Media in Minutes

Behind the Lens: Two+ decades at National Geographic with Amy Alipio

• Angela Tuell • Season 5 • Episode 6

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What's it like to spend over two decades telling the world's most captivating travel stories? Amy Alipio's journey from aspiring journalist to managing editor of National Geographic Traveler offers rare insight into the ever-evolving world of travel journalism.

Amy never expected to become a travel editor or to interview Dolly Parton about conservation in the Smoky Mountains. Like many successful journalists, she discovered her path through exploration—studying broadcast journalism in Canada, working at an English newspaper in Budapest, and honing her skills at WHERE Washington before landing her dream job at National Geographic. Despite receiving an initial rejection letter, persistence and specialized experience eventually opened the door to what would become a 23-year career at one of the world's most prestigious media brands.

Throughout our conversation, Amy reveals the profound transformation of travel media—from the golden age of print magazines to digital storytelling and social media integration. She candidly shares how staffing went from robust teams of editors, fact-checkers, and designers to small crews producing the same quality content with fewer resources. When she was laid off after more than two decades, Amy embraced the change, returning to her freelance roots with newfound freedom and flexibility.

The most compelling moments in our discussion come from Amy's personal travel revelations—like the unexpected connection she felt in French Polynesia that led to a meaningful tattoo spanning her forearm, symbolizing her role as a mother, traveler and guide. Her approach to travel writing focuses on genuine curiosity and cultural immersion rather than marketing destinations, underscoring the vital distinction between journalism and promotion.

Whether you're an aspiring travel writer, a PR professional looking to collaborate with journalists or simply someone who dreams of exploring the world's most fascinating places, Amy's insights will forever change how you read travel stories. Listen now to discover how the best travel narratives come to life and why authenticity matters more than ever in an increasingly connected world.

Connect with Amy:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amyalipio/?hl=en

X: https://x.com/amytravels

LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-alipio-549988/

Check out her tattoo here: https://www.instagram.com/p/BPbYvOcj9Nu/ 

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  

Angela Tuell:

Welcome to Media in Minutes. This is your host, Angela Tuell. This podcast features in-depth interviews with those who report 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. In today's episode, we are talking with Amy Alipio as an award-winning travel editor and writer at National Geographic. For 23 years, amy illuminated some of the world's most beautiful destinations. She helped produce stories on places from the Arctic to Zanzibar and has written about hidden civil war stories in Gettysburg, king Charles II's connection with Transylvania and hiking in Wales. While at National Geographic, amy managed their signature franchise, the annual Best of the World list, and won an American Society of Magazine Editors Award for the best illustrated story. Amy is now a freelance writer, editor and content strategist and lives in the Washington DC area. Hi, amy, thanks for joining us today. Thanks so much for asking me.

Amy Alipio:

Angela.

Angela Tuell:

Yes, I'm excited to share your story. I must know did you always want to be a journalist?

Amy Alipio:

Well, you know, I have Asian parents, so in the beginning I think I tried to be a good Asian daughter and told everyone I was going to be a doctor. But I think I eventually admitted to myself that what I really loved was writing and reading. And so then I did focus on journalism as the thing that you know would make me money and as someone whose skills were writing and reading. But you know, I have to say that I only had a vague idea of what that meant, and it was only like the experience of going through journalism school and those first years out of journalism school that I started to like hone my idea of my goal, of what I could or I wanted to do.

Angela Tuell:

Right, so you actually went to college for journalism then. Yeah, yeah.

Amy Alipio:

So, for example, my I got a master's in journalism and my degree is actually in broadcast at Carleton University in Ottawa, and I think I focused on that because it was not as known to me as print journalism. Like I figured like, oh, I know print and I didn't know broadcast. So you know, I learned about how to make radio stories and TV stories. You know, what I remember is like they had to be a minute 30. Is that right?

Angela Tuell:

I know you're shorter now, right.

