Erin Van Der Meer’s The Scoop is a piercing look at the horrors of celebrity tabloids, turned on its head: the call is coming from inside the proverbial house, here, as we follow the downward spiral of laid-off journalist Frankie. A once-praised New York journalist, Frankie finds herself washed up in a sea of rejections as she looks for work – any work – after being let go from her glossy magazine job.
When her desperation becomes dire, Frankie is offered a position at The Scoop, a clickbait-fueled tabloid. As she joins the ranks as a night editor, Frankie finds the night desk is a constant churn of distasteful fodder, yet her unquenchable thirst for achievement pulls her deeper into her quest for the kind of career she watches her old friends and colleagues achieve. The Scoop asks just how far Frankie must be willing to go to rise up the journalism ranks – and at what cost?
I spoke with Erin about her writing life, her transition from journalism to fiction, and how The Scoop came to be.
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