#14: Maureen Dowd
Lesson: Find your schtick. Ride it to the top.
Maureen Dowd, an op-ed columnist for the New York Times, reached journalism’s peak in 1999 when she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary. How did she become a professional juggernaut? Take the average political knowledge of a Washington D.C. resident, throw in some cutesy nicknames, blend with obvious jokes, send to a personal trainer and you’ve got a Maureen Dowd column.
Dowd captures the mood of a certain class of people and makes them chuckle at just how right they are. This clearly hasn’t served her poorly. Her columns are regularly the most-e-mailed articles on the Times website and she has commanded an op-ed column at the country’s most prestigious paper for 15 years.
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