's talk about the early days of deal book, because you were very involved at the early stages and have continued to be along the way. You do that one year of clerking? You joined the times in 2006. Did you get to work right away? On deal book?

Michael de la Merced

Yeah, so I was hired specifically to work on deal book. So I was a couple of months out of grad school. And I was employee number, depending on how you count it around number four, for deal book, something like that. And I was hired to initially just compiled links for the newsletter. But I made it known from the beginning that I wanted to do more reporting. And the team led by Andrew Sorkin was very receptive to that. And they said, Okay, we want you to be able to contribute. So within a couple of days, I got put on my first story, which was, I remember very distinctly, it was an insider trading case that had a Merrill Lynch Analyst, and some of his buddies who had all sorts of plans to get insider information, including the use of exotic dancers to try to seduce information from guys. And using the Merrill Lynch analysts to provide info on deals. This required me to go to various parts of Africa, to try to interview people who knew one of the main suspects in the case. So the whole thing was really fun. And it ended up being I think it was a front at the business section story when it finally came out. And I was paired with a wonderful reporter, a colleague at the time named Jenny Anderson, who's also in London now. Yeah, and she's doing great things. And she was a great mentor. And I thought it was real short trust in the times that they've let this kid and who was completely wet behind the years tag along on that, but it was a lot of fun, almost got arrested.

Russell Sherman

And you're thinking at this point, this is a hell of a lot better than the LSAT.

Michael de la Merced

Yes. Yeah, for sure. So I knew instantly that things were going in the right direction.

Russell Sherman

It's unfortunate. You didn't work at the New York Post, because that would have been one great headline coming out of the story. The exotic dancers and the insider trading.

Michael de la Merced?

Yeah.

Russell Sherman?07:30

Was there a good Times headline at least?

Michael de la Merced

Now, I will say it probably was the very time didn't headline. So you can imagine that it was a bit straightforward. Yeah. Probably with a slightly you know, we love this sort of like inverted clauses and everything.

Russell Sherman?

Yes, yes. I love it. So you get the cover cool stuff. What areas are you gravitating towards, during the early years? Is it this white collar crime? Is it m&a? Is it a little bit of everything, sort of just whatever's coming across the desk that day, you're gonna grab it,

Michael de la Merced

the white collar crime was the first one I covered. And to this day, I still have a bit of soft spot for it. Because the stories are just fun. The stories are just great.

Russell Sherman

Michael, who doesn't have a soft spot for white collar crime.

Michael de la Merced

The more outlandish the scheme, the more fun it is. But I quickly gravitated towards m&a, and private equity and everything in that sort of corporate finance orbit. And I started working really closely with Andrew, on all sorts of things. So very early on, I started doing the old m&a practice, before it became truly 24/7. You know, you walk out your Sundays, and you start calling around, you try to get a sense of what's going on. And oh, you've got this tip, you need to get it out in the paper for Monday edition. And so you're writing furiously, and you're hoping that your scoop will hold. And that was a lot of fun. So I got immersed in that fairly quickly. And Andrew is by far the best teacher you could possibly have on that sort of thing. He's an amazing reporter and an amazing colleague, and he drafted me and pretty quickly and showed me the ropes. And we had a lot of fun. Definitely a mile a minute. I should also say that I had started just as the deal boom of that time was really building up. This was like 2006 2007. So we writing right, bigger and bigger private equity deals, like oh my god, there was the ticker of HCA, which was the biggest deal of that time. Sure. And then there was equity office, there was Hilton,

Russell Sherman

Blackstone and all the all the big ones. Yeah. Interesting. So that was definitely a highlight. You know, you talk about Andrew in 2015. When you headed to San Francisco there was he was quoted as saying he's one of my early partners in the deal book franchise and he's responsible for a huge all caps part of its success. He's one of the most talented people I know. I've sat next to him for the last nine years. So selfishly, I'm going to miss seeing him every day. But I'm thrilled for him and what he's going to be doing for us from the other coast. Certainly, you too, must have a very strong relationship.

