Ask the Recruiter

I am going to a job interview next week at a place far away from my current town, and I want to stop by a nearby paper for an informational interview. The paper has a great writing coach who I always wanted to meet. Is it OK for me to do an informational interview during an all-expenses-paid interview trip to another paper? And if I get an informational interview, what exactly happens there? Should I be prepared to ask most of the questions?

Q. I am a busy freelancer who approached a major, well-respected newspaper for stringing work. A reporter there said that she was interested and would be assigning me stories to help out with and the pay would be X.

It turns out that most of what I do is provide story ideas and contacts, and some of the stories make it into the paper. I don't get to write for these stories, nor do I get paid for my time, nor get any credit.

Q. I am in my late 20s and currently hold a manager position at a very well-known newspaper in a large metro area. However, I hold the position on the business side of the newspaper, in marketing. I like my job and I feel very lucky to be in this industry, but my real passion lies in becoming a writer on the newsroom side.

Obviously, with no prior journalism experience (except a communications undergraduate degree), this is not as easy as making an internal switch within a company and I am not quite sure how to best do this. I've already gotten over the fact that I will experience a decrease in pay, and I'm already used to job insecurity since I already work in the industry, but am not sure how to best make the switch.