Well put. I think many veteran journalists are so negative about the industry because they get wrapped up in their own organizations and situations. You can’t see the woods and god knows I spend a lot of time bitching to colleagues and ex-colleagues. But I also try to be encouraging whenever I talk to young journalists. It’s a great job, exciting and important. You’ve just got to figure out how to make it work. In the future I’ll also point them to this column.
"Can Nigel Cuntface beat Count Binface in Clacton cosplay?"
I think I've cracked journalism with my very first stab. What's next?
Let's face it, no one gives a shit about politics right now. England vs Norway is the only thing that matters. I'm not confident. But then again, I was absolutely convinced, staying up to watch England get thumped by Mexico, was a fool's errand. So what do I know?
There is one other thing we're all thinking about: the 3rd fucking heatwave in as many months. And we've now got a hosepipe ban. Not that the hosepipe was doing any good. I was watering my veg patch every day, and it still looks like a fucking desert. So fuck the fossil fuel industry for fucking up the planet. And fuck the water companies... because they deserve it!
Ian, thank you for taking the time to write this. This hit hard, especially while trying to pursue art/culture writing alongside my main job, which involves covering hunger, death, and destruction.
'Just soul-destroying, firing off these beautiful ideas into the void, hearing nothing back, wondering if you definitely exist, feeling like a fraud'
Ian, that is spot on. I try to be a journalist-poet - - a different beast. But, I hope, shooting for similar goals. Pricking the bubbles of hubris and trying to find common ground in horribly divided society. Keep on keeping on, my friend.
Picking up on your comment about Mexico fans and their reaction to losing - never been to Mexico, but I would like to nominate the fans of Rayo Vallecano as being similarly gracious after losing a cup final. And send them best wishes for the new season.
Brilliant - and bravo on the mentoring. "Own a patch" was a massive winner for me over 35 years in a squalid area of finance (derivatives/risk management and associated tech) - I even did a professional qualification in it because I was interested and it meant that the conversations with sources were exponentially better - especially when after a while they realised you weren't a total dickhead on the subject. The other advantage to “Own a patch” is it makes it easy to gradually shift into adjacent patches and pick up work there too. (Most editors are like army PT instructors, they assume if you write as a specialist on A then you must also do so on B to Z.)
In fact, it allowed me to break the “Get a job” rule and go straight into freelancing. I just rang around all the niche publications here and in the US and pitched them. They’ll usually give you one chance on something low risk and will often give you a really long deadline that is still miles before the real deadline, as they assume you’ll let them down anyway.
Which brings me onto the one key point for me I didn’t see in Ian’s excellent piece (and apologies if I missed it): BE FUCKING RELIABLE! For every journo who is, there seem (or seemed) to be a thousand total flakes forever asking for deadline extensions and/or delivering crap. I got an early insight on this from one of the first pieces I did where the editor called me back when I filed sounding completely perplexed, because I’d delivered by the deadline. Much later he admitted he operated a system of five deadlines – all set about a fortnight apart and with the last one set at least a month before he really needed it.
Totally agree re “Write headlines” – I was pretty shit at writing them until I realised shit puns could work well, especially if you mangled classical quotes to make them fit. I realised how much I needed to up my game when a US editor changed my flaccid “X and Y Fintechs Call off Merger” headline to: “X and Y: Coitus Interruptus”.
“Everything is a headline. I am shit at headlines. I hate writing them. So believe me when I tell you this, because I wish it were otherwise.”
I feel seen.
As for your article, some good advice there. I tend to be rather more cynical about all this, mostly because I’ve seen “my patch” fucking atomised over the past decade. Almost every tech/gaming/design print mag has gone. Even Wired has now given up on the UK in terms of print. And the number of outlets online continues to shrink. Natch, I should have got _my_ patch (in a more literal sense) going a lot sooner. Lesson learnt and all that.
One additional piece of advice I’d drop in, though, is to write in an accessible manner. Even if you’re covering the most arcane area of political policy or the nerdiest game that ever nerded, get the reader up to speed rather than making assumptions they already know everything. There are few things I find more frustrating than a writer who’s basically “Fuck you – spend an hour on Wikipedia before reading my glorious prose” rather than them spending a short paragraph setting things out.
Excellent , especially this: “If you’re not curious about the world, you can just go ahead and fuck off now. This career is not for you.”