Michael de la Merced

We do, although I think the check cleared shortly after he sent that statement. Now he's one of my best friends, he was a groomsman. At my wedding, we talk all the time, he's a dear friend. And I've been so lucky to work with him for 16 years now, which is pretty amazing. Talk about

Russell Sherman

some of the strategies you guys developed over time, sort of as the deal book, progress got more traction, any innovations along the way, how you treated things differently, new areas you branched out into? It's amazing to hear where it came from, you know, if you talk to Andrew, he'll tell you obviously was faxing it from his parents house. He wasn't really sure anyone was how many people were actually seeing it until I forget, which one day maybe was Carl Icahn or someone very significant in the industry entered in send it out? The system called and said, where is it? Oh, my gosh, people are really looking at this thing is really grown over time. But talk to me about some of the transformations and the innovations that you guys have thought about it? Or has it just been just a steady growth?

Michael de la Merced

Well, I'd like to think that we pioneered so many things. So by the time I joined, deal book had just moved on from just being a newsletter to having an online presence. And we were a blog. And at the time, blog was still a four letter word that you didn't really want to talk about. But we embrace that. And so we sort of had a looser tone than the times from the get go. But I remember, we did a post that was basically a YouTube video based off of Columbia Business students doing a spoof on Ben Bernanke. And at the time, people thought, Oh, that's so beneath the times. That's not very times anyway. So that's fun. People on Wall Street are talking about it, and they are going to talk about it. So we did it. And it did well. And I'd like to think that we help open the door for other blogs and just a wider expression of content of style, because we always could be more lighthearted when merited and all that. So that within a couple of years, people were asking, How can I contribute? How can I do stuff

Russell Sherman

for deal book, other reporters within the organization? Yeah,

Michael de la Merced

one of our earlier contributors. He was then news clerk named Mike Schmidt, who is now one of our star investigative reporters, totally on the Trump beat. He was covering parties for us at the beginning. And you know, he did a lot of great work for us, and then look at where he's gone. So I'd like to think that we help give newer talent a chance to shine, including myself, but we also had a velocity that I think benefit at the time. So during the financial crisis, sure, when everything was so fast moving, we were publishing almost Hourly updates during the Lehman Brothers weekend, and what was going on with Merrill Lynch, and then the fallout from Lehman filing for bankruptcy, so that the whole weekend, we were getting stuff out before the whole times apparatus could wheel into gear,

Russell Sherman

right. I mean, back in that day, everything still revolved around the hard copy of the paper that was coming out, they may put something out online and different times. But it was very much around that schedule. And so you guys are coming in and able to push stuff out more regularly. It's really interesting when you talk about the times transformation, from a hardcopy to an electronic subscription based entity that it is, today, I'm guessing the deal book franchise had a lot to do with showing them the path in terms of how you communicate in this new world, the frequency and velocity as you talked about, and also a little bit more of personality, maybe into the reporting of what you share and how you can share it. Is that fair to say?

Michael de la Merced

From my perspective, I certainly think we did our part. And I'm glad to see that the Times has really sort of expanded and really embrace different forms of getting the news out, experimenting with different tones. The time has always been known as a Gray Lady, but it's a lot less gray nowadays, people can have you know, looser styles, you can have shorter pieces, etc. I'd like to think that we had some part in that however big or small, but I'd like to think we did help show the different kinds of journalism was possible, while still sticking to the times as high standards for journalism that we could do things in a different way. But it was still as trustworthy as anything else that comes from the times

Russell Sherman

what clears the hurdle for story and deal book. You obviously don't list all the deals. How do you guys parse through it?

Michael de la Merced

A lot of it is discussions Among us about sort of what constitutes a deal, book story, a lot of it is sort of a gut check from having worked on it for 16 years. But ultimately, what we're trying to do is include stuff and write stuff that appeals to the important decision makers. We're staying at that intersection of business and politics, we're talking C suite. We're talking politicians, we're talking regulators. We're talking the bankers, lawyers, communications folks who advise them, and the people who are interested in that world and want to understand how it works. So we think that we've got a high level audience that we're reaching, but we also note that we've got a lot of people who just want the time to take on that and want to have this physically to take on what's going on.

