Stacey Leasca: Award Winning Journalist and Cofounder, Be a Travel Writer

Stacey Leasca's love of learning, writing, and helping others travel and grow comes through in her conversation with Angela.  Listen to today's episode to glean from Stacey's experience, fall in love with journalism, and plan a trip to Lisbon. 

Follow Stacey’s life and work here: https://www.staceyleasca.com/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sleasca/ 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SLeasca/  

Be a Travel Writer: https://www.beatravelwriter.com/ 

Catholic University of Portugal: https://www.ucp.pt/pt-pt 

The Narragansett Times: https://www.ricentral.com/narragansett_times/ 

In Madrid magazine: https://twitter.com/InMadridmag 

Emerson College: https://emerson.edu/ 

GlobalPost: https://theworld.org/people/stacey-leasca 

Los Angeles Times: https://www.latimes.com/people/stacey-leasca 

Good magazine: https://www.good.is/ 

Travel + Leisure: https://www.travelandleisure.com/author/stacey-leasca 

Men’s Health: https://www.menshealth.com/author/217945/stacey-leasca/ 

Let’s Go Together podcast: https://www.travelandleisure.com/lets-go-together-podcast/episode-1-jesse-billauer-climbing-machu-picchu-in-a-wheelchair 

Wheel the World: https://wheeltheworld.com/ 

University of Southern California: https://www.usc.edu/ 

Mountain Mondays: https://www.travelandleisure.com/search?q=Mountain+Mondays 

Zambia’s The Bushcamp Company: https://bushcampcompany.com/

Be a Travel Writer Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beatravelwriter 

Elite Daily: https://www.elitedaily.com/lifestyle/lisbon-portugal-2-day-itinerary 

Lumiares: https://www.thelumiares.com/ 

Dramatico: https://www.instagram.com/dramatico.lisboa/ 

Comoba: https://www.comoba-lisboa.com/ 

Estrela da Bica: https://www.instagram.com/estreladabica/ 

Thank you for listening!  Please take a moment to rate, review and subscribe to the Media in Minutes podcast here or anywhere you get your podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/media-in-minutes/id1555710662  

Transcript

Angela Tuell: 0:05

Welcome to Media in Minutes. This is your host Angela Tuell. This podcast features in-depth interviews with those reports on the world around us. They share everything from their favorite stories to what happened behind the lens and give us a glimpse into their world. From our studio here at Communications Redefined, this is Media in Minutes. Today we have a fascinating guest joining us from Portugal, travel and lifestyle writer Stacey Leasca. She's an award winning journalist with a diverse career that spans across various publications, topics and continents. Stacy's words have graced the pages of publications such as the Los Angeles Times, Travel + Leisure, Departures, TripAdvisor, Men's Health, Glamour, Time and many more. Stacy is also an adjunct professor of journalism, pursuing her PhD, and is the co-founder of Be a Travel Writer, a platform designed to support and empower aspiring travel journalists. Hi, Stacey.

Stacey Leasca: 1:06

Hey, Angela, how are you?

Angela Tuell: 1:08

Great. Thank you so much for joining us. You know, how are things in Portugal?

Stacey Leasca: 1:13

You know, it's very hot. It's been a very hot summer. But that's how we like it. The days are long and sweet.

Angela Tuell: 1:19

Wow, that sounds so nice. What led you there? Because you're from the US, right?

Stacey Leasca: 1:24

Yeah, that's right. So about two years ago, I decided to move to Portugal to pursue my PhD. So I go to school here, I go to the University of the Catholic University of Portugal, Catolika. Yeah, so that's why I'm here.

Angela Tuell: 1:38

What made you choose that university?

Stacey Leasca: 1:40

I chose Catolika because it's an incredible media program that has brought people together from all over the world. My classmates, all 12 of them are from Portugal and Brazil and Japan and the Philippines, and Scotland and Angola. And I just wanted to be in a community that really could show me what the global media landscape really looked like.

Angela Tuell: 2:01

Wow, that's amazing. It doesn't hurt that it's a beautiful place. And I know you write for US publications, but you know, have you noticed any differences in media landscapes in Portugal and the United States?

