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My colleague Amy Chozick wrote a blockbuster piece about how the Kardashians have become some of the nation’s savviest C.E.O.s. It was particularly notable because she talked to, well, a lot of Kardashians and Jenners. Here Amy tells us about how the story came together:

I have to admit — I had never seen an episode of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” when Choire Sicha, The Times’s styles editor, asked if I wanted to dive into the topic ahead of the 16th season of the show.

As a business reporter, I’ve covered media companies as they struggle to adapt to the digital era and retailers as they angle to survive in the Amazon era. It struck me that the Kardashians had cracked the code of monetizing influence in a way that traditional businesses could only hope to do. All this made me fascinated with looking at the women not as the face of a million pouty mirror selfies, but as entrepreneurs redefining what advertising looks like.

I said yes to Choire’s assignment, like, obviously.

[Read the full story about keeping up with the Kardashian cash flow.]

I had anticipated that the Kardashians would have one of those difficult Hollywood publicists who rejects any interview requests that are not from Ryan Seacrest or the “Ellen” show. The five daughters and Kris Jenner had never done an interview like this before. Instead, I found their press operation was more like covering a business.