From writing about the COVID vaccine trials for WebMD to writing about fashion and lifestyle for the New York Post to hosting her own podcast, TCNJ alumna Victoria Giardina ’21 has made her mark in the world of journalism.
Giardina graduated from TCNJ with a journalism and professional writing degree and a dual minor in communication studies and interactive multimedia.
In the summer of her freshman year, she interned at the Dr. Oz show in NYC which allowed her to explore her interests in digital media and TV production. Giardina says that her “incredible first internship” made her realize she wanted to stay on the digital media track of journalism and taught her valuable skills like writing for a content management system.
In her sophomore year, she was a national writer for Her Campus, an online lifestyle magazine targeted at female college students. That summer, which coincided with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, she interned as a medical editorial intern for WebMD. With interning at the Dr. Oz show and writing about the new vaccine trials during the height of the pandemic, Giardina was sure that she would pursue a career in health journalism.
In her junior year, she interned at CNN as an editorial intern for CNN Underscored, the network’s shopping section. This shift from writing about health journalism to writing about shopping and fashion and beauty allowed Giardina to learn about affiliate marketing and allowed her to work with brands in the beauty industry. She was then offered a six-month fellowship from Business Insider for their shopping section, Insider Reviews.
Working with Business Insider, Giardina was able to write stories about new launches, interview beauty experts, test products and shadow editors working on a range of stories including style and beauty, tech, health, kitchen, parenting, etc.
A month before graduation, Giardina received a job offer from the New York Post where she has been for almost three years now. As a content strategist and commerce journalist at the Post, Giardina works closely with brands to write stories and editorial content in the beauty and fashion space.
Although the type of writing that Giardina produces is more light-hearted and fun, she emphasizes the amount of effort and work it is to call in experts and research products in order to produce her beauty and editorial content.
In addition to working at the New York Post, Giardina hosts her own podcast called The Brand 411. The idea for the podcast came from a desire to highlight the stories of brands that everyone loves. She explained that as a journalist writing stories, she is always looking for the best quote and details from interviews with experts, but the podcast allows her to have fun with the interview process and create content that focuses on the behind-the-scenes of specific brands.
The Brand 411 is a much more casual approach to profiling both big and smaller brands, staying away from more high-level business conversations and focusing more on where the brand is headed as a company. Giardina has met with a range of brands, including Abercrombie, Lulus and Hello Fresh.
The goal of the podcast, Giardina says, is to allow brands to share their stories and to share their purpose while having insightful, productive and educational conversations.
“Everything that we consume is storytelling in its own way, and podcasting, for me, is an extension of what I do at the Post,” she said.
-Leah Cruz