Amy Alipio:

And I learned how to do stand ups, which I'm sure you all know about, but I remember, oh my God, I remember doing a stand up outside in subzero weather in Ottawa. It was like totally freezing out, and you know how it is right. You know you have to like talk and like my mouth like just not form the words after a while because it was so cold and so like I didn't nail it on the first try. So I tried to do it again. You know the words that I needed to say. And then, but my mouth like just progressively, just could not get around the words, and I'm sure you know exactly what I mean.

Angela Tuell:

yes, but yeah, that was one time. I will just never forget so did that tell you you didn't want to go to broadcast.

Amy Alipio:

That was definitely one of the experiences that convinced me that I wasn't meant to do broadcast. That was one of them. But I think I also realized that you know, you know I suck at stand-ups. I'd call props to you, like someone like you who could talk on off the top of your head while looking into a camera or a mic, because that is so hard.

Amy Alipio:

And then I also realized that I wasn't so interested in news reporting. Like I didn't want to have to ask someone what their reaction was to you know, their loved one dying tragically in an accident, or like even being at a press conference and and reporting what was to you know, their loved one dying tragically in an accident, or like even being at a press conference and and reporting what was said. I mean, and I think all that's so important, news reporting is absolutely essential, especially to a democracy, especially now. But I found that I was not interested in that so much as like the context reporting, like cultural reporting or like feature reporting you know, narratives. So from there I started focusing on that type of journalism.

Angela Tuell:

Okay, and that was great to learn going through school to really narrow it down.

Amy Alipio:

Yeah, and I think that's really the takeaway for you know, anyone listening who might be considering a career in journalism is that you know you might not know exactly right away what you want to do, but the journey is about like trying things and then discarding that if it doesn't work, and then you kind of keep narrowing down to what you really want to do and what you're best at and you only get. You only know that really I think a lot of people don't know what they want to do. You only really get that from like trying it and so I feel that now you know, yeah, that's I've always told.

Angela Tuell:

I mean my kids are still younger, but the internships and job shadowing and all of that is the most important. So you can really determine what you like to do and what you think you. You know what you think you want to do. I know and.

Amy Alipio:

I think, exactly nowadays, like a lot of kids, like my kids, don't exactly know what they want to do and a lot of kids don't because you don't really know like all the stuff that's out there that you can do, like even like being an editor, I don't think I even knew what an editor was right as a kid. You know what does an editor do. I knew, like being a journalist, I knew about you know people who's a broadcast anchor, but I didn't know editor and I didn't know that you could, that could be a job, or that being travel writing could be a job.

Angela Tuell:

Yes, yes, it seems too good to be true, right?

Amy Alipio:

I know right.

Angela Tuell:

I was fascinated to learn that you attended college in England, canada, and have lived in Budapest, so you have to tell us a little bit more about this.

Amy Alipio:

Yeah, well, so I did go to, did my undergrad in England, did my master's in journalism in Canada and then, like, after I graduated, I lived in Budapest, worked at an English language news weekly in Budapest and you know really all of those places. I have such like great and fond memories of all. But I think for me, like being in England, as an English major and a theater lover, was like I have ascended you know it was like.

Amy Alipio:

I was like bookworm nir. I mean there was Shakespeare and Stratford and you know Jane Austen and Dickens and that was just like the, the old, old dudes. You know all the contemporary stuff, like you know Bridget Jones and Ian McEwan and so many things and like so to this day I am like a huge and shameless Anglophile and London is my go-to city. But when I was living in Budapest that was kind of my first time living and like working somewhere, because of course in England and Canada I was going to school. So being in Budapest and having to to work there, just doing all the like the daily mundane things, was also just really eye opening. Like you know paying a bill at the post office or you know picking up a pay paycheck and you know it had to be in cash because you know that kind of thing. So yeah, yeah.

Amy Alipio:

How'd you choose Budapest? Oh, so my then boyfriend, now husband, is Hungarian, from, from actually Transylvania, which is in Romania, but it used to be part of Austria-Hungary before World War One, so yeah, so that's where he was from. So I just kind of thought I'd go hang out in Hungary, where he had gone back to to help out his family business and yeah. So I just kind of followed him there, but I wanted to make sure also that I was learning stuff, and that's kind of where I launched my journalism career.