I have found that some employers will let you file for another publication if you politely convince them that (i) it’s not a direct rival (ii) you won’t do it too often (iii) you need the money and frankly they are not paying you enough. Try a sympathetic boss who themselves had to freelance and knows what it’s like.
I would also add
- Meet deadline and file to length: many journalists bizarrely still seem unable to do this, or even become affronted at the suggestion
- Never file two minutes before you leave the office for the day. Give the sub or editor enough time to look at the piece and ask questions
- Some of the best writers are on the subs desk. Talk to them, ask how your piece can be better, listen to their advice.
- Know your readers and write for them, not just your contacts
- Know the legal basics of defamation and reporting criminal cases. Social media etc makes it feel like anything goes but it can be all too easy to get into trouble. Mcnae’s Essential Law is still the default.
Not that anyone asked me, but I'd encourage new journalists to pitch to prestigious publications early in their careers. I waited quite a long time to start pitching to these places, figuring they wouldn't care, and when I finally got round to it discovered they were much more receptive than I'd expected.
As a reader, with absolutely no journalistic professional intent, I still have an interest in finding good journalism amongst the dross. And suspect I've become quite good at spotting it. To those sources I will return again and again. A different kind of reliability - a voice that is well informed and can be trusted, and that is willing to admit when it is wrong. And to explain. And to use real words, and be their own spell checker. Showing a wry sense of humour that can get across the import of some idea without leaving me wringing my hands in despair. Keep at it all of you young folks, nose to the grindstone, but keep your own voice.
I am no spring chicken but I cut my journalism chops in celebrity and entertainment reporting, and while it didn’t always enthral me, it was definitely fun and I learned exactly the things you’ve spoken about here.
My mistake was thinking I’d established myself enough after 7 years to go freelance right around the time AI was starting to boom. Still kicking myself four years later for leaving that job
‘Ian Dunt is not a cunt, and this will prove it’ Bloody hooray.
Well put. I think many veteran journalists are so negative about the industry because they get wrapped up in their own organizations and situations. You can’t see the woods and god knows I spend a lot of time bitching to colleagues and ex-colleagues. But I also try to be encouraging whenever I talk to young journalists. It’s a great job, exciting and important. You’ve just got to figure out how to make it work. In the future I’ll also point them to this column.
My first ever headline:
"Can Nigel Cuntface beat Count Binface in Clacton cosplay?"
I think I've cracked journalism with my very first stab. What's next?
Let's face it, no one gives a shit about politics right now. England vs Norway is the only thing that matters. I'm not confident. But then again, I was absolutely convinced, staying up to watch England get thumped by Mexico, was a fool's errand. So what do I know?
Correction:
There is one other thing we're all thinking about: the 3rd fucking heatwave in as many months. And we've now got a hosepipe ban. Not that the hosepipe was doing any good. I was watering my veg patch every day, and it still looks like a fucking desert. So fuck the fossil fuel industry for fucking up the planet. And fuck the water companies... because they deserve it!
#VoteGreen <- yeah, had to get that in! :-)
Haven't read this because I don't want to get ahead in journalism. Am sure it's excellent.
But Ian, please stop tweeting about football. It's excruciating. It's like hearing Jordan Pickford try to explain the d'Hondt method.
Obviously now I've read the very nice postscript on the Mexico game and feel like a fool.
Ian, thank you for taking the time to write this. This hit hard, especially while trying to pursue art/culture writing alongside my main job, which involves covering hunger, death, and destruction.
'Just soul-destroying, firing off these beautiful ideas into the void, hearing nothing back, wondering if you definitely exist, feeling like a fraud'
Amazing and motivating read Ian! Now the goal is: Get a job. Work on my patch. And master headlines 💪🏽.
Ian, that is spot on. I try to be a journalist-poet - - a different beast. But, I hope, shooting for similar goals. Pricking the bubbles of hubris and trying to find common ground in horribly divided society. Keep on keeping on, my friend.
I, for one, cannot wait to have the lovely people of Curaçao supporting England.🇨🇼
Picking up on your comment about Mexico fans and their reaction to losing - never been to Mexico, but I would like to nominate the fans of Rayo Vallecano as being similarly gracious after losing a cup final. And send them best wishes for the new season.
