M I C H E L L E G R A F F
E D I T O R I N C H I E F,
N A T I O N A L J E W E L E R
I
started my journalism career as
a newspaper reporter and, later,
editor in Atlanta, Georgia. I moved
there frommy hometown, Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, right after college.
I loved Atlanta, but by my late 20s, I came
to understand that I had outgrown the
city. I decided it was time to move on, so I
quit my job and followed my best friend,
Andrea, to New York City.
It was the fall of 2007 — right before the
economic crash — and I was staying with
another friend in Hoboken, New Jersey,
while job hunting. One day, I spotted an
online ad for “senior editor, diamonds” at a
publication called
National Jeweler
, which
at that time was owned by [global media
firm] Nielsen. The ad described the job as
challenging and mentioned opportunities
for international travel. I was sold.
I can’t say I ever really dreamed of a job
as a “jewelry journalist” — or even knew
such a career existed, to be frank — but
I’ve found the industry to be interesting
and, as promised, challenging, which is
why I’m still here 13 years later.
RAPAPORT MAGAZ I NE
A S K S THR E E L E AD I NG J EWE L RY
JOURNA L I ST S WHAT I NS P I R ED THEM TO CHOOS E TH I S CAR E E R .
BY LEAH MEIROVICH
T H E F I N A L C U T
R O B B AT E S
N E W S D I R E C T O R ,
J C K
W
hen I graduated college, I
wanted to be a writer, not
necessarily a journalist.
(That’s still a big interest; my first novel,
a diamond industry mystery, will come
out this year. More on that soon.) I saw an
ad fromRapaport for a diamond writer.
My grandfather was a diamond dealer on
47th Street, though he died about a decade
before this. I toldMartin Rapaport that I
grew up with people in the business and
knew a lot about it. Which was kind of BS,
but I guess Martin pitied me and took me
on board. Back then, his newsletter was
six pages and had no ads, which is a huge
difference fromwhere it is now. From
there, I went to
National Jeweler
and have
spent the last 20 years [working] for
JCK
.
I never dreamed I would be doing this so
long; I remember [industry analyst and
former
JCK
editor Russell] Shor saying
the industry is like the RoachMotel: You
check in, but you don’t check out. I met
my wife in this business, so staying in it
ended up being a good move.
I don’t know if I would have stayed in
the business as long as I have if I hadn’t
worked for Martin. I was just out of
college; what happened to [US jeweler]
Zales [in the early 1990s] wasn’t top of
mind for me. But Martin would get so
excited about it (“Ohmy God. Zales has
gone bankrupt”) and had such passion for
it, he infused me with that passion, too.
J I L L N E WM A N
C O N T R I B U T I N G J E W E L R Y A N D
W A T C H E D I T O R ,
T O W N & C O U N T R Y
A
fter graduating from journalism
school, I joined
Women’s Wear
Daily
as a reporter and was
assigned the fine-jewelry and accessories
categories. Straight away, I was fascinated
by jewelry — the family businesses, the
historic brands, the natural resources and
emerging artists. I was inspired by the
characters in the industry, fromDavid and
Sybil Yurman’s passion for their work to
the wayNicola Bulgari protected his family
legacy. Once I started to travel and see the
diamondmines in Africa, cutting facilities
in India and gemmines around the world,
I was inspired by the stories, the people,
the possibilities. I spent 20 years writing
about jewelry for the
Robb Report
, where
I had the opportunity to visit countless
creative designers and jewelry houses.
My latest obsession is pearls after visiting
Jewelmer’s pearl farms off the Palawan
islands and seeing firsthand how connected
the future of pearls is to our environment.
I’malso amazed by the way Claire Choisne,
Boucheron’s creative director, continues to
develop and pioneer new concepts in high
jewelry, creating a whole new language
around wearable luxury. I’m especially
excited about the new initiatives by the
mining and jewelry companies around
sustainability and ethical practices. We
still have a long way to go, but there is so
much good work being done and plans to
make the industrymore transparent.
WHAT’S YOUR STORY?
“THE AD DESCRIBED THE
JOB AS CHALLENGING AND
MENTIONED OPPORTUNITIES
FOR INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL.
I WAS SOLD”
92
SEPTEMBER 2020
DIAMONDS.NET
