Dr. Nicolas Hirshon has enjoyed success as a journalist, author, and academic over the course of his career. He is a former reporter for the New York Daily News, and his work has appeared in
The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. His books include We Want Fish Sticks: The Bizarre and Infamous Rebranding of the New York Islanders, as well as two titles from the regional history series Images of America.
Hirshon also serves as an associate professor in the communication department at William Paterson University, where he enjoys helping new reporters launch their careers.
He founded the campus chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists after joining WP in 2016, and in addition to working with students on campus, next spring he’ll begin teaching in the new online Bachelor of Arts in Journalism program. He says it’s a great choice for students interested in writing and reporting due to the faculty’s expertise in all types of media.
“There are a lot of working, professional journalists who are teaching in this program,” Hirshon said. “You’re getting to learn from their experiences.”
He says this degree option is designed to meet the needs of adults working full time, as well as traditional undergraduates who enjoy studying online. “It definitely offers flexibility that allows you to do so many other things that might not have been possible if you were physically having to travel to campus,” he said.
Students in the program learn to cover stories, the rhythm of newsrooms and editorial processes, and basics such as communication and collaboration that all employers seek.
“Reporting is a skill that, even if you end up not going into journalism, can be very useful in how to gather information, how to present it in a clear, accessible way for any kind of an audience,” Hirshon said. He sees many graduates who start out as reporters go on to have an impact in other fields.
“[It’s] such a wonderful profession because it just teaches you a lot about being curious, intellectually stimulates you to want to learn about the world,” he said. “That’s why it also can prepare people for careers in politics, for leadership and philosophy. It has a lot of other applications of just thinking deeper about issues that are affecting society.”
From the Queens Beat to PhD
Hirshon grew up in New York City and began paying his dues as a freelance reporter during high school. His first assignment was a little league baseball game on a Saturday morning. He loved it.
While pursuing a bachelor’s in journalism at St. John’s University, he began as a local stringer for one of the largest papers in the country.
“I started at the Daily News Queens bureau, writing community news,” Hirshon recalled. “I covered a lot of those sorts of local events that maybe didn’t seem all that exciting to the veterans, but for me, the chance to get a byline and just get the experience of interviewing people, documenting events, all of that was really valuable,” he remembered. As a general assignment reporter, he eventually covered everything from local politics and government board meetings to crime and accidents.
By the time Hirshon graduated in 2006, he had his own desk at the Daily News. He went on to earn a master’s in journalism at Columbia University two years later.
Hirshon became known for his coverage of historic preservation of New York’s architectural landmarks.
He was constantly on the move, filing stories that captured what was happening across the city each day. “Just through that, you learn a lot about places and people and different sides of the world that you would never be exposed to,” Hirshon said. “It gives you a different level of experience.”
He began teaching journalism at LaGuardia Community College in 2009 and his alma mater, St. John’s, in 2010. In the years that followed, Hirshon published his first two books, each tracing a different strand of Long Island history. While studying for a PhD in mass communication at Ohio University, Hirshon wrote a doctoral dissertation that inspired his third. It featured a wild but true series of events involving the NHL’s New York Islanders.
“I looked into this very curious, colorful story about the Islanders in the mid-1990s when they decided they needed to rebrand,” he said, explaining how the franchise became the focus of his research. He discovered that the team’s woes began with a disastrous campaign designed to recapture their former Stanley Cup glory.
The new logo and mascot rolled out for the occasion were instant fails, inviting ridicule and parody. The team’s new owner ended up in jail, and a newly acquired star player went AWOL. The coach spit on an opposing player. Fans joined opponents in taunting the team—and even attacked their own mascot. Hirshon documented it all in his dissertation, and after graduating in 2016, his research served as the basis for We Want Fish Sticks.
Published in 2018, his entertaining take on the story earned praise from a number of former NHL players, news analysts, and sports journalists. The book also includes a foreword by former Islanders goaltender Eric Fichaud.