Angela Tuell:

Okay, so how did you land at National Geographic?

Amy Alipio:

Um, I wish I could say it was because, like I, was a globetrotting archaeologist and they offered me a job, like when I was in the middle of the Peruvian Amazon.

Amy Alipio:

But no, actually I think it was just and this is a good story for young journalists to hear as well is that, you know, just kind of the building blocks that I had built up up to that point. So the fact that I had lived abroad, that I had traveled a lot, that I had worked for a travel magazine before that, and the funny thing is that I actually got a rejection letter from them because, you know, I had applied. Yeah, hr sent me a rejection letter and I was like, okay, well, that's too bad, it's like my dream job. But then, like, I think maybe two or three months after that, I got a call from the managing editor at National Geographic Traveler and he said can you come in and interview? And so I did.

Amy Alipio:

I interviewed, took an edit test, I had to like, edit a feature, went through a couple other rounds of editing and yeah, so then they finally offered me the job. So I guess the takeaway is is that like, like, if you get an HR rejection letter, you know, maybe follow up with the actual person who is at the place you want to work at, you know because, like an organization as big as Nat Geo and of course as big as a lot of other media organizations, the HR folks might not know exactly what that department might need.

Angela Tuell:

So what did you do before National Geographic?

Amy Alipio:

So immediately before I was working at a like a tourist publication called when Washington, w-h-e-r-e.

Angela Tuell:

Washington and it was part of a network.

Amy Alipio:

I think you might have known it. It used to be a network all over the world. You know that was actually where Budapest, which is how I also knew it. But I worked at where Washington for a couple years and that really taught me how to look at a destination one destination, washington from all different angles and from a tourist point of view. So I think that was actually really helpful in landing the job at traveler as well, just because I was very definitely focused on, like the readership, the specific readership that travel is the travelers are and the skill set of being able to look at a destination from fresh angles, because, you know, every month at Wear Washington we had to come up with a new story angle on, you know, dc. Well, several story angles on DC. So, yeah, that was great training as well.

Angela Tuell:

Yeah, I remember reading that publication when I was out there. You too, I know Right.

Amy Alipio:

And I don't think it's existing anymore, but it used to be in all the major cities. It was in London, Paris, and it was a great resource to me when I was living in Budapest.

Angela Tuell:

Yes, I'm sure. And then so with National Geographic you spent more than 23 years there, which is also unusual in the journalism world.

Amy Alipio:

Say it like that. That sounds so ancient, I know.

Angela Tuell:

Although how are you only 25?

Amy Alipio:

Child prodigy.

Angela Tuell:

But with the last four, four plus as the managing editor, could you tell us about your time there and any insight you can share about the publication?

Amy Alipio:

So my time there. I mean, as I said, you know 23 years sounds so awfully long, but you know, seriously, it did not feel like 23 years Like I am grateful for every day I was there. Every day I learned something new about the world. Like 23 years like I am grateful for every day. Every day I learned something new about the world. The people I got to meet was amazing.

Angela Tuell:

Like you know.

Amy Alipio:

Bob Ballard in the elevator, jane Goodall in the cafeteria you know that kind of thing and it's a publication that so many people have such good memories of, you know. I can't tell you the number of times people told me they, you know they grew up reading it and it sparked their interest in travel or photography or marine biology. So, yeah, it's a great place to work and I'm grateful for every day there.

Angela Tuell:

What were you the most proud of while working there?

Amy Alipio:

Well, I worked on so many great stories with so many great writers, like Pico Ayer. I worked with him on great stories with so many great writers, like you know. Pico Iyer, you know I worked with him on a story, yo-yo Ma, he actually did a story for me on Nara in Japan. So, and also not just the well-known people but the people who you know kind of I helped discover. Yeah, that sounds like, you know, really self-aggrandizing, but yeah, I feel like, for example, there's one writer, ronan O'Connell.

