We’re Reductress Founders Beth Newell and Sarah Pappalardo, and This Is How We Work.
Very, very few sites can declare themselves in the format of “funny fake news”. There are mainly Onion and Reductress . Today we will talk with someone who has the slogan “Women’s News. Feminized “. Recent headlines include “ How to Stay Calm Even When Everyone Missed What You Just Said And It Was Really Good ” and “ Wow! This beautiful woman won’t shut up and give a fucking compliment . “
Sarah Pappalardo and Beth Newell founded Reductress in 2013 as a parody of women’s media , and then expanded it to a more general female humor site that now has up to a million monthly readers. They told Lifehacker about how to run a small business and how they choose which stories to write.
Location: New York, NY. Current employment: Editors at Reductress. One word that best describes how you work: Efficient modern mobile device: iPhone 8 (both of us) Current computer: Macbook Air (2015 model)
First of all, tell us a little about your past and how you got where you are now.
Sarah: I went to college, drew and improvised in Chicago, and flew to New York about 10 years ago. I was working with digital media / producing and doing comedy nights and there I met Beth.
Beth: I went to illustration school in New York and started improvising at the UCB Theater. Later, I started sketching at the Magnit Theater, where I started teaching sketches and conducting master classes for women to get them more involved in the sketching program. The Reductress idea was somewhat inspired by this.
Tell us about a recent work day.
Sarah: So on Monday we ‘re shooting employee photos for our new podcast, Gear Minute . So the tables in our windowless coworking space move around a bit for us to film. Everything will be photoshopped to make it look like we are big and rich. Then we’ll write the module, talk a little about the news, and edit some of the member articles that came in. Then Beth and I are going to go over the participants’ presentations for the week.
Beth: We usually dine at the table, editing plays or watching presentations. We will then comment on the smell or attractiveness of what each other is eating.
What’s the most amazing thing about a humorous website?
Sarah : This includes as much administrative work as any other job. We definitely spend a lot of time creating content, but honestly, I spend half my day looking at various Excel spreadsheets and making sure everyone else knows what to do.
Beth: I also never thought that writing a comedy would entail so much fear of being sued.
What apps, gadgets or tools can’t you live without?
Sarah: Uh, sorry, but my iPhone. I used to be an Android user but went to the dark side. Forgive everyone. When it comes to apps, we live and die thanks to Dropbox, Google Drive, and Tweetdeck . I’m also a Trello fan in terms of producing and project management.
Beth: And for our podcasts, we use a pair of microphones and a Zoom H6 recorder. Sound quality is one of those things that you really don’t notice, unless it’s bad, and unfortunately, it’s very easy to screw up.
How is your workplace arranged?
Sarah: We’re in a coworking aquarium type room. It has a leaky ceiling and weird lighting, but it still looks a lot like us. We all work on Macbook Air, because we simply cannot be limited to one space.
Beth: Yes, we are all facing the wall and talking to each other without realizing that the other person is not hearing us because they have headphones. Then, when we have meetings, we turn our chairs towards the center of the room.
What’s your best shortcut or life hack?
Sarah: Ready emails with responses . It’s still a Google Labs add-on and has a clunky interface, but we’ve been sending out so many boilerplate emails here that it’s a godsend.
Beth: We also mark files with colored dots in our shared Dropbox folder. This allows us to quickly see who finished editing the piece.
Tell us about an interesting, unusual, or challenging process you have at work.
Beth: When we go through presentations, each of us shouts out to our loved ones and discusses the merits of a joke. We’ll try to get a feel for the room to see if it finds something that only resonates with us personally, or if it’s a shared shared experience. Sometimes there are long disputes. We’ll also rephrase the headlines to keep the joke as clear and specific as possible. So sometimes we will come up with alternative phrases for a while before we are all satisfied.
Who are the people who help you achieve results, and how do you rely on them?
Beth: Besides ourselves, we have three in-house editors, Rachel Venitzky, Eva Victor and Taylor Garron, who help write and edit articles for the site. They also help post and collect Reductress Minute and brainstorm side projects like the products we sell on our site. Rachel is the main host of the podcast and makes a plan for each episode. Taylor hosts the variety shows we run at The Upright Citizens Brigade in New York and Los Angeles. The show in New York is hosted by Taylor and Eva. Our shows in Los Angeles are hosted by Rekha Shankar and Janie Stolar. Our interns help put together weekly presentations and customize our newsletter.
How do you keep track of what you need to do?
Sarah: I keep an old-fashioned to-do list in a tab in my browser. Nothing fancy, just tasks sorted by priority. We have 17 shared Google calendars in addition to this.
Beth: Probably not ideal, but I keep my to-do list in email drafts so I can access and edit it from anywhere.
How to recharge or relax?
Sarah: When we’re together, we just talk about stupid news or sing the whole Rent together. When I’m alone, I take what I call the “seltzer walk,” when I go to the wine cellar to buy seltzer water.
Beth: I work from home towards the end of the week due to my work schedule and childcare. I use my days off work to try to step back and look at things in general and work on our side projects that require too much attention when I’m sitting in a room with a few other people.
What’s your favorite side project?
Sarah: Probably our regular recording of the musical Rent . It hasn’t happened yet, but honestly, it probably will. Also collective meals.
Beth: If you can call it a side project, our podcast is a nice break from your day-to-day routine. Since all of our employees are writers / performers, it allows us to get a little dumber and have fun with each other in a way that we can’t when we’re all looking at our computers.
What are you reading now or what do you recommend?
Sarah: I’m in the middle of Masha Gessen’s ” The future is history: how totalitarianism brought Russia back . “ And yes, I recommend!
Beth: I’m just beginning to explain why I don’t talk to whites about race anymore . So far, really good!
Who else would you like to see to answer these questions?
Sarah: Honestly, the CBD oilman is at the end of the corridor.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
Sarah: Work smart, not hard. I suck both ways.
Beth: “Fake it until you do it.” Like many women, I struggle with impostor syndrome, so I try to just “follow my foot,” as the improvisation says.
What problem are you still trying to solve?
Sarah: How to make money online without using porn?
Beth: Yes, or fake news clickbait. Sometimes it feels like you must have bad motives to make money online.