Stacey Leasca: 2:15

lot of different things like here, they have a very strict policy about kind of who can really be a journalist, and you can have your accreditation taken away for misinformation. And, you know, people take it very seriously here. And so, you know, there's there's, there's a lot of differences for sure, in how they report stories as well.

Angela Tuell: 2:45

So you now specialize in travel and lifestyle reporting. But in the past, your work has covered everything from women's representation in the media, to the immigration crisis at the border to criminal justice reform and cannabis legislation. Could you walk us through your career a little bit?

Stacey Leasca: 3:02

Yes, I've had a very diverse career. Which I'm very fortunate, fortunate to have. I

Angela Tuell: 3:04

Yeah. started in media when I was 18 years old. I was an intern at my hometown newspaper, The Narragansett Times, which is still my favorite community newspaper in America. I'm very, very biased toward it, for sure. But I got very lucky and kind of fell face forward into journalism, through a chance meeting with their editor who offered me an internship. And then I said, Oh my God, I didn't even realize this was a job people could have. And I then never looked back. And my undergraduate degree is in education. So I continue with that, but while working for The Narragansett Times all through college, and for a few years afterward, and then I moved to Spain, where I became a freelancer at the age of like 22.

Stacey Leasca: 3:51

Yeah, working for magazines there like In Madrid

Angela Tuell: 3:51

Wow. magazine, which was at the time their number one English written magazine in Spain. So cool.

Stacey Leasca: 4:00

And back to America to get my master's degree at Emerson College and in print and digital journalism and worked for GlobalPost for a long time before luckily landing a job with the Los Angeles Times, moving there. And then from there, became the Digital Director of Good magazine and after that, about six years ago, I went freelance and kind of also fell into travel and lifestyle reporting.

Angela Tuell: 4:25

Okay, that's what I was going to ask is how you how you moved into that so you kind of just fell into it.

Stacey Leasca: 4:31

Yeah. Again, it was another chance meeting with an editor who said hey, you should try this too. And again, I thought oh my gosh, I didn't know this is a job people could have. So things keep coming up for me and you know, I I love all of the things I get to write about all the time, but travel writing has been a true gift to me because not only is it brought me a lot of joy but it brings me a lot of joy to to share with people like hey, here's how you can have the best day of your life, you know, and so you can make memories with the people you love the most. I think travel is like incredibly powerful. I think it's much more powerful than people give it credit for. And getting to help tell the stories around it is an honor.

Angela Tuell: 5:10

Yes, yes, that's great. And I know that your range of articles, still at this point, with lifestyle and travel are pretty diverse, you know. Is there a particular story topic or subject that you like to focus on?

Stacey Leasca: 5:25

Yes, I really love to write about - adventure travel is definitely one of my favorites. I love to write about things that give people a thrill. You know, be it surfing or skiing, or going on a safari or a hiking trip. Helping people get outdoors and kind of see Mother Nature is definitely a big passion point of mine, as is accessibility and travel. I deeply believe that travel should be for everyone. So ensuring that people who travel with a disability can get to the, you know, very remote corners of the world if they want to, or have access to national parks, or even city streets. You know, living in Lisbon, this is not a place that isn't made for people who might be living in a wheelchair. And so helping people navigate that to ensure they can come and see it, too, is also very important to me.

Angela Tuell: 6:13

Yeah, and that's, that's so fabulous. And so much- so needed, because we have, you know, for I would just say the average American, I guess, it's really overwhelming to plan a trip to another country or to another - so it's, it's just such a great, you know, service to like you said, when when someone can read an article and say, Okay, I can do this, I can plan this myself. And I can go there.

Stacey Leasca: 6:34

Exactly. Giving people a blueprint for travel, you know, to help them kind of see that, no, it actually doesn't need to be that hard. You really, you really can just get some few trusted tips and get there.

Angela Tuell: 6:45

Yeah, yeah. And as a journalist, you've written for numerous publications, like something that you've mentioned in the Los Angeles Times, Travel+ Leisure, Departures, Time, etc. How do you approach you know, storytelling for the different outlets?