Russell Sherman

So why don't you reflect a little bit, you've had lots of triumphs along the way in your career and done so many different interesting things. I think people always appreciate hearing about setbacks. Was there a time that you were faced with disappointment in the profession or before the profession, or anytime a hurdle that you sort of had to overcome? If you look

Michael de la Merced

back, probably the biggest one was, this ties in to journalism, but it was actually and it ties in to how I got to deal book. So in grad school, I had done a summer internship at a paper, and I did really well. And some folks had actually said, why don't you just leave grad school early just are working for us right now. Like, I'm really gratified by that. I've made a lot of money towards this degree, I'd like to actually get the degree because I had one more semester to go. And I said, Fine, but we'll have a job for you. When you're done, like, fantastic. So that instantly takes a huge worry off the table. So closer to the end of my degree, I start checking in, hey, has a look in. I'm looking forward to joining you guys when I'm done. And this is yeah, we'll be waiting for you. And then radio silence. It's like a month before graduation. And I'm like, Hey, so guys, I need to know what's happening here. They said, ultimately, we can't hire you full time. But would you like to intern with us? Again, we probably can't pay you at this time. So I was like, got this now what I built my career towards. So by the time I graduated, I was probably one of only a handful of people who didn't have jobs lined up because of course, everyone was working on getting something right. So I was obviously very worried that was going on. So I moved out in New York, I moved in with my parents and just applied applied applied everywhere that I could. So that had gone on for several months. And then funnily enough, there was a job listing that a friend of mine who was working in the New York Times on the web production side said, oh, there's this opening at this thing called deal book. And I think you took some business journalism classes in grad school, which is true, I take an AP business journalism class taught by a guy who'd be one of my colleagues of the New York Times and investigative reporter on Metro named Mike McIntyre, who's fantastic. And it was my friend said you should apply. As it turns out, one of the people involved in the hiring process was familiar with the paper I interned at. He was a paper in North Carolina called the Star News won't make sense. And he said, Oh, yeah, well, your stuff looks great, should get you in. So I spoke with Andrew, and some other folks. And they convinced them to try me, which was good. By that point, I'd been looking for a job for months to the point where God, what do I need to do? So that's how I got in. And I started out at the Times part time, so I was only working four hours a day. But pretty quickly, I started pulling more hours and basically working half freelance for the times. And then within a year, about a year, I was hired full time. So it went from real challenge Kuru challenge to, hey, I think this might work out, which felt pretty gratifying, in the end, but going into graduation without a job

Russell Sherman

when you thought you had one. Yeah, exactly. So

Michael de la Merced

I thought, God, this is not how I wanted to start my journalism career, but just persevering and finding an open door or open crack of an opportunity and jumping at it. Just making it work. Yeah. But I will also admit that during the interview process, they've asked, okay, do you understand finance at all? Well, I can read a balance sheet. But I remember my first day on the job, I had to like, very quietly Google private equity. What is just one of my colleagues very quietly explained this to me. So they're very patient, but there was a lot of learning on the job, but keeping at it and combination of luck, hard work and having great people around you.

Russell Sherman

Life is funny, right? You could have ended up in north care. liner, you're working for that paper, and then who knows where you would have gone to next or you could still be there. Instead, you're at the times and New York, San Francisco and London. So sometimes blessings in disguise. Who knows, but obviously, probably an example of the cream rising to the top. And once you did have that opportunity making enough of a mark, you know, we talked about Andrews quote earlier. Clearly, you had a huge influence there, even though you at the start off by Googling, what is private equity? Well, that's a great one. Thank you. You just had your second child. Congratulations. Thank you. You were off on maternity leave. One of the benefits of being in the UK was kind of significant length of time. 26 weeks, right.

Michael de la Merced

So I will say that was a New York Times policy, that's not a UK policy.

Russell Sherman

Well, there you go. Kudos to the New York Times. That's fantastic. 26 weeks, which is just great. I'm kind of curious. Obviously, you're chasing around two kids. So you're very busy. But you probably had a decent amount of time to reflect on your job. When you are away like that. What did you miss most during those six and a half months, when it came to the job.

