Brandon Goldner

Brandon Goldner is full of advice. "Try everything," he recently told the Journalism 216 class at Linn Benton Community College. "Don't burn yourself out." For a young man who got his start at LB, Goldner explored journalism in the mid valley before landing a job at brass Magazine.

After writing for The Commuter, Goldner moved to a paying job at the Gazette Times, starting at the front desk. When long time editor of The Entertainer, Jake Ten Pas, moved to Portland, Nancy Raskauskas moved into that position. Goldner was hired to be part of The Entertainer staff. 


While he enjoyed working at the GT and on The Entertainer, he longed for more. That's when he found brass Magazine. He applied for an unpaid internship. Nothing came of it, or so he thought. Six months later, he got an interview and soon after that, the unpaid job.


In September of last year, he was offered a paid position. "I'm so thankful to be there."


Goldner was free with advice for the students in Rob Priewe's class. "Don't be afraid to meet people," he said. Building relationships can lead people down paths they didn't even know were there. 


"You have to be engaged." Talking with people, offering to help, listening and watching have worked well for Goldner.


"Find a way to make a story your own." He did just that with his brass cover story on Ashley Fiolek. Fiolek is a women's moto X racer who, at the young age of 20, has made a name for herself as one of the sports premier racers. One amazing fact that Goldner slips into the story early is that Fiolek is deaf.


The one angle of the story that didn't make the final cut Goldner explained, was Fiolek's sense of being a woman in a man's sport. It just didn't fit into the final draft. "Let your story adapt." Great advice for any journalist.


"But don't be afraid to champion your work as is," Goldner said. "Defend your work."


One more piece of advice Goldner shared was one passed on to him from Mark Forbes, Vice President of Operations at brass Magazine. "Try to make things a procedural issue not a personal one."