Monday, December 21st, 2009

Journalism job ads: not for actual jobs any more #3

Here’s a fine example of a cool-sounding TV presenter “job” that many young journalists would scramble for. The catch? It’s that attractive “Voluntary” salary. Which is code for “no money” – though they do offer food and travel expenses. As well as devoting one day a fortnight to filming and presenting the show, any young […]

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

Journalism job ads: not for actual jobs any more #2

After last week’s unmissable, $30 a month opportunity to write for a potential audience of 24 million, how about this ad for a “Home based internet researcher”? For some reason, though the deadline hadn’t passed when I first grabbed the ad, the ad was dropped from Journalism.co.uk before the stated closing date. Maybe 63336 Limited has […]

Friday, November 27th, 2009

Journalism job ads: not for actual jobs any more #1

That is, not for actual jobs that have a salary attached. Not even minimum wage. Try this one for size:  “Freelance writers for online magazine” This is an ad for “The world’s most comprehensive independent online magazine: written and edited by professionals, trusted by over 24 million readers monthly!” This is what it wants from you: […]

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009

The changing face of journalism jobs

It’s always interesting to observe the changing requirements of media employers. But sometimes you have to wonder what’s going on at these companies. Eager young journalism graduates wanting to make their mark in the world of showbiz reporting might well be tempted to apply for this recent ad from entertainment news agency Bang Media International […]

Sunday, October 4th, 2009

More on internships

My post on internship experience of UCA journalism graduate Adam Leveridge attracted some interesting comments, including one from another UCA Farnham graduate, Matt Burton, whose work I also liked at the UCA graduate show. I’d like to flag it up here because Matt’s experience is so directly relevant to the whole debate about whether there’s a […]

Thursday, October 1st, 2009

So, how was our media recession?

Bit mixed really, it seems, if our poll results are to be believed. In the end the votes were split pretty evenly among my slightly unscientific poll questions. Here they are: How’s your media recession? Fine, thanks. I have plenty of work (21%) It was a bit rough 9 months ago, but things have picked […]

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

The ups and downs of internships

I posted a while ago about the graduate journalism show at UCA in Farnham. I was impressed by several of the final year projects, and mentioned the F1-focused piece by Adam Leveridge. As it happens, a little while after the show Adam landed a nice internship with a web content company called Adfero. It’s the […]

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

Media meltdown: news from the USA

I have been asking readers about how their media recession has been going. From the Big Apple, NYBlues writes in (anonymously, so I can’t link, but he or she does exist) to sketch the ghastly reality of media life across the Atlantic. Not sure about UK market, but over here all that’s left are specializations which are […]

Friday, August 14th, 2009

Journalists: how not to win contacts

There’s an impassioned rant on the Soilman blog about the general rudeness and disorganisation of journalists who send cold emails to try to get input for their copy, and then totally ignore any positive response they are given by the potential contact.  It’s worth reading – both by newbie or student journalists and by those who […]

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009

11 key ways for journalism students to improve their employability

It’s a tough world out there in the media – what with grinding recession, a skillset that needs updating by the hour and a revenue model that’s been turned upside down by the web. It doesn’t help that more students than ever before are being turned out by the UK’s journalism courses. That makes it […]