Michael de la Merced

So I missed a lot of things. One of it is just the sheer thrill of being on the story and getting inside, talking to people. So basically, I think the first day of my paternity leave, was when Elon Musk showed up at Twitter. So I saw that from the outside. And I thought my colleagues had been and continue to do a great job. But, man, that's a story there. Right. So you know, just being in the hunt, and understanding what's going on. That is one thing I do genuinely Miss interacting with my sources. They're great people. They're smart people, I like knowing what's going on with their lives and just chatting with them. Of course, there is that give and take of information. But there are people and they're good people. And just, I love putting virtual pen to paper, I like writing. So the ability to report out something and write it, that whole process is a lot of fun. And it was a little odd, taking a break 26 weeks, broken up into two stages. But being away for so long. That was just putting down a skill set that I have been doing my entire life. It took a lot of getting used to and interacting with readers. We do read all of our reader email. And it's fun to like email people who have questions about being able to further explain things. Or they said, Oh, have you thought about this issue and this way? And oftentimes I haven't. So engaging in that sort of dialogue. Yeah,

Russell Sherman

yeah. Obviously, I'm guessing you were probably itching to get back and how has reentry been?

Michael de la Merced

Branch has been good. Everyone has been really supportive. People said, Wow, that was a long time for paternity leave. But glad you took it. Glad you got to be with your kids. And we're glad to talk to you again. So just getting in and getting to work with my colleagues again, in putting out the newsletter and talking with sources. It's been really good. Being often paternity leave was by far the longest I have not worked in that sense. Like my job. Obviously, being a parent is a job in and of itself. Sure. But of course, I was a little worried that I'd be rusty. And that Oh, I don't remember how to do this, but it comes back and muscle memory is there. And the drive to be in the conversation and advance the conversation is there. So reentry was not nearly as difficult as I thought it would

Russell Sherman?

be. Your wife is an accomplished professional. Before we talked about her a little bit, I wanted to bring up the fact you mentioned how close you are to Sorkin. And it's clear that your New York Times colleagues since 2006 are very close to you. I know your wedding was actually officiated by your time's colleague, Peter eavis. Why did you choose him for that honor?

Michael de la Merced

Because he's a good friend. He was a double colleague.

Russell Sherman

But good friends, you usually put you know, good friends, usually you're in your wedding party or do something but asking someone to officiate your wedding is they bring something to the table that must have been exciting for you and your wife?

Michael de la Merced

Peter has been a minister, the fact that he's a close friend, and he has that background and just made all the sense of the world.

Russell Sherman?

Okay, so it wasn't like he just got his license on the internet the week before. He brought some experience the table.

Michael de la Merced

Yeah, absolutely. So it was great having him there. It was a lot of fun.

Russell Sherman?

So your wife is in communications. And I know reporters like to say how much of a pain some PR people can be. But at the end of the day, Michael, you married a PR person. So...

Michael de la Merced?

Yes.

Russell Sherman?

I'm just curious. What's the most helpful thing about being married to someone in communications, from a perspective point of view, just sort of knowing how they think and understanding that mentality? Has it been helpful to you and your career just understanding, obviously, your worlds are separate. But in terms of perspective, I'm curious, is it interesting at all from that angle? Yeah, I

Michael de la Merced?

think, among other things, just recognizing what's happening on the other side, and personally not feeling totally antagonistic, recognizing there are human beings on the other side who are doing very important work, who have their own constituencies, their own responsibilities, and just having a sense of how it works. A lot of journalists might think, Oh, I'm going to reach out to the PR person, why don't they have a response within five minutes? Why don't they know everything. That's not no works. So if it takes them a little bit of time to get back to a press query, it's because they have to do some work on their own. And it's not just purely to antagonize you, just understanding that this is how it works. And understanding that these are questions, these are constituencies that a press person will have to understand and talk to, which is why sometimes it takes a long time to get back to you. Because they have to do some digging, they don't know everything. They're not right in on everything. So just having a more realistic understanding and expectation for what is going on. When you pick up the phone, you email and say, hey, I want to know about this. So I'd like to think it makes me more empathetic and more sympathetic than just knowing they're trying to, I always love to hear

Russell Sherman?

what drives reporters and how you guys think about different things. And you're in a unique situation there. But knowing that you have that perspective, how should PR people interact best with you?

Michael de la Merced?

I welcome outreach in the various forms of communications that I've laid out publicly. The number one thing is probably understanding what I cover what I'm after, what might interest the New York Times and deal book audience, because sometimes people send stuff that clearly doesn't fit us, which just ends up taking away time and resources from everyone involved, myself and whoever is pitching, I think to having a good argument as to why this fits for the New York Times wide fits for deal book, you should be able to make a pretty persuasive case,

Russell Sherman?

then the familiarity, I would assume with what you're covering on a regular basis and how it relates to what you've recently done or done in the past that would help persuade you or make an argument for why it should be included in the future.