Amy Alipio:

I kind of noticed he'd been pitching me for a long time and one of his pitches, you know, stood out for me and so you know, I just I, you know got started working with him and his stories were some of the most trafficked stories on our site for the year, like for each year, you know. And recently he got cold called by Harper Collins in the U S and he's based in Australia to do it and to do um, they offered him a two book um deal, um, two book deal, kind of like carte blanche. He told me, because of the work he did we did together at Nat Geo, because they'd seen all the work he was doing at Nat Geo, the stories he had on our site and they're like we want you to do that for these books and you can do what you want, and so they kind of like, gave him, like you know, a two book deal which is like that is unheard of, right, someone cold calling you, like a publisher cold calling you.

Amy Alipio:

So when he told me you know it's because of of you recognizing my work and the work we've done together, making you know you editing it and making the stories you know shine. So stuff like that I'm proud of.

Angela Tuell:

What a wonderful accomplishment. Yes, and what did the role of managing editor really look like or include?

Amy Alipio:

Well, managing editor I mean we're very small staff, so managing editor was really kind of just making sure like the trains run on time. But because, also being a short staff, it was also really everything from ideating from the very beginning, kind of looking at the big picture, the whole gamut, you know ideating, finding the writers, copy editing, doing the last copy edit and really just making sure the product is as excellent as it can be, as it should be.

Angela Tuell:

Yeah, you make it sound like a simple job, but not at all.

Amy Alipio:

It was a lot but a lot of it is like making sure you know that it's a legacy, that's your brand and it and it's really kind of stewarding that legacy really, and so making sure that everything that goes out the door when we press print or when we send it to the printer, is accurate, you know, and excellent yeah, yeah, you were there during the times.

Angela Tuell:

So much shift in media from you know to to online, away from print to back to print to you know so many changes. What was that like while you?

Amy Alipio:

were there.

Amy Alipio:

Yeah, well, it was so funny because, like for maybe for the first, maybe 10 years, I was there 15 years like everything was the same, but then everything started to change, maybe in the last, you know, five, 10 years, and that's when, like literally every year, there was some churn happening, whether it's like we closed, we retired our print magazine and went to almost totally digital, but then we did start putting some travel stories into the flagship National Geographic magazine and then it was like you know, of course, the rise of social media and that becoming not just something that happened on the side but something that was really integrated and really important as another platform for storytelling.

Amy Alipio:

That is just as important as anything else. So it really showed me, it really taught me that you know, the importance of being flexible because it really was and, of course, the shrinking of staff. Like when I started 23 years ago, it was, I think, there were like 11 other text editors and you know, then there was like several photo editors, there was several researchers who were, like you know, fact checkers, there were several designers and when we retired print the magazine print in 2020, right before the pandemic it was basically like me and two other editors, and one of them was like the editor in chief and then like one designer, one, you know no fact checkers, that kind of thing. So the shrinking of the staff was also significant.

Angela Tuell:

Yeah, and what are some of your? I know this is a hard question and you've mentioned a couple, but some of your most memorable stories while you were there, Well, a career high in 2022 was the opportunity to interview Dolly Parton.

Amy Alipio:

Oh yes, so that was awesome. It's funny too, because, like there was a time when, you know, I have to travel down to Dollywood to meet her and it was kind of like an awkward time, I think, or something, and there was talk of maybe giving it to someone else to do the story.

Amy Alipio:

I was like uh-, like I am totally going out and doing that story and like I had to like go out and like I knew I knew I had to like look better than I usually do. You're just like in like the most comfortable clothes possible. So I actually had to go out and buy clothes to to be in this interview with her. And it's so funny because she actually did say to me, like I sat down and she was like, oh, I love your top. And I'm like, oh my god, because Dolly Parton complimented me, my top, that's amazing. And it was like a style that I don't usually wear. It had like kind of like, um, I don't know, it's just maybe more like country, more country yeah it was.

Amy Alipio:

It didn't have rhinestones, but it had like some other kind of thing that was kind of like more Western and country, yeah, but anyway, so that was definitely one, and oh.

