Want to know how the convergence of television, the Internet and digital technologies ultimately will play out? So do the powerful people behind media and entertainment conglomerates.

And they all read Diane Mermigas. As a contributing editor and columnist for The Hollywood Reporter (VNU Business Media), and editor of her own Mermigas on Media subscription newsletter, Diane writes about media’s transformation from a big-picture business and economic perspective. She speaks at industry conventions and is a frequent guest on national TV business-news shows.

“I’ve become a student of the media over the years,” she said. “I’ve been able to get the big interviews, but we are at a point now where that isn’t enough. … I’m functioning more now not only as the objective journalist, but as the analytical writer who poses questions and then sorts through what could be some of the innovative answers.”

All of this from a mother of four who lives in Chicago’s western suburbs–not in New York or Los Angeles, where she frequently travels.

Diane always has been one to make her own breaks. As the Northern Star’s arts editor in spring 1972, she and a Star photographer were denied their official request to interview Elton John, who was performing at Chick Evans Field House. So, they sneaked backstage, hid in lockers and “just kind of stepped out at the right time,” she said. “We introduced ourselves and asked for a short interview, and he very graciously agreed.

“That experience empowered me as a journalist, and made me realize I could interview anybody as long as I did my homework and went about it in the right way.”

After graduating from NIU and earning a Masters degree in English from DePaul University, Diane worked as a news reporter for The Daily Herald, (Paddock Publications). She eventually was asked to cover media: write a column, attend press tours and interview stars.

“It was so boring. The entertainers were more impressed with themselves than I was,” she said.

After filing the required stories, she would hang around the studios to interview executives with the real power, and write about media’s business side. A self-created beat was born.

She honed her niche as a nationally syndicated columnist and editor-at-large for Crain Communications for more than a decade. She was an early telecommuter, working as both full-time journalist and mom because of the unique role she’d fashioned for herself.