Alex Motawi

Most people have nightmares about steep cliffs and venomous spiders. Joanne Fowler has nightmares about photos. Writing a magazine article for People is already difficult enough; having to accommodate a huge photo smack-dab in the middle of your spread is the final straw.

“The hardest part about writing is the page only has a certain amount of space, and you have to put photos in there,” says Joanne Fowler, “You have to tell a story really quickly and very succinctly.” For the career journalist, it’s all about reading more and writing less. 

Fowler, who spent sixteen years working at People magazine and now freelances part-time, got there through discipline. “I’ve never had a correction,” says Fowler, “I’m so careful about all of it.” According to Victor Brand, current MSNBC Weekend Editor and publishing legend, a single correction won’t be a career-ender, but Fowler didn’t reach her station by making mistakes. For her, a mistake is “just sloppy” and makes work “not as professional as it should be.” A writer like Fowler only relaxes during one part of the writing process: reading.

“I read constantly,” Fowler says, “What I would do as a staff editor is read something about a trend, and then I would wonder if we could do a bigger piece in the magazine and try to find the people through which you tell the story.” All of her stories begin with reading and then branch into a broader topic made personal by her interviews.

For the Human Interest Editor at People, finding a topic for a new story was never easy. Readers often overlook that the goal is not just to find a good idea for a new story. Fowler had to find stories “that would relate” and stories that “appeal to our readers.”

Fowler didn’t suddenly wake up one day with the uncanny ability to pitch the perfect human interest story; she lived her own human interest story. It became clear walking through the campus of Washington University in St. Louis as Fowler pointed out all of the new additions since her studies, explained why people had buildings named after them, and told what she did for her two campus jobs as an unsupported student.

It is no small feat to get a degree at a prestigious private university like WashU without outside help, and that experience, along with a stint copy-editing in Japan, earned her admission to Columbia, a top-ranked journalism program.

There, her work didn’t get any easier. What she remembers most about the Master’s program was that it was “really, really, really busy.” Fowler later mentioned that the university opened a two-year option for the program so that students could work while taking classes. She never mentioned that she finished the one-year program while also working three days a week at CBS. 

Fowler worked harder than anyone to get her start in the industry because she “always found it very interesting” and enjoyed the fact that she “learned a lot.” After a long pause, she eventually acknowledged that she “was good at it, too.”

The time she spent working in Germany and Japan as a freelance writer and copy editor gave her the skills she needed to flourish in the media capitals of the world, from interviewing celebrity actors in New York to the royal family in London. “I think meeting new people is always the coolest thing,” Fowler said, “because I always learn.” 

She talked about some of the famous people she spoke with, but also the ordinary people she interviewed. Fowler looks at it like stepping into worlds, which comes with immense responsibility, meaning “you can’t leave out key pieces” and “have to be extremely careful about your word choice.”

Fowler’s inner editor shined through when she said, “You don’t have the freedom of just writing what you want. You have to remember you’re doing this for the reader.” 

Fowler was so invested in her practice and disciplined in her work that walking away from her job at People after sixteen years was incredibly difficult. It felt to her like she had everything she wanted, and it would be a disservice to take a break. Going from “always on” to being the mother of two kids was a big shift in priorities and a large adjustment. Now that her kids are older, Fowler has forayed back into the industry, freelancing for People and ghostwriting books.

After paying her own way through college at Washington University all those years ago, everything came together when her daughter walked through WashU one final time. As both a writer and parent, Fowler said, “You want to have an impact.”

Joanne Fowler certainly did, but as for the big moment when her daughter was walking across the stage, I’m sure she was telling herself, “It’s not really about you. It’s about the story.”