Side Car Interviews

Track and follow our Side Car series devoted to Seattle's biggest influencers as they answer questions related to brands, campaigns and themselves. To learn more about these amazing thought leaders, we invite you to check back every Thursday.

Nicole Brodeur ~ Metro Columnist,
The Seattle Times

1. What do you love about your company's/organization's brand?

   What appeals to me, right off the bat, is that fact that The Seattle Times has been a part of the city and the region for over 100 years, and that it has been primarily family owned during that time. It knows the community because it is a part of the community, and there is a sense that we are all in this together, through good and bad. I like that I work for a person, a family, and not a faceless institution.
   
   

2. What aspirations do you have for the future of your brand?

   Well, I think the future is already here. We have an extremely strong online presence, with over three million unique visitors to www.seattletimes.com every month. And our audience continued to grow with the increased use of video, slideshows, Twitter, mobile applications. We’re growing new audiences all the time, and we’re poised to use whatever comes down the pike.
   
   

3. Do you see campaigns that inspire or disappoint you?

   I always liked the Washington lottery commercials, where the men were taking flightless birds into the air ... that I loved. I am also a big fan of campaigns that include the faces of people who work somewhere. The UW, the Pike Place Market ... I want to see people representing their place of work, or where they live. It helps pull us all together, and makes us wonder: Do we feel the same way about where we work, where we live?
   
   

4. If you weren't doing what you do now for a living, what is it you would like to be doing?

   I’d like to be writing the copy for the gorgeous, glossy catalogues handed out to bidders at the auctions of European classic cars. I would love to research the cars entered -- their provenance, their owners, their restorations, all of it -- and then write dreamy, yet educational essays about them. I would like to be the MFK Fisher of the molded-metal set.
   
   

5. Where is your favorite local spot to take out-of-town guests?

   The Pike Place Market is always wonderful, what with the food, the people, the water just over your shoulder the whole time – and the quick access to incredible food and wine. No one can wrinkle their nose and say they can’t find anything they like there. I’m also a big fan of the Elliott Bay Book Company; the creaky floors, the smell … all of it intensified by the fact that it is not long for that space. (Which is criminal, by the way.)
   
   

6. If you were to write a book, what would it be about?
   

   My mother. The time she lived in, and the time she deserved to be in. I always thought she was born too soon. She did all that was expected of her: worked, went to college, taught school, married, had children and a home. She even played bridge. But part of me thinks that had she been born 10 years later, she could have been Madeleine Albright. Thirty years later, and she could have been one of my best friends. Which she was, after all …
   
   

   
   

Thank you for taking the time to read our interview with Nicole Brodeur – Metro Columnist, The Seattle Times.

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