Q&A: Julia Terruso ’11, National Political Reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer

As a national political reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer, Julia Terruso ’11 spent most of the past year covering the presidential election campaign—a rewarding but demanding endeavor given Pennsylvania’s status as a battleground state.  

“This was the busiest, craziest election cycle—and just year— I’ve ever had as reporter. It was a privilege to have a front seat to history, and to have my state be so central to everything,” said Terruso, a graduate of the journalism program. “But it was so exhausting.” 

One of about seven reporters on the politics team in 2024, Terruso said she and her colleagues traveled to close to 70 cities or towns around Pennsylvania in the last six months alone before the November election.  

“National attention is always good, because it pushes especially regional papers like the Inquirer to step their game up even more … we don’t want to be outperformed on our home turf,” she said. “And I’m really proud of the work we did.”  

Part of the Inquirer team that also won the Toner Prize for Excellence in Local Political Reporting, Terruso returns to Newhouse on Tuesday to join other 2024 Toner Prize winners at the annual Toner Lecture at Hergenhan Auditorium. Here, she answers questions about the award-winning work and her career path after Newhouse.

Tell us more about the series that won a Toner Prize. 

Before the presidential election consumed my life, there was a very important election in Philadelphia, which was to elect the 100th mayor of the city. Huge credit to our City Hall bureau, which was part of that election coverage. We really wanted to cover the election from all angles. One angle was that in 100 mayors, Philadelphia had never elected a woman. 

So, there were a number of women who ran and really exploring why that was, who these women are and the issues that were most important to voters. We actually did a poll with a nonprofit that was just asking Philadelphians what issues mattered the most to them. And I think in election coverage, you often see the horse race, and we did a lot of that too, but the issue coverage, I think, was really key, because we were able to identify [that] crime was a big issue for a lot of voters, quality of life, and then you saw kind of how the candidates campaigned in Philadelphia.  

Is there a particular class or professor that influenced you at Newhouse? 

Despite my current job, when I was in college, I had no interest in politics. I found it kind of dull. … But in (a political reporting class with Charlotte Grimes, professor emerita of journalism), she really stressed how everything coincides with politics. How you can write a sports story that deals with politics, you can write a food story that deals with politics— everything is entwined in it, and I think that got me more interested in political reporting and thinking about political reporting a little differently.  

I loved my whole experience, and, you know, really credit it with my career. 

Do you have any advice that you can share with students who want to cover politics? 

Experience is key, wherever you can get it …  I work for a very traditional publication that has internships, but there are a lot of other places where, you can go and intern, whether it’s on Capitol Hill in D.C. or state capital reporting. And if there are specific topics that you’re interested in, becoming a bit of an expert (on those topics) is always a good and  smart thing to do. 

Any last tips you’d like to share with Newhouse students? 

Enjoy and soak up as much as you can out of the experience that you have on campus. … For me, it was only four years, but I still am such good friends with so many people from Syracuse. Those memories are just so vivid and in my mind, so enjoy and work hard.