Reporter – Entertainment

Peta Wittig

Hollie McKay is one of life’s go getters. At 22 she writes a daily celebrity gossip column that is posted on the home page of top US website FOXNews.com.

An Australian, Hollie was born in the mining town of Gordonvale in north Queensland and raised in the Hunter Valley of NSW. At 13, she published her first novel and taught dance classes to older girls. 

Graduating from Sydney’s elite performing arts school The McDonald College with a TER of 99.25, McKay then enrolled in a communications degree at University of Technology Sydney switching to Pace University in New York City during her last semester.

Wanting to stay in New York, Hollie applied for a journalism internship, successfully landing a four-month stint with FoxNews.com. 

“I had some experience on the web creating my own web pages and using multimedia and Photoshop,” Hollie recalled.

 However, gathering information and putting together articles inside a frenetic news room was daunting.

“I was not sure what to expect. I went out and bought an Ann Taylor business suit.  [Working in the newsroom] was so scary … I thought, ‘am I ever going to understand this’?”

The executive editor, Steve Bromberg, showed Hollie around and taught her the ropes.

Some of Hollie’s friends were doing internships at other organisations and complained of boredom and only being asked to do the grunt work.

“Steve told me on day one, ‘I will never get you to make coffees – you’re here to learn’. Hollie made her interest in entertainment reporting known and was assigned to that area with a mentor – entertainment editor Jen D’Angelo. 

She pitched her first story almost straight away about a friend who was selling high tech home gadgets to the rich and famous.

It made a great story and McKay soon pitched many more. By the end of the internship a new vice president was on board and with her boss’ encouragement, McKay called him up for a chat and was soon offered the Pop Tarts column, now read by hundreds of thousands of people daily right on the home page of http://www.foxnews.com/.

Soon to move to Los Angeles, Hollie will continue to do the column but expand into more general entertainment reporting.

Hollie recommends keeping a journal to track your ups and downs on the way to success. “My number one tip is to write in a journal every day,” she said.
Having discipline, chasing opportunities and having drive and energy to burn doesn’t hurt either.