An Interview: Anne D'Innocenzio, The Associated Press
This week I sat down with Anne D’Innocenzio, national retail writer at The Associated Press.
Did you always want to be a journalist?
No, but I was always curious about different cultures and people, and I loved to write. My dad was an engineer and traveled around the world—he even lived in Saudi Arabia for almost a year. He used to invite people from abroad over for dinner. He met them through work. I remember my parents had one couple from Lebanon over when I was a kid—I bombarded them with all these questions. My parents also embraced good journalism. We had The New York Times delivered every day to our house, and we always discussed current events at the dinner table. And my mom encouraged me and my other siblings to write in journals and write short stories.
My sister also had a big influence on me. She was the editor-in-chief of her high school paper and the managing editor of her college paper. Although she decided not to pursue journalism as a career, she was an inspiration.
What was the turning point or experience that made you take the path of journalism?
I worked on the high school paper and was the editor of the high school literary magazine. I even went to journalism camp the summer before senior year in high school. And, I had different journalism and corporate communications internships throughout college. I had one at Working Woman magazine, but I was never committed to journalism until I was working as a book publicist in my early 20s. I was arranging media interviews with authors and felt I wanted to be on the other side. So, I figured I needed a master's in journalism since I was changing careers. So I pursued a master’s degree in journalism at Northwestern.
You've been at the Associated Press for what will be 25 years. Congrats! Prior, you spent six years as Market Editor at Women’s Wear Daily. With hundreds of articles published, what are some of the stories you're most proud of and why?
A couple of years before COVID, I went to Chile and then China for a big project I did on Walmart's challenge to market its everyday low prices. That was my first international work trip. China was particularly fascinating. I had never been there. I was in Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Beijing interviewing Walmart executives, workers, and their rivals with an AP video journalist and photographer. I bopped around to different stores and distribution centers and toured an electronics factory. It offered me a great perspective, especially now with China in the spotlight with tariffs. Walmart had told me I was the first U.S.-based journalist to get access to their operations in China. In addition, I was proud of the articles that I did during the heart of COVID—writing about hourly workers and the changing consumer habits and how companies were adapting.
As a national retail writer for the Associated Press, you closely follow Walmart, Target, and other major retailers on how they’re overhauling their businesses in a dramatically shifting landscape—economically and politically. You also closely follow consumer behavior. Can you give us some examples of the stories you're writing?
I consider myself a consumer economy reporter. I'm closely following consumers who've remained resilient, but growing more cautious amid new challenges. I'm also part of a team in Business News that covers the tariffs' impact on businesses and consumers. That's really shaping our coverage.
I just did a story about how some companies, particularly small businesses from toy companies to an online company that sells innovative kitchen gadgets, have had to put a pause on innovation because they're focusing on day-to-day tariff responsibilities.
Also, I'm following companies pulling back on DEI. Earlier this spring, I reported and wrote a story about how Black-owned brands are navigating a post-DEI world and how they are adapting their businesses.
Do you cover smaller, lesser-known retailers as well?
Yes, we have a small business columnist, but I always like to talk to small businesses and include them in my stories. They tend to be more open to discussing their challenges than publicly traded companies. So I cover big and small companies.
Do you accept non-retail companies for your consumer economy coverage or does the company have to be tied to retail?
I like getting pitches on companies outside of retail. When I write features on business trends or consumer trends, I like to include a lot of different types of companies.
What's driving your coverage these days?
Tariffs, tariffs, tariffs. And there has been a constant flux in policies and announcements. You have to really be on top of every update and what businesses are thinking. I'm constantly in touch with businesses via texting, emails, and calls about what they're doing—and they're constantly texting me too. A lot of CEOs of smaller companies are texting me directly.
So you work directly with some sources versus PR pros and teams?
Some stories I work through PR and others I'm in direct contact with the executives. It depends. Some CEOs are emailing or texting me directly—I’m in constant dialogue with them. And others, I have to reach out to the PR person before I speak with the executive.
How, in your opinion, has the role of journalism changed over the past few years?
People are getting their information from all different sources. Podcasts, X, Substack, TikTok, online sites. So, the AP and other legacy organizations are all trying to adapt to this new climate. We have to be even faster getting out stories, but still focus on accuracy and the facts—accuracy is key.
Readers have a short attention span, so we have to catch their attention. I have to think of myself more as a multimedia journalist. How can I tell the story in a more engaging way? We're experimenting with different formats. For example, many stories don’t have to be a thousand words in length. It could be a chunky text explainer. And, we're doing more video embedded in our stories. We’re also doing more and more social media videos posted on AP's social media accounts, like TikTok, to promote our stories and help us better engage with our readers.
I still do lots of longer pieces, but I'm also doing more chunky text explainers that are meant to inform readers. In fact, I'm doing a lot of explainers on how tariffs are impacting various industries like toys or clothing or how they're affecting shoppers.
I just did a fun story on Walmart's 6,200 cake decorators. The hook? They're the highest-paid non-managerial hourly workers in a typical Walmart store. And Walmart decorators have been on top of TikTok trends. They’ve also had their share of critics who have accused Walmart decorators of stealing ideas and undercutting the work of professional cake artists with their low-priced products. We had an AP video journalist produce a video that was embedded in the story, and one of our social media producers worked with me on producing a video, capturing me being trained by a cake decorator. It got a lot of play, but my cake decorating skills need a lot of work!
The cake decorating story gave me an inside look into what the job was about, and I think it’s really important for reporters to get into workers' shoes and do that.
As a journalist, do you consider yourself a content creator?
No, I think of content creators as influencers or expressing opinions via TikTok videos and YouTube. I'm a journalist, and I don’t express my opinions. I just report the facts.
What do the best PR pitches you get include?
I would love an exclusive, but it has to have an interesting hook. It's great if you're pitching a company or a trend or a product, but how does this fit in with the broader trend? I don't like pitches that are just like, “We're a great company and we do this…” Let's put it all in context. What's the news hook? Why should I do it now?
Do you like anything related to data in the pitch or does the level of spokesperson matter?
Access to executives on the phone is key. We also want compelling visuals for our stories. So we want companies to give AP photographers and video journalists access inside their operations.
What's the best way to pitch you a story?
I don't really like phone calls out of the blue if I don't know who you are. So unless I know you, it's better to email me. Then, if I am thinking of pursuing the story, I’d like to chat on the phone. I try really hard to respond to every email pitch, but I can't always respond to every email.
I'm on LinkedIn all the time. I love to interact on LinkedIn. I scour through LinkedIn to see what others are posting and how others are reacting. I also post a lot of my own articles on my LinkedIn page, and I love the engagement. AP promotes our stories on LinkedIn as well. There are a lot of executives and others who will add comments—some complimentary, others may say ”You could have added this perspective…” or add their viewpoints that could be seeds for follow-up stories. I definitely reach out to them. I'm always open to new perspectives, so I welcome the interaction on LinkedIn very much.