Michael de la Merced?

Yeah, absolutely. And I think the other thing is just listen, like, usually, if I don't get back to you to your initial pitch, if I don't get back to you, it's a I'm really busy and be I've probably passing. So you know, that's that. If you've had a conversation with me, and it's taking me a while to get back to you, it's because I'm busy. I'm trying to get back to you. I'm telling you the backlog of things. But if I'm not responding to the initial pitch, that probably means I'm passing you can contact me again. But please don't send like five emails saying hey, checking in checking in checking in because you know the answer by that point.

Russell Sherman?

Got it. By let's finish off with some quick hits, shall we? Sure. Let people learn a little bit more about Michael. Dell Emmer said, favorite sport or sports team.

Michael de la Merced?

Favorite team is the Yankees. But my favorite sport watch is probably basketball.

Russell Sherman?

How has the UK schedule affected your watching of us sports?

Michael de la Merced?

Basically only watch the highlights these days.

Russell Sherman?

Okay, and do you watch more international sports than you did in the past?

Michael de la Merced?

I definitely watched more soccer than I have in the past. But that's coming off a really low base. Okay. And for whoever cares. I'm an arsenal supporter. But that's also because I used to live about 10 minutes from Emirates Stadium where Arsenal plays Excellent.

Russell Sherman?

How about favorite musician?

Michael de la Merced

Oh, that's a good one. I would say oh, God, this is hard. I've got so many. Asking which of your children is your favorite? Honestly, Nirvana has long been one of my favorites. I've listened to all sorts of things. I've listened a lot of Kendrick Lamar. I listened to a lot of Taylor Swift. There's very little that I don't like favorite movie, The Godfather.

Russell Sherman

I am told that you love to cook. favorite meal that you and your wife. enjoy cooking. I'm told you like to cook together. Is that true? By the way, I might be wrong.

Michael de la Merced?

That is true. We do like to cook especially when we've got guests over. By the way, I did get a text from someone who said that they've spoken to you about this podcast.

Russell Sherman

My sources are out of the out of the bag.

Michael de la Merced?

At least one of them and that person is terrific. We just really like cooking all sorts of things. I think one thing that we have enjoyed cooking was we've done several dinner parties where we've actually cooked Filipino foods. My parents are from the Philippines, and we've cooked it for non Filipino friends. and just cooking that is just been a lot of fun. We did these egg rolls called limpia. And we've got this Philippine stew called Adobo. We had some other meals in there. And then we cook traditional Filipino dessert called legit flan. And my wife has really enjoyed getting up to speed on Philippine cuisine, and we have a lot of fun making it. Yeah, sort of growing up with that, and then being able to share it with family and friends, has been a really gratifying sort of experience.

Russell Sherman?

That's great. And you are upping the overall level of food in the UK so that people can further their argument that the New York Times does not cover the culinary experience in the UK, which is, you know, another benefit sports, music, literature, art, where are you spending your free time.

Michael de la Merced?

So I spend time with, obviously my kids, I am trying to catch up on books, I tried to read mostly fiction, when I was off, trying to catch up on all the TV shows that people talk about. It's funny because being in the UK, you hear a lot of things that are popular in the US that aren't as readily available here, it's gotten a little bit better. I would say that we pretty avidly watch things on Netflix and distinct class.

Russell Sherman

Give me a couple of those what was a couple of the things that were streaming in the de la Merced home.

Michael de la Merced?

So I watched the Amazon series on the Lord of the Rings, peak rolls. We fought Marvel stuff, but not with the kids yet, because my son is very little and he has yet to watch a single one. How old are the kids? Almost for just over one. We do also leave room for lighter fare. So we've watched Great British Bake Off and the most recent season of The Bachelorette. So we go high and low and go high and low.

Russell Sherman?

Any piece of advice, Michael, that you received, at some point in your career that really stuck with you, whether it was from a colleague at the New York Times or a more senior reporter or someone in journalism school? I don't know, wherever along the way. Was there one piece of advice that really stuck out?

Michael de la Merced?

This was advice slash challenge, which was, you know, it's so much easier for someone out of the New York Times to get their calls answered, because where you're calling from? So if someone gets that 212556, whatever number as it was back in the day, yes, yes. Whether picking up the phone,

Russell Sherman?

or not picking up the phone as the case may be.