Brilliant - and bravo on the mentoring. "Own a patch" was a massive winner for me over 35 years in a squalid area of finance (derivatives/risk management and associated tech) - I even did a professional qualification in it because I was interested and it meant that the conversations with sources were exponentially better - especially when after a while they realised you weren't a total dickhead on the subject. The other advantage to “Own a patch” is it makes it easy to gradually shift into adjacent patches and pick up work there too. (Most editors are like army PT instructors, they assume if you write as a specialist on A then you must also do so on B to Z.)
In fact, it allowed me to break the “Get a job” rule and go straight into freelancing. I just rang around all the niche publications here and in the US and pitched them. They’ll usually give you one chance on something low risk and will often give you a really long deadline that is still miles before the real deadline, as they assume you’ll let them down anyway.
Which brings me onto the one key point for me I didn’t see in Ian’s excellent piece (and apologies if I missed it): BE FUCKING RELIABLE! For every journo who is, there seem (or seemed) to be a thousand total flakes forever asking for deadline extensions and/or delivering crap. I got an early insight on this from one of the first pieces I did where the editor called me back when I filed sounding completely perplexed, because I’d delivered by the deadline. Much later he admitted he operated a system of five deadlines – all set about a fortnight apart and with the last one set at least a month before he really needed it.
Totally agree re “Write headlines” – I was pretty shit at writing them until I realised shit puns could work well, especially if you mangled classical quotes to make them fit. I realised how much I needed to up my game when a US editor changed my flaccid “X and Y Fintechs Call off Merger” headline to: “X and Y: Coitus Interruptus”.
Very good point on reliability, so important and so rarely mentioned
“Everything is a headline. I am shit at headlines. I hate writing them. So believe me when I tell you this, because I wish it were otherwise.”
I feel seen.
As for your article, some good advice there. I tend to be rather more cynical about all this, mostly because I’ve seen “my patch” fucking atomised over the past decade. Almost every tech/gaming/design print mag has gone. Even Wired has now given up on the UK in terms of print. And the number of outlets online continues to shrink. Natch, I should have got _my_ patch (in a more literal sense) going a lot sooner. Lesson learnt and all that.
One additional piece of advice I’d drop in, though, is to write in an accessible manner. Even if you’re covering the most arcane area of political policy or the nerdiest game that ever nerded, get the reader up to speed rather than making assumptions they already know everything. There are few things I find more frustrating than a writer who’s basically “Fuck you – spend an hour on Wikipedia before reading my glorious prose” rather than them spending a short paragraph setting things out.
Excellent , especially this: “If you’re not curious about the world, you can just go ahead and fuck off now. This career is not for you.”
I have found that some employers will let you file for another publication if you politely convince them that (i) it’s not a direct rival (ii) you won’t do it too often (iii) you need the money and frankly they are not paying you enough. Try a sympathetic boss who themselves had to freelance and knows what it’s like.
I would also add
- Meet deadline and file to length: many journalists bizarrely still seem unable to do this, or even become affronted at the suggestion
- Never file two minutes before you leave the office for the day. Give the sub or editor enough time to look at the piece and ask questions
- Some of the best writers are on the subs desk. Talk to them, ask how your piece can be better, listen to their advice.
- Know your readers and write for them, not just your contacts
- Know the legal basics of defamation and reporting criminal cases. Social media etc makes it feel like anything goes but it can be all too easy to get into trouble. Mcnae’s Essential Law is still the default.
Not that anyone asked me, but I'd encourage new journalists to pitch to prestigious publications early in their careers. I waited quite a long time to start pitching to these places, figuring they wouldn't care, and when I finally got round to it discovered they were much more receptive than I'd expected.
As a reader, with absolutely no journalistic professional intent, I still have an interest in finding good journalism amongst the dross. And suspect I've become quite good at spotting it. To those sources I will return again and again. A different kind of reliability - a voice that is well informed and can be trusted, and that is willing to admit when it is wrong. And to explain. And to use real words, and be their own spell checker. Showing a wry sense of humour that can get across the import of some idea without leaving me wringing my hands in despair. Keep at it all of you young folks, nose to the grindstone, but keep your own voice.
I am no spring chicken but I cut my journalism chops in celebrity and entertainment reporting, and while it didn’t always enthral me, it was definitely fun and I learned exactly the things you’ve spoken about here.
My mistake was thinking I’d established myself enough after 7 years to go freelance right around the time AI was starting to boom. Still kicking myself four years later for leaving that job
This sounds like brilliant advice. I only wish I'd read it in my early 20s. And massive respect for the mentoring.