The Daily Record has named Brew editor Fern Shen to its list of 50 influential Marylanders for making the Baltimore Brew a leader in local media, with its deeply reported content and fresh insights into politics, business, labor, neighborhoods, city planning, culture and even urban foraging.

“Influential? I’m still getting used to this,” the honoree said, when asked how it felt to be in the company of Johns Hopkins University president Ronald J. Daniels, M&T Bank honcho Atwood Collins III, philanthropist Mary Catherine Bunting and other power players.

“Who knew those fried-chicken chow-downs at the soul food restaurant on 25th St. or those Greek omelets at the Sip & Bite were power lunches!”

Besides her obvious enjoyment of local victuals, Shen has an abiding affection for her adopted city and the instinct of a veteran journalist to tease out stories from an array of writers trying to plumb the city’s quirks and characters.

“If we’re influential it’s because of all the people who write for this website and comment on it – world-class journalists, mass transit devotees, community activists, steelworkers, performance artists, bicycle advocates and poets,” she said.

Founded by Shen in 2009 with a vow to be “like nothing this town has ever seen,” The Brew features original posts prepared by professional journalists spearheaded by Shen, together with content from a diverse band of freelance contributors. Additionally, the site aggregates news from other media in “The Daily Drip.”

“I hope we’re influencing things in a good way around Baltimore and Maryland – pushing the public agenda on some issues, giving voice to groups and individuals who don’t have publicists, asking edgy questions to authority figures and giving the city – and a local steel company – a jolt with our old gumshoe reporting.”

Something Different

Shen sees the site’s role as providing something different. “We honor the good work done by the newspapers and other media, but we’re seeking a deeper coverage of the news, free from the hype and the fluff. Plus we want to interact with our readers.”

For example, Shen covered the Sheila Dixon corruption trial not just with on-the-spot reporting but a poetry contest with the best sonnet, limerick or haiku receiving (what else) a gift card.

She also remembers wading through last year’s Snowpocalypse to find out the fate of a heart attack victim rescued by paramedics who strapped him to a child’s sled and dragged him over his unplowed Hampden street.

“I held up the photo we ran in The Brew later to the man, and he said, ‘That’s me. I made it.’”

Veteran of Old Media

Shen grew up in New Jersey, graduated from Harvard University and fell headlong into journalism, working at The Hartford Courant and other ink-stained dailies before coming to Baltimore in 1986 to write for the late, lamented Evening Sun.

Eventually, Shen matriculated to The Washington Post but continued to live in Baltimore while covering Maryland government and a few sessions of the state legislature. She also helped create the Post’s unique KidsPost section.

“That was a strange job,” she recalled. “One day you’re writing for kids about fossilized dinosaur poop and the next day you’re explaining to them the difference between Sunnis and Shiites.”

Strange, but good prep for the future. “I inherited the basic idea of producing a daily web journal from a friend, who couldn’t take it on. I had just taken a buyout from The Post and was ready for new challenges.”

One was learning how to play the blues harmonica. The other was whipping up a next-gen publication on a shoestring budget.

10 Award Categories

For the past six year, The Daily Record has compiled a list of influential non-elected Marylanders selected by a committee of editors. This year’s categories were civic leadership, communications, education, finance, health care, law, philanthropy, real estate, technology and “freestyle” (for those who don’t fit into the other categories).

In communications, Shen is joined by two other journalists – Mary Corey, recently appointed “director of content” of The Sun, and Kevin Blackistone, ESPN sports pundit and University of Maryland professor.

On April 27 the 50 honorees will be honored at a special awards ceremony at the Grand Lodge in Cockeysville. “Perhaps if I press a few cocktails on some of my fellow ‘influentials,’ I can convince them to contribute,” said Shen, always thinking ahead.