Stacey Leasca: 6:57

Yeah, I mean, there, I get to, again, write for a range of publications. So something that I'm writing for Travel + Leisure, I might not ever pitch to Men's Health, let's say. You know, for Men's Health, I tend to pitch things that are kind of more geared toward lifestyle-y topics. I've covered a lot of like cannabis or CBD for them. I've even covered things like how to quit your job, you know, how to just blow and quit and still financially survive. And those are things that I wouldn't, you know, pitch to Travel + Leisure, because that wouldn't make any sense. So it's important for me as a journalist, to get to know the different publications that I want to pitch before I even think about pitching them. So I read a lot. I read a lot of publications every single day, especially the ones that I hope to pitch because I want to get to know, their voice and their tone and what kind of stories they've already covered. So I don't pitch the same thing and kind of find those holes that they might not be publishing already that I could fill.

Angela Tuell: 7:53

Yeah, yeah, that's great advice, too. And, you know, throughout your career, you've received many awards and recognitions for your work. We'd love to hear about the one that makes you the most proud and why.

Stacey Leasca: 8:04

Oh, man, I mean, honestly, there's there's a lot there's a lot of stories that I am very proud of, because they've not only taken a lot of work, but taken teamwork. I, I would be nothing without my editors and copy editors who have saved me many times from embarassment. But the stories I think I'm most proud of, I traveled with my friend Jesse Billauer, to Peru for a story for Travel + Leisure, which they shared in season one of their podcast, Let's Go Together. And Jesse is a professional surfer, who is also paraplegic, and we tested out a program called Wheel the World.

Angela Tuell: 8:40

Yeah.

Stacey Leasca: 8:40

To help him get to go hike, Machu Picchu. And it

Angela Tuell: 8:40

Yes, that was a fabulous story. We'll definitely was the coolest thing that allows him to travel with my friend. But it also was very eye opening for me to see, you know, this, I've never even thought about, you know, some of the things that Jesse has to think about before he travels. So that link to it in our show notes too. So those listening can read story I'm incredibly proud of for both personal and professional reasons. For sure. it as well. It - you know, as you talked a little bit about you have quite a multifaceted career, so many things. You served as a social media editor, as you said, for the Los Angeles Times, and Travel + Leisure, you know, working on social media, best practices for newsrooms and startups would love to hear some of your best guidance and advice on that topic.

Stacey Leasca: 9:27

Yes, social media definitely also helped boost my career very quickly. You know, I think that it was a very important part for me. And I think it's obviously a space that's never going away. I tell my students both at Catholika - I teach at my university now - and I also was teaching at the University of Southern California. And I used to tell my students, you know, back in the good old days and use the way, whatever you know, obviously well before but we used to deliver news to people's physical doorsteps. Right. So paper, man or woman would deliver your paper to your doorstep every morning. And now we deliver it to people's digital doorsteps, because that's where people live. People live online now.

Angela Tuell: 10:11

Yeah.

Stacey Leasca: 10:12

It's important to be available to readers across social media to either be sharing your story or to be receiving tips, feedback, interacting with people. So you understand like, Hey, this is the pulse of what's going on, in my community, or in my beat. So being available on social media, I think is critical as a writer today. I don't even necessarily need to have a million followers, but I think being present is vital.

Angela Tuell: 10:38

Yes, yes. If if you ignore social media, you're really ignoring what's happening. What's happening in the world.

Stacey Leasca: 10:44

Yeah, yes.

Angela Tuell: 10:46

Yeah. And, you know, given your expertise in social media and journalism, you know, both, how do you envision the future of news distribution? And you've mentioned this, but any, you know, emerging platforms or trends that you find particularly promising?

Stacey Leasca: 11:01

Well, you know, even though it's definitely already well emerged, at this point, I do still think there's a lot of space on Tik Tok, for sure. I think Instagram is very saturated. But I think there's still room on Tik Tok to be experimenting and growing and reaching new audiences, especially because it's a very young platform that's hyper popular among the Gen Z set. Very quickly abandoning platforms like Facebook. So you know, being there to capture kind of like how they consume news and how they want to want to receive news is important. And so I think that media organizations can be doing a lot of work there. Doing quick video, reel videos, and capturing audiences that way to become the authority and regain trust with that very important demographic.

