about me


In 10 years, I’ve been exposed to nearly every facet of magazine production. As an editorial assistant, assistant editor, associate editor and editor-in-chief of various LGBT publications, I’ve worked tirelessly to earn my stripes.

was first exposed to journalism as a high school freshman at Avon High School. My Introduction to Journalism teacher, Pam Essex, saw something in me that I wasn’t able to see at the time. At her urging, I applied for a staff writer position at The Echo, Avon High School’s newspaper. I wasn’t all that confident I’d be selected, but I was, and within a year, I became one of the youngest students to be promoted to a leadership position.

Under my two years of leadership, the newspaper won awards nationally at high school journalism conferences. I won Harvey Awards (the highest awards given to Indiana high school journalists) in news writing, feature writing and front-page design.

After high school, I went to Indiana University-Bloomington. Though I worked as a copy editor at IU’s newspaper, the Indiana Daily Student, I took a break from journalism, choosing instead to study telecommunications and Spanish.

Since college, I have interned at Daily Variety, where I secured my first national by-lines. I also interned at Out, a national gay men’s magazine, a few months before being hired as assistant editor at Out‘s sister publication, Out Traveler.

After a media merger brought its requisite pink slips, I took an editorial assistant position at IN Los Angeles, a regional LGBT magazine that later became Frontiers in LA. Within a year at IN Los Angeles, I was promoted to editor-in-chief, a position I held for two years. My writing has been published in the Los Angeles Times, Brand X and Instinct.

I’m currently working toward a master’s degree in journalism at the University of Southern California. I’d like to once again serve as editor-in-chief of a magazine or online publication covering arts and entertainment. My dream job would be working at Los Angeles Times‘ or New York Times‘ in the entertainment section, reporting for TMZ  or heading up Entertainment Weekly.

John Hobbs
john.hobbs[at]usc[dot]com