“Phone calls and emails don’t replace sitting in front of somebody and talking to them.”

From an Inside the Times interview with New York Times reporter Ken Belson who covers the National Football League:

How has your job as a reporter changed in a closed-down society?

Over the years I’ve been really fortunate to travel to pretty much every N.F.L. city, getting to know owners and general managers and coaches and vice presidents. The New York Times has allowed me to invest a lot of time in getting to know people up close. And there’s nothing that replaces a one-to-one interaction. You could send a hundred emails and make a hundred phone calls, but that won’t replace sitting in front of somebody and talking to them. That’s paying off now because people will pick up the phones, because they know me already and they have met me. They have shared a meal or sat in a room together for an hour, and that really pays off in times like this.