Amy Alipio:

The thing about that, though, was that what I was proud of about that was I took basically like a it was a 10 minute like she was doing, of course, her press press run, and she was talking to a bunch of journalists, and you know, I think we had like 10, 15 minutes with her each, but from that I was able to do a story that was about her, her love of the Smoky mountains, where she's from and how she thinks it needs to be taken care of just the world in general. She gave me so many great times, like she said, like, um, we have to be taking care of the world because of being um, not taking care of it's like being ugly to your mama and um. I was just proud that, from like 10-15 minutes with her, I feel like the story that I took away wasn't just fluff. It was actually something specific about you know how she sees conservation being really important in the Smokies.

Angela Tuell:

Yeah, she is such an inspiration all around, totally.

Amy Alipio:

I know she's so inspirational.

Angela Tuell:

So we do need to talk about. You left National Geographic about five months ago, but you do still do freelance work with them, correct?

Amy Alipio:

I do freelance as an expedition leader right now, but yes, the hope is to definitely do freelance writing for them as well and hopefully freelance editing.

Angela Tuell:

Okay, so why did you decide to go freelance?

Amy Alipio:

I mean I feel like okay, well, this is, I was laid off, so it's not like I meant to that.

Amy Alipio:

Yeah, but since then, you know, freelance writing is actually, of course, how I started in this career freelance travel writing and going back to it is actually kind of a joy to me. And you know, as an editor I didn't have a whole lot of time to do writing Because you're also, of course, editing and of course editing is the type of writing. But to do my own stories it was really hard. So, like, for example, that Dolly Parton story I just mentioned to you, I kind of had to carve out time to do it on top of everything else.

Amy Alipio:

So that's why it's a little harder to do the writing when you're an editor.

Angela Tuell:

But, anyway.

Amy Alipio:

So I am doing freelance now, loving the opportunity to go back to writing, of course, traveling more. So I'm doing work for AFAR, aarp and like freelance editing too. So for a travel custom travel publication, north and Warren. That does has contracts with like luxury hotel brands and hospitality brands to do their custom publications.

Angela Tuell:

You know that is something talking about the laid off part. It happens to so many people, you know, in the journalism industry in general.

Amy Alipio:

It's happening now in our world a lot or very visible feel, yeah, yeah how was that to go through, you know, after being somewhere that long? Well, I mean, I feel like in some ways I mean of course it was a shock and heartbreaking, but also, just as I mentioned to you all the churn that's been happening I in other ways like also not really surprised, um, with how much much trend's going on in the in the industry right now. Yeah, yeah.

Angela Tuell:

So let's talk about how much do you travel. Now you mentioned traveling more. How often are you traveling?

Amy Alipio:

Well, I still I'm traveling about as much I feel, just because I have three kids. So I mean, so travel has always been, you know, trying to squeeze it in in between all the commitments, family commitments, and so, of course, when I can, I try to take a kid, just because it's also very educational for them, like I just did an Antarctic cruise. I took my 15 year old and he thought it was amazing.

Amy Alipio:

I know right, he just like was so, um, I feel like it was kind of transformative for him, but um, yeah, so. So when we do travel, um, I do try to take them as I mean, as a family. We do a lot of mid Atlantic travel, um, and of course, travel back to Hungary and Romania, where my husband is from, and um, and then when I travel myself, like for work you know now that I am freelance, I feel like I can. I'm a little more free in a way, to like where I can go and what I can choose to do.

Angela Tuell:

Yeah, Speaking of that, how do you feel about, you know, hosted trips? Do you have preferences? What, I guess what do you prefer or not prefer in a hosted trip?

Amy Alipio:

I think hosted, of course that individual trips is the most useful in terms of like I might already have a story idea in mind or maybe a confirmed, you know assignment, and and being able to travel to get the context and the feel of something is so much better than just phone reporting, which, of course, is totally possible.

