Born Maggie Lindsy Haberman on 30 October 1973 in New York, US, she is a renowned American journalist working as a White House reporter for the New York Times and a political analyst for CNN. She has also served as a political reporter for tabloids like New York Post, New York Daily News, and Politico. In 2020, Haberman became quite famous for her work covering the Trump presidency and re-election campaign.
They say opportunities will surely come, we may not know when it will be, but the most important thing is for one to be prepared. When preparation meets opportunity, a breakthrough inevitably follows. While it may sound a bit cliché, the admonition, “Keep doing what you do, your time will come,” is as true as it gets. It is especially valid as career advice. Sticking with one’s craft or work and continuously grinding gets one ready for opportunities even as one gains more experience and becomes better.
This advice defines the story of Maggie, who, after over two decades of plying her trade as a journalist, rose to peak prominence in the final years of the Trump administration when she covered the former US president’s administration, campaign and post-presidency for the New York Times. The seasoned journalist’s exceptional reporting earned her the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting alongside colleagues at the New York Times and The Washington Post. She also won a number of other individual laurels that will be highlighted later in this article. Here are 10 interesting facts about Maggie Haberman.
10 interesting facts about Maggie Haberman
- Maggie Haberman was born in October 1973 and will be 48 years on her birthday in 2021.
- Her career as a journalist began when she was 23, and she has spent 25 years working in the industry.
- She got her first job in 1996 as a clerk at The New York Post.
- In 2018, Maggie’s work as a White House reporter in the Trump’s administration won her a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting.
- She is the daughter of Clyde Haberman, who is a long-time reporter with the New York Times.
- Maggie never wanted to be a reporter and only took the job at The New York Post because she was broke and found it hard to land her dream job as a magazine editor.
- She is married and has three children, Max, Miri, and Dashiell.
- Maggie Haberman husband is Dareh Ardashes Gregorian, a New York Daily Times reporter and the son of late Vartan Gregorian, the former president of Carnegie Corporation.
- She got a deal with Penguin Books for a yet to be completed book scheduled to be published in 2022.
- She is estimated to be worth around $3 million, and earns between $120,000 and $150,000 annually.
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Early life and education
Maggie was born in New York in 1973 to the family of Clyde and Nancy Haberman. She grew up with her brother, Zach, who is also now in the journalism trade. Her father is a journalist, and he worked with the New York Times on and off since 1977. Her mother is a media communications executive at Rubenstein Associates, a “publicity powerhouse”. Nancy Haberman has done work for a long list of influential New Yorkers including, the former US president Donald Trump.
Maggie used to sing in her elementary school days. She played the lead role in a performance of the musical “Annie” as a 3rd grader at the P.S 75 Emily Dickinson School. In 1991, Haberman graduated from the independent preparatory school, Ethical Culture Fieldston School in New York. She proceeded to the Sarah Lawrence College, a New York private liberal arts college where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in 1995.
Career
As earlier mentioned, Maggie began her career in 1996 at the age of 23. Shortly after securing her degree, she got a job as a clerk at The New York Post, and she filled the position for three years. According to Haberman, her dream was to work with a magazine, but she took the clerk job because she needed one. In 1999, after three years as a clerk, she was assigned by The Post to cover City Hall. It was there she reportedly became “hooked” on political reporting. She hasn’t looked back ever since.
“I never wanted to be a reporter. I took a job at the New York Post as a clerk because I couldn’t get a job in magazines, which is what I really wanted to do. I was incredibly lucky — I’ve had a lot of mentors. There was Stuart Marques, who hired me. He was the metro editor at the Post. Allen Salkin, who’s a freelance writer now, he was one of the people who taught me newspaper writing,” she revealed during a lecture in the Stony Brook School of Communication and Journalism “My Life As” speaker series.
At a point, in the early 2000s, she took a job at her previous employer’s rival newspaper, the New York Daily News and worked there for another three years. She, however, continued her role as the City Hall reporter. Ahead of the elections, Maggie rejoined The New York Post in 2008 to cover the presidential campaign. Politico then hired her as a senior reporter in 2010. Her most prestigious role thus far at the time.
In 2014, she landed a role at CNN as a political analyst. As the 2016 elections approached, Haberman was hired by the New York Times in early 2015 to be a political correspondent for the 2016 US presidential campaign. She teamed up with famed journalist Glenn Thrush in what the press dubbed “a potent journalistic tag team.”
It is usually said that Trump’s presidency gave way to a new era of journalism, and Haberman’s reportage of it ranks high up, if not highest, among the best in that time. She gained popularity covering Trump’s presidency and campaign, consistently breaking news about the administration. Her phenomenal work didn’t go unnoticed, as she rightfully won laurel after laurel.