Michael de la Merced?

Or God if you want to go all the way back. Russell, do you remember when the New York Times would just show up as like once?

Russell Sherman?

Yes. Yes. That's what I was recalling, right. The ones that come across the caller ID for the New York Times who just have been the number ones across the display? That one was probably going to voicemail? Yeah.

Michael de la Merced?

Yeah, it's funny, because I just had the ones programmed in my phone as just one. So if someone from the office was calling me it was immediately the ones who like everything that I'm doing.

Russell Sherman?

Okay, so we both had the same reaction.

Michael de la Merced?

Yeah, yeah, exactly. But, you know, they said, That's why people are often gonna pick up the phone I and so I took that as a challenge. Just make sure that's not why just making sure people understood, I'm calling, and that they should talk to me because I work hard at reporting and understanding things, and that they shouldn't just talk to me, because I'm at the New York Times, I understand that's always going to be a reason to talk to me, but I just want to make sure it's not the only reason. And it's sort of took that as a challenge to just make sure you're talking because I'm recording reporting, and I'm decent at it.

Russell Sherman?

Michael Flynn executives gonna meet you, they'll want to know, what's he like? What's his reporting style? Is he looking to inform, explain, expose entertain? What should we tell them ahead of meetings with Michael Dale Emerson.

Michael de la Merced?

In general, I don't try to make these meetings like interrogations I'd like to have that as conversations, we can be loose can be funny, we can talk about things. But I'm also really curious, I come into every meeting with an open mind. And I really want to listen to what people have to say like, obviously, I will have to, especially if this is a specific interview for something specific, like, I'm gonna stop us from going down extraneous tangents. But I do want to hear what people have to say. And I want to give them room to speak openly and candidly about whatever it is, and I'm not going to try to cut them off. I'm not going to try to come in with a foregone conclusion. I genuinely want to know, I want to hear what they are prepared to talk about. I try to engage with people as real beings who have real things and real emotions and all of that and I'm not just coming in to hammer them and put them on spot.

Russell Sherman?

All right, help us sum it all up. We like writing and thinking of headlines. Give us the headline on your career thus far, what would be the headline for your career

Michael de la Merced?

thus far? That's such an interesting question, Russell. That's a really good thought.

Russell Sherman?

You know, you could do it either way, you could do a New York Times style, you could do New York Post style. To pick something in the middle.

Michael de la Merced?

God New York Times style would be complicated.

Russell Sherman?

But with at least one comma, that's how

Michael de la Merced?

it's gonna say you need a comma, you need a clause a beginning. Well, let me ask you first based off of our conversation, which one thing?

Russell Sherman?

Yeah, now I'm trying I'm thinking, let's say from exotic dancers to IPOs. And a whole lot in between. Oh...

Michael de la Merced?

that's, that's. So that's, that's good. Yeah, I trying to think if there's any other pithy ones, I don't know if I can top that. But I think that ultimately, my career is just

Russell Sherman?

the here it is. Michael de la Merced, seeing a crack of opportunity and jumping through it.

Michael de la Merced?

Yeah. I've been incredibly lucky to have been given this opportunity I've tried every day, to maximize to make good on that. And it just so happens, I feel that the fact that I've managed to find a career that plays to exactly what I like doing, which is learning, talking to people, understanding things, and then just putting pen to paper and making it work, getting scoops getting smart stuff out there. It's not the prettiest thing. But you're right. I found that small crack in the wall. I jumped at it to blow it open. And I've kept at it for 16 years, 16 and a half years. It's amazing. I feel absolutely incredibly lucky.

Russell Sherman?

Michael, it has been great to have you on press profiles, been wanting to speak with you for a while. I'm glad we finally did it. You'll be happy to know so many people speak so highly of you. It was a pleasure to talk to you hear your story. And it was just a great conversation.

Michael de la Merced?

Thanks for having me, Russell. This was a real pleasure.

Russell Sherman?

All right. That is New York Times reporter Michael de la Merced. He is just the latest in our long list of great guests. Remember, you can check them all out at breast profiles podcast.com. All the conversations are on Apple, Spotify, Google, wherever you get your podcasts you can sign up on LinkedIn or receive the transcripts of each episode. Thank you for listening and we will see you next time.