Angela Tuell: 11:47

Yeah, yeah. And as you just mentioned a little bit ago, alongside your journalism career, you're also an educator, professor of journalism. What motivated you to take on the role of educator, you know, and what do you hope to instill in your students?

Stacey Leasca: 12:00

Yeah, I have. So like I said, My undergraduate degree is in education. And I've just always really enjoyed sharing and talking. I sometimes, you know, it's like, Yes, I'm teaching things. But wow, the amount of things that I learned from my students, again, like the importance of social media, that was really a lot of it for me. I want to converse with the next generation of media professionals. You know, some of my students are, have incredible roles out the Today Show, at the Los Angeles Times, you know, some write for Travel+ Leisure, and it's so cool to watch them grow up, and kind of be, you know, frankly, become my boss. And it's, you know, I think that it's just like the best. Oh my god, I can't even tell you what my energy is like after I leave a classroom because of just how exhilarating it is to talk to students about their thoughts on what the future media looks like too.

Angela Tuell: 12:48

Right. And is it all mostly Portuguese students?

Stacey Leasca: 12:51

No. So, well, in the US, obviously, it was a lot of American students,

Angela Tuell: 12:55

Right, right.

Stacey Leasca: 12:56

Portugal, my students are from quite literally everywhere. Lots of Italian students and German students and students from China and students from Japan, and students from Brazil, like I said. Across the UK, it's really an incredible scene in our classroom, because, you know, we're about things that are like, well, this happens in my country, and this happens in my country. You know, it's, it's really a very unique setting that I'm incredibly privileged to be in.

Angela Tuell: 13:25

Yes, I could see how much you really learn. From them, too.

Stacey Leasca: 13:29

Yes.

Angela Tuell: 13:30

How do you see the role of journalists evolving? What new skills or strategies do you believe, you know, are essential for journalists to navigate today?

Stacey Leasca: 13:39

Yeah, you know, this is funny, this is actually a central part of my dissertation.

Angela Tuell: 13:44

Okay.

Stacey Leasca: 13:45

Yes, is that journalists at one time, not that long ago, were considered gatekeepers of news. So we decided what was important, you know, we decided if this story is worth it, or not to appear in a newspaper, or on TV or in the radio. Now, however, that role doesn't exist, because consumers can do that for themselves. So what journalists are having to do now is evolved into this new form of thinking called gate watching. And what you're doing now as a journalist, is you're pulling all of this information, you know, from the internet, or from sources or whatever it may be. And you're having to distill what is true. Right, and so you're kind of having to watch all of it and distill like, No, this is true, this is not, linking to verified sources and not. So you're really having to kind of change mindset into thinking like, I get to create the news, to I have to filter the news for my viewers or readers. So yeah, I think it's really rapidly shifting. And I think it's really important for journalism education programs to acknowledge this change.

Angela Tuell: 14:48

Yes, yes. It's very vital.

Stacey Leasca: 14:50

Yeah.

Angela Tuell: 14:51

In what ways do you hope your PhD will help shape your career?

Stacey Leasca: 14:55

For me getting my PhD was genuinely just a very personal journey. I really just wanted to do it. You know, my, my mom also has a PhD and watching her did get to do that, you know, she's she has a PhD in medicine. So it's very different from what I'm doing but watching her, I thought, Man, I really want to do that too. And I love the act of learning and researching, despite also sometimes crying over writing a PhD dissertation. You know, for me, I hope it gives me perspective, right? That was a lot of my journey of coming here as well was getting a different view of storytelling of how to how to help and assist readers find fact, whether that be where to find the best deal on travel to immigration rights, you know. And things are all are also important to readers, you know, just like how you know, readers can care about the best lipstick brand, and also care about women's rights, you know, and so I like to think of myself that way in journalism, that I can care about all of these things, and getting a perspective on how to make sure I'm telling the most factual, truthful story I can, is what I hope to gain out of my PhD.

Angela Tuell: 16:01

Yes. Oh, that's, that's fascinating. And so important. Definitely. You know, I also want to ask a little bit about the PR side of things, and how can PR professionals best help you do your job? And do you have any pet peeves?