Amy Alipio:

A lot of people do phone reporting, but being able to go to the place and get the color and interview people there in the moment is invaluable. So that's the type of trip that I think works is the most useful. But also hosted trips that are like group ones or small group I do prefer small group are are helpful in that you get just a sense of the general context of a place. Maybe you don't have a specific story idea in mind yet, but you're always like on the lookout when you're there and some things might pop up like you know, just in that Antarctic trip I was just on something that wasn't really part of the cruise caught my eye and so, for example, I'm going to be pitching that story, you know. And so things grow out from those trips that are super helpful are super helpful.

Amy Alipio:

Yeah, that's a great point why freelancers can't ever guarantee or say what the story is going to be, or an angle, because you don't know until you're there. Right, exactly, and I do have this policy that I carried over. The preserve policy at Nat Geo was that I can't guarantee coverage, and I think that's just really helpful for both sides. It's like we're very clear on the expectations and if they wanted something specific, then that's not for me because you know then you could hire me as a content marketer and I'm happy to do that.

Amy Alipio:

But as a journalist, I, you know, to me it's like, well, I don't know why, I don't think you can expect me to just repeat something that you, you know, you told me the story that you wanted me to tell, because that's not my job.

Angela Tuell:

Right and not ethical journalism either. Right? Do you have any places that have been the most memorable in your travels or a place that you think everyone should visit once in their life?

Amy Alipio:

Oh my gosh. Well, when I did a cruise with Aaron Ne Nui to the Marquesas, which is in French Polynesia, I thought, you know, there's like the beautiful palm trees and the beautiful water, but for some reason, like I felt this connection, this weird connection with Polynesia, and maybe it has to do with the fact that, you know, my parents are from the Philippines and there's that deep, deep blood ties to Polynesia, cause I, you know, polynesians actually came from, like Southeast Asia, but anyway, so, out of the blue, I decided, I thought I would get a tattoo because everyone there has, like these most gorgeous, like you know, tattoos that are all symbolic, tattoos that tell stories. And so I was like, so, like felt just this unusual connection to the place that I decided to get a tattoo.

Amy Alipio:

So that's you know that I think surprises people because I'm a suburban Asian mom and you know to have this and it's not even little, it's not like a little butterfly on my ankle. It's like the, my whole like from my elbow to my wrist on my left hand.

Angela Tuell:

Are you kidding? What did your parents say about that?

Amy Alipio:

Well, yeah, I mean like I had to ask my kid, I showed my husband too, and they're like yeah, do it. But yeah, I think people are surprised.

Angela Tuell:

Yeah, I know that's a great story and one that you can always bring out.

Amy Alipio:

And it tells the story of my life too. So it's actually like the symbol show that I have three kids, that I'm a traveler, that I'm a travel guide, and there's symbols that are like protection.

Angela Tuell:

That are yeah. So yeah, it's really cool. Do you have a photo anywhere on social?

Amy Alipio:

Yes, on Instagram. We'll have to find it, yeah.

Angela Tuell:

Because now I want to know what it looks like.

Amy Alipio:

Okay, I should have showed you when I saw you. I know I didn didn't even know that, but it was like so cold.

Angela Tuell:

We were all like, yes, what types of stories do you prefer, and you know what are you looking for when being pitched ideas.

Amy Alipio:

Personally, I prefer stories that align with some of my like interest, because I always tell upcoming journalists as well like you know, have something that you're interested in and like, focus on that and be an expert on it, so people know to come to you for that type of story like oh, if you're a.

Amy Alipio:

Caribbean writer if you're an Eastern Europe writer. So I feel like the types of stories I prefer, ones that align with my interests, and so that would be like both geographic as well as like genres. So personally it would be like Eastern Europe, england I mean not just not just England but the UK and then interest in like culture, art and performing arts, especially a total performing arts lover, love a big theater geek, so anything around that, and or anything around books, like literature, like Jane Austen, tours of something or that kind of thing.

Angela Tuell:

Yeah, those are great to keep in mind.

Amy Alipio:

So have you ever?

Angela Tuell:

were you ever in performing arts?

Amy Alipio:

No, no, well, I've always always been interested in like the writing side of it, so like writing that play. I've tried writing plays, but never like on stage Cause, as I told you, it's just I stage right.

