Advice needed for becoming a young journalist!

karaokeman

Hi all, sorry if this is in the wrong forum. If it is the mods are welcome to move it to a "Journalism" forum if there is one.

I'm 20 next week, going into college and never had a job but I love essay writing and anything along those lines.

This is why I want to become a journalist and write articles for papers. I have a few ideas about life experiences and so fort, as well as other stories that may be of interest.

I was wondering is it sufficient to email the paper (Eg Irish Times, Independent, Sunday Mirror etc.) with whole articles or should I email first and see if they are interested?

I talked with my aunt about this and she told me to go for it since she knows people who tried for years to become press writers and they were eventually successful, none of which had degrees.

CD.

While I don't know about the larger newspapers, your college might have one and it would be a good idea to contact them and try to join it, it will look good to have some experience on a CV as well if you're going to apply for a job at a later stage to show that you know how to work with deadlines/groups/potentially collaborate and not just freelance.

pickarooney

I would suggest contacting them first to ask what kind of submissions they're looking for at the moment, what kind of wordcount and what rates they pay.

tommy21

Forget contacting the newspapers for their rates - they won't tell you straight out. Join the NUJ who can advise you of the going rate (and provides loads of other benefits, cost as a freelancer per year is about 250). Don't waste your time writing out entire articles if they are not yet commissioned - pitch the idea at various newspapers and when they bite, be ready to write. For you at the moment though, without any experience, the best thing you can do is become a focal part of your college's newspaper - make sure you get into some sort of editorial role if possible. Contribute all throughout college, and once you have a bit of experience under your belt, test the waters with some of the more accessible local newspapers (e.g. regional ones). If you can find the time (and are interested), joining the campus radio station crew would also be ideal. Keep a blog and maintain a website to build your portfolio of articles. There is a media contacts database that is updated once a year, it costs around €80. Money well spent though, pm me if you want the name of it.

edit: actually as a college student NUJ might be cheaper.

Cavehill Red

Four national papers, and quite a few regionals, have all closed within the last year.

That means there is an awful lot of highly experienced unemployed journalists out there already. Some of these have moved to freelancing, making life extremely difficult for any newly qualified student.

There may well be slave-labour 'internships' on those papers which have cut staff back so severely that they are forced to bring in some unpaid kids to make up the numbers.

But I'd have thought that now was possibly the worst time ever for someone to be coming out of college seeking to get into newspapers in Ireland.

I really think it's time that message was broadcast to the hordes of students studying journalism each year. This is an industry which has halved in personnel size in less than a decade. Student or graduate journalists are going to have to do something enormously special (or else, frankly, be related to someone very important) in order to even be noticed, never mind hired or commissioned.

Needless to say, these days no one without a degree is going to be looked at without plenty of prior experience, unless they are a sports star or celeb 'penning' a ghostwritten column.

EileenG

Joining the NUJ is a good idea, but you have to be earning a substantial living as a journalist before you can get in. Keep all your invoices and remittance advice slips for proof of earnings.

If you have a good idea, it's worth writing it, then contacting the relevant editor and seeing if they are interested. Discuss what your idea is, and see what they want. Then deliver it. And if that means chopping three quarters of your beautiful prose, then chop. Deliver it on time, as specified, and as professionally as possible.

Once you've done a few stories for a particular editor, you can discuss the idea before you write it out, but I'd start with the thing written. Occasionally, you get a great idea that doesn't work out the way you hoped.

As well as newspapers, also consider radio work.

FewFew

News and media forum is probably a better bet for advice on this sort of thing.

ThePinkCage

It's all about angle, angle, angle

It may feel like it's all been said before, but you may have a different slant on a popular topic. Or you may have an area of expertise (such as a hobby) that not many people have.

Another good bet is magazines. They're a bit more open than newspapers and give you a chance to specialise. Again, if you've a hobby or interest, you'll find a magazine that matches it and you can pitch to them. You can study the magazine and see how your ideas fit with it and which section it's appropriate for.

You send the idea first, rather than the article. Include the hook, what makes the article different, what form your article will take, who you'll talk to and why the magazine will be interested in it.

In the meantime, to practise your writing, why not start a blog?