Stacey Leasca: 16:17

There are, again, talking about editors I can't live without I can't live without PR people either. You know, it's it's a crucial, crucial relationship for anyone in journalism. But I think maybe the most so for travel and lifestyle journalism. I don't know about a hotel opening, unless a PR professional shares that with me. I can't gain access to people unless I work through a PR professional. And so, you know, I think that it's a very important relationship, it's a very important dynamic. What I think PR people can do to help me the most or help any journalist most really is targeting their outreach. So really only reaching out to people who cover that beat, or they feel like would be the best person to tell that story. You know, a great example of this is I did a story with Island Creek Oysters, who reached out to me for a trip in Portugal to go visit their new suppliers for their new Canary that they're opening. And hey, PR professional reached out to me saying, Hey, we think you're the best person for this because you write about food and travel and also, you know Portugal very well. And that very personalized to me. And so that's what they can help me best do my job is by not just spraying and praying PR releases hoping someone picks it up, because I think they're gonna have a higher rate of return. If they say, Hey, I think this is the right journalist for this, for this story.

Angela Tuell: 17:44

Yeah, that's, that's great advice definitely. Of all you're - talking about travel just a little bit more - of all your adventure travel in the past - I know this is a very hard question, but where has been your favorite or something that was unexpected that you were, you know, very pleasantly surprised?

Stacey Leasca: 18:03

You know, this actually isn't a hard question for me at all. I can answer immediately. So there's a lot of places that I really, really love. And I'm very fortunate enough also in the wintertime to get to run a cool program for Travel + Leisure called Mountain Mondays, we explore different ski mountains around the world. I love that is like the joy also of my life.

Angela Tuell: 18:20

Oh, wow. However, my favorite adventure place of all time is the Bush Camp company in Zambia. I actually just came back from my second trip to visit them because of how impactful this place was on my life. I got to visit them in 2018 for the first time for a Safari, where we went walking. It was a walking safari so you walk around, and you spot lions and elephants and you feel like you're a part of nature, right? And you feel like oh, man, okay, a cheetah could or you know, leopard, could, you know throttle me at any moment and, but also beyond that it's the people that work at the Bushcamp company that made it so spectacular. And it is the only trip I have ever gone on twice now and cried when I left. Because it was so, it was so important. And you know what made it even better? No cell phones and no WiFi. You're just- Isn't that amazing when you have that?

Stacey Leasca: 19:17

You're just present in the moment. So for sure anything that kind of allows me to just zoom in on what's happening in that second is what I like the most about adventure travel.

Angela Tuell: 19:27

We must talk about, aside from all of the roles you've discussed already, you're also the co founder of Be a Travel Writer. Can you tell us more about this venture and you know why you started it how it supports aspiring travel writers?

Stacey Leasca: 19:41

Yes, I could talk about Be a Travel Writer all day

Angela Tuell: 19:41

Yes.

Stacey Leasca: 19:42

I'm a university professor and Nina has got more long. Nina Ruggiero, Digital Director of Travel + Leisure and also happens to be one of my very, very best friends in the world. We talk a lot about the future of media. You know, we have these very in-depth discussions about it. And we also talk a lot about the fact that both of us daily get, honestly, I'd say every week I get like two dozen messages. How do I become a travel writer? How do I get your job? How do I pitch this? Truly, truly, truly, and we thought, hey, let's put together a class like I have a degree in education, I can do this. information than anybody on like, what works for travel media. And so we put together a course that's eight classes that people can either take one of the eight classes, or take all eight and get one on one time with me through that for feedback and helping them pitch. And it really was born out of the idea of like, we want to help people succeed. We want this to be that this is a job that really anyone can do. Anyone, everyone has stories, it's just helping people figure out how to pitch and who to pitch it to. And so that's really the crux of why we wanted to do it is we think that, you know, travel writers should look like the rest of the population looks. It's diverse in age, and race and background, and, you know, ability, and whatever it is, it's like anyone should be able to do this, if this is what they want to do. And we want to help people do that.

Angela Tuell: 21:10

Yeah, I love that. And I'm sure you have, when did you start it?