Angela Tuell:

And I don't know have you is that is that cause I feel like broadcast is like it's very performative yeah. Yeah, although I have to tell you I was super comfortable talking into a camera, but if it was a very large audience of you know, hundreds of people not as comfortable, definitely more nervous, but not nervous at all in front of a camera.

Amy Alipio:

I don't know what the difference is there but yeah, see, that's like a skill. I mean, that's probably that natural affinity you have, because cameras point at me and I just got really awkward.

Angela Tuell:

And I think that's pretty normal. I've heard that from a lot of people. So how can PR professionals best help you do your job?

Amy Alipio:

I think well, on one level, just the general press releases we get are just, uh, are super helpful, just because I that sits in my inbox when I'm looking for any information around, like very specific as I get looking for information on glamping, I just, you know, put glamping in my notes, find that thing. I might not, you know, read it when I first get it, but it's there. So if at some point, um, that's something I you know, that topic is something that's there. But also I feel like, very specifically, if a PR we have have a relationship and we can just kind of riff on things and then they know about my interests and can align, like, if I do go on a trip, they can craft that itinerary that like hit.

Amy Alipio:

Some of those interests and and stories have totally um sparked from that kind of thing where, for example, I um did a trip in colorado and worked with a pr there and they suggested this quirky town, uh, leadville, colorado, which like hit all the like things I mentioned, like quirky history and art, and um had like a superlative about it, that's it's the highest like city, actually highest altitude city in the US. And so I edited a story and I got someone to write the story and I edited, but it turned out to be one of the most trafficked stories on our site for that year. So, yeah, and it was just you know the fact that we had been chatting about it and she knew me and she had the type of thing. So I think that the personal connections are super important, it's really all about relationships.

Angela Tuell:

I think so Do you have any pet peeves when it comes to publicists.

Amy Alipio:

I guess you know it was going to be saying like some generic thing, like when they send generic releases, but you know I don't mind those now actually Cause, as I just said, they, the generic ones, help as much as the very specific ones. And I guess publicists who don't convey to clients my you know, kind of like what goes on with hosted or how it works, how clients maybe they don't understand, they don't help clients understand how it works with travel journalism, that we're not a marketing arm, you know.

Amy Alipio:

I think that is kind of a pet peeve. I've had that happen a couple of times where you know the client was upset or something you know and I'm like of course it's not my job to be a marketing arm and I feel like that was on the publicist to let the client know that that's how things work, you know. So, that would be my main thing.

Angela Tuell:

That's a good, that's a good one. Before we go, I have to ask what are your goals for the future, professionally?

Amy Alipio:

You know I would really love if freelance if freelance writing and freelance editing I could do that full time, because the further I get, from like the nine to five having to go into the office, and like realizing.

Amy Alipio:

It's going to be really hard if I get another staff job to have to go back into the office and do that nine to five thing because it's so great to have the kind of the freedom of freelance where you know, if I wanted to take a job, you know, then I just make it up on the weekend or something, or a little bit at night. I actually do a lot of great work at night, you know. So just having more flexible hours, so yeah.

Angela Tuell:

Yeah, I always say that. You know, owning a PR firm, I have flexibility too. I work 60 hours. It can be whatever 60 hours I want from the week.

Amy Alipio:

Right, exactly, not quite, but you know, yeah, yeah.

Angela Tuell:

Well, depending on the week, it usually it could be.

Amy Alipio:

Well, that's the danger, though right, it's like you may be always working.

Angela Tuell:

Yeah, always working. But it is great to have that flexibility. Yeah, how can our listeners connect with you?

Amy Alipio:

online. So I am on X Twitter at Amy travels and Instagram at Amy Alipio, and those are the best places to connect with me.

Angela Tuell:

Thank you so much. This has been so great. Thank you so much, and it was such an honor to talk to you. That's all for this episode of media and minutes, a podcast by communications redefined. 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 communicationsredefinedcom slash podcast. I'm your host, Angela Tuell. Talk to you next time.