“This just seemed like a really interesting era in history that had not been covered,” he said, noting the story’s broad appeal beyond its origins in hockey. “So many bizarre things happened to this team in a few years.”
Bringing the Newsroom to the Classroom
Since joining the communication faculty at William Paterson, Hirshon has also taught graduate courses at the Columbia Journalism School. He stays connected to a broad community of journalists while also working on projects with his students to highlight new voices in the field.
Hirshon believes William Paterson students have a special advantage in learning from journalists in the world’s media capital.
“We are only 20 miles away from New York City, so we have that world of wonder right there where people can come in from all of the major media outlets,” he said, referencing the guest speakers he regularly invites to class. They include journalists from digital and print publications, television, radio, social media, and podcasts. “These are all different ways that people are getting information,” he said.
Video conferencing allows Hirshon to bring in journalists from across the country as well, live from wherever they’re reporting.
“It’s great because sometimes with Zoom, they might be coming in from their own newsrooms,” he said. “They may say, ‘Hold on one second, I’ve got this reporter who’s on the phone, I’ve got to quickly tell them something for their story because they’re on deadline, and right after I get off with your class, I’ve got to file that story and edit it.’ There’s a lot of that kind of excitement that’s happening.”
Guests discuss topics ranging from editorial decisions to current issues in the field, providing relevant context for what students are learning. “[It’s] very valuable and really prepares them, because this is the world they’re about to enter,” Hirshon said.
He also ensures that his students master core skills such as news and feature writing, and he uses timed drills to simulate deadlines. “That trains you to be able to write concisely, quickly, in an accessible way,” he said. “That’s what is demanded of modern journalists.”
Learning to navigate social media with a reporter’s eye is just as important, Hirshon said, due to the amount of fake news and disinformation circulating on those platforms. “We’re getting information fast, the audience wants it right away, but at the same time, we want to make sure that it is correct,” he said.
Hirshon shows students how to evaluate digital source material quickly by simply asking the right questions.
“We might be using Google reverse image search to see, ‘Is this an actual photograph, or is this something that people just keep using whenever there is an earthquake?’” he explained, giving one example of how timestamps and geotags can be used to cross-reference sources on the fly. He says greater awareness of the tools available to vet information helps students produce stories that are both fast and accurate.
Investing in Future Journalists
In addition to the professional experience Hirshon brings to his teaching at WP, he shares the university’s commitment to equality and inclusion. Years spent covering New York City—and especially Queens, one of the of the most diverse counties in the U.S.—taught him the importance of cultural competency in journalism.
He’s also proud that the university is recognized as a leader in social mobility for first-generation and minority students, helping them graduate with increased earning power and less student debt. Hirshon believes in education’s ability to change lives, and that a degree represents more than an academic accomplishment for graduates.
“Employers recognize this is someone who’s a self-starter, who can work independently, who’s going to be able to face challenges,” he said.
Hirshon reinforces the importance of building relationships as well, encouraging his students to seek out mentors who can offer good advice. He takes that role seriously as a professor, too, and he feels it’s a strength of the WP faculty as a whole.
“William Paterson faculty will invest in you,” he said. “Whenever I have a student who tells me about their dream career, I get excited about it because I remember my own dreams as a journalism undergrad. And I see what I can do to make that happen.”
Hirshon sees great opportunity ahead for new reporters despite the industry’s constant state of evolution—and because of it. “It’s a very competitive media landscape, but it’s still very exciting,” he said. “You’re still in the front lines of history, you’re still a pivotal pillar in democracy.”
Recent advancements in AI, virtual reality, and augmented reality offer his students the chance to redefine storytelling and shape how news will be covered. “They have this toolkit that previous generations didn’t,” he marveled. “You decide how are you going to use that to report truthfully and honestly.”
Watching them progress, graduate, and join the field is always gratifying, Hirshon says, because students come to realize the impact they can have. “They’re excited about how to change this industry,” he said with a smile.
Learn more about the online Bachelor of Arts in Journalism program at William Paterson University.