Stacey Leasca: 21:14

We actually started filming it - we filmed it - Nina came to Lisbon. We filmed it over like a weekend. I had edited it for months. And we launched it officially in March.

Angela Tuell: 21:26

Oh, okay. So it's fairly new?

Stacey Leasca: 21:28

Very new, very new. But we're super excited. We have dozens of students, we've had two go on their very first press trips. We have one that got an exciting job offer that I'm not allowed to reveal yet, but we will reveal it when she signs her papers on our Instagram account. And you know, we're super proud of, of getting to work with these incredible, incredible students. And we actually have a couple of very seasoned travel writers who've taken one off courses to boost their skills and stuff like social media, SEO. So we really want to make sure that people can like, oh, you can come and just, you know, dabble in one course, if you really want to boost your skills in a specific area as well.

Angela Tuell: 22:07

That's great. We will definitely link to that as well. What do you say when when people ask or you know, that's out there that there are so many travel writers that if it's saturated, you know, already sort of thing?

Stacey Leasca: 22:19

Yeah, it's funny that as we've heard that. But first, I think that everyone has ideas. And so if you've got an idea, you pitch it and the editor takes it, that's the important part, just have great ideas. You know, or be able to figure out how to share them. The second part is I think that people get very singularly focused on big publications like Travel + Leisure, and Conde Nast Traveler, or was, however, there are a ton of publications looking for content like this. You know, like, Elite Daily, which I'm also an alumni of and, frankly, pays very well and loves travel reporting, or Business Insider or the XO report or Bustle or Thrillist, or Food & Wine, you know, or Men's Journal and on and on Vogue and Architectural Digest. And I think that that's a lot of also what our course is about. We talk about this and finding your beat is making competitor matrixes. And figuring out like which publication is actually the best to pitch. And you can specialize travel publications, you know, travel polls, The Point's Guy, Going.com, TripAdvisor, Expedia, all places take pitches from freelancers. And so I do think that it's very difficult to get into some legacy media brands. However, there's many more publications out there that are extremely worthy of pitching.

Angela Tuell: 23:38

Yeah, yeah, that's That's great advice. So before we go, we'd love to know what projects you have in the pipeline or any exciting endeavors you can talk about.

Stacey Leasca: 23:47

Personally took the month of July off of travel to finally just chill and enjoy Lisbon for the summertime which I'm really excited about. Yes um, but other than that, it's really just working on my regular coverage for Food & Wine and Travel + Leisure. And and calendaring out my my fall and winter. I'm very looking forward to starting Mountain Mondays again. This winter for Travel + Leisure for sure. So I'm already on the hunt for like which mountains we should feature next.

Angela Tuell: 24:18

That's awesome. So if we want to visit Lisbon, what are your, uh, your best recommendations?

Stacey Leasca: 24:23

Oh man, my favorite places in Lisbon. Stay at Lumiares. I love that hotel. It has one of the best rooftop bars that anywhere in the world. I think it's truly killer. Go grab a coffee at Dramatico, or go get breakfast at Comoba and have dinner at Estrela da Bica who's chef was just named the best new best female chef in Lisbon. And make sure to go check out some of the viewpoints for sunset and you get spectacular views of the historic center of the city that are just unforgettable.

Angela Tuell: 25:01

Wow, we will look forward to booking a trip.

Stacey Leasca: 25:05

Anytime anyone coming let me know. I'm happy to go meet you for a cup of coffee anywhere.

Angela Tuell: 25:10

Wonderful. How can how can those listening connect with you online?

Stacey Leasca: 25:13

Yeah, so I'm across social media at just SLeasca. You can always drop us a note at Be a Travel Writer at Hello@beatravelwriter.com. And please read my stories.

Angela Tuell: 25:24

Thank you. Thank you so much for joining us.

Stacey Leasca: 25:27

Thank you, Angela.

Angela Tuell: 25:30

That's all for this episode of Media in Minutes, a podcast by CommunicationsRedefined. Please take a moment to rate, review and subscribe to our show. We'd love to hear what you think. You can find more at CommunicationsRedefined.com/podcast. I'm your host, Angela Tuell. Talk to you next time.