New Rochelle Native Taking Over Media One Step at a Time

Ten years ago, Amanda Sidman was a sophomore at New Rochelle High School, uncertain what she wanted to do with her life. She was sitting in a classroom, when her teacher, Mrs. Sackleman, handed back a book report she had written on Mitch Albom’s Tuesdays With Morrie.

The words took her breath away.

“Maybe you have a career in this?”  Sackleman wrote atop her paper.

Sidman, now 26 and a producer for Today on NBC, had always loved writing, but came to the realization of her strengths in that creative writing class. “Writing a review or writing a feature story or writing a report just comes very natural to me,” says Sidman. Ever since then, the plan was to become a journalist.

Who would have guessed?

Well, in fact, everyone.

From as far back as she can remember writing and reporting had always been a major part of Sidman’s life. This New Rochelle native grew up performing and acting for much of her childhood. Debbie Sidman, who spoke enthusiastically about her daughter, recalled all of the times as a young child when she performed. With her Shirley Temple curly Q’s young Amanda knew how to put on a show. As part of a third grade assignment she decided to report on Amelia Earhart’s plane crash. So she dressed up as a news anchor, set up a desk in her basement and made her mom record her. “Reporting live from the news desk,” Amanda says with a laugh.

As if it were yesterday, her mother reminisces over all the times her daughter would perform both privately and publicly. On a raised platform right in front of their fireplace, Amanda would pretend she was Shelley Duvall as she narrated the classic Faerie Tale Theatre. In the middle of a department store, she would put on a show, grabbing everyone’s attention. Bubbly and outgoing, Sidman loved being on stage. And attending plays and ballets exposed her to so much as a child, possibly contributing to her desire to be in this specific field.

Her family always said she was going to be the next Diane Sawyer or Katie Couric, two people she looks up to most in the industry along with Maureen Dowd of the New York Times and Erin Burnett on CNN. A possible replacement? Perhaps. She’s either going to “run a TV network or be the star of one,” says Rachel Adler, a friend and Associate Director at Hiltzik Strategies. She says Sidman is “brilliant, ambitious, and authentic.”

Sidman’s personality shines through during any occasion. Her dynamic capabilities have been tested on all levels. She graduated from Bucknell University in 2008 as an English major and International Politics minor. Excited to return to New York, Sidman began her job search. Her extracurricular activities and internships at 1010 WINS Radio Station and ABC Channel 7 should have been a shoo-in for a job. But, it was hard getting a foot in the door. “I thought I was going to be the hottest thing on the New York media scene,” Sidman admits. A resentful and frustrated Sidman found it hard to believe that others who were less deserving were getting jobs left and right. Yet she stayed positive and told herself that it would all work out in the end. “In my life there are definitely things that I’m still uncertain about and I’m not completely confident will work, but this has been something for me that I have always known I’m going to make happen … if you want something that bad, there’s always a way to make it work,” she says.

Shortly thereafter Sidman realized it’s not about what you know, but who you know in one of the most completive fields in New York. At first she took on freelance jobs to get a foot in the door. Four months after graduation she received a tip from Michelle Walker, an executive in ad sales and marketing at CBS College Sports, and landed a writing position. Granted Sidman had no interest in sports whatsoever, but she stuck it out and learned a lot about web editing. The job, however, proved to be uninspiring.

The following year she received a tip from Nick Carcaterra, a friend in the industry, about an editorial assistant position at the New York Daily News working on the gossip column, Gatecrasher. She landed the job. “I was in a much happier place,” she said. Within a short amount of time she moved to the senior position for Gatecrasher. Sidman, only 22 at the time, had to make sacrifices for this new position—long, late hours and minimal sleep. Meeting celebrities like Sarah Jessica Parker, Drew Barrymore, Larry King proved memorable, but she didn’t particularly care for the long nights and mornings she had to spend waiting at a club for Lindsey Lohan to show up. “It was a nightmare,” says Sidman.

She was finally doing the one thing that she loves—writing. Still she was unsatisfied. Her dream was to work in the features department of the newspaper, writing longer pieces. She wanted to do human interest stories. As soon as she was ready to leave, a position in the features department opened up and for the next two years that’s where she would stay.

Sidman’s first initiative; changing the food section. Before she took over, this disastrous column consisted of recipes taken from cookbooks and profiles of the authors. It was a section, Sidman says, that just seemed thrown together and overlooked. Sidman pushed for a change. Bob Heisler, the editor at the time, gave her the okay to do the “Your Eats Section.” She wrote about interesting food places that not a lot of people went to and went behind the scenes to talk to the chefs. She transformed the column into something better, something great.

At the same time Sidman took on another project. She worked on “The Best of New York” column, which gave her the chance to write longer articles.

By June 2012, it was time for a career change. She was getting bored at the newspaper and realized she hit a wall. Plus, Sidman believes that newspapers are dying. Craving for something else, something new, she switched career goals. Sidman wanted to go into TV. She already loved being in front of the camera, so why not? A friend in the industry, Jessie Derris, put her in contact with a senior producer at the Today Show. “We really hit it off and it was a really good vibe,” she said. She realized that she lacked experience in this field, but it didn’t matter because her energy and passion were two things that shined through. The main quality he was looking for …you have to be a people person.

A very confident Sidman got a call back and received a job as a booking producer just two weeks later. She took on the responsibilities of dealing with interviews and breaking news stories that were to be featured on the show. The new changes of schedule and work hours were no hassle at all. There are so many positive changes that Sidman experienced. “Everyone who works at the Today Show wants it to be the best and they feel so passionately about their work, the show and each other,” she said.

“I have to pinch myself every morning,” she says. “I know that I’m young, but the way I see it, I still feel like I have so much more to accomplish by the time I’m 30.”

Sidman giggles. “There will definitely be a time in the future when I need to slow down,” she says in a serious tone. “But that’s not now.”