first person


StartingOut


Employer expectations are high and times are tough, but don’t get disheartened, says Zaki Dogliani


I


graduated from university in July 2015. One of the many things I learnt from my student journalism


days, when I edited Epigram, the student paper at the University of Bristol, was that writing wasn’t just something I enjoyed in my free time. It was what I wanted to do for a living. So I’ve spent the past 18 months seeing what it’s like to enter the industry at arguably its period of greatest difficulty. First, I did three weeks of work


experience. That was as long as I was willing – and able – to work for free. I was resigned to looking for paid work outside journalism until I found an industry job that paid but, thankfully, was offered my first magazine contract, at BBC Who Do You Think You Are? magazine, just before my placements came to an end. That wouldn’t have happened without my Epigram experience. I started in early July. In September, I secured three months at BBC Countryfile magazine. That was followed by a longer stint at Wonkhe, a higher education policy and politics website, as a reporter. I later worked for Times Higher Education. Why enter an industry whose pay and conditions are at their worst in decades? The thrill of breaking news or coming up with the ideal headline is just too great. Holding people to account is that satisfying. And you’re always learning something new through research or interviews, and meeting people or going to places you wouldn’t have otherwise. But today’s young journalists are expected to have more skills than before for less money – writing, editing, subbing, social media, photography,


18 | theJournalist


audio, video, data and SEO. A London Freelance Branch colleague who is blind recently shared his experience of being told that “if you can’t do video or social media, you can’t be a journalist any more” on an NCTJ-accredited postgraduate course. There are all kinds of accessibility problems with the increasingly common insistence that those entering the industry have all those skills and/or a postgraduate qualification. The 2016-17 academic year has seen the introduction of government postgraduate loans, so journalism MA courses no longer need to be funded up front. However, living costs still do, and graduates are already lumbered with huge debts. Demanding that journalists have such a long list of skills can also have a negative impact on specialists and lead to a fall in quality. New technologies present new opportunities, but some publishers see only opportunities to cut costs and lay off professional photographers. The dramatic fall in staff photographer numbers is saddening. The growing reliance on images from members of the public also risks undermining reader trust. Although there are now interesting ideas like Verifeye Media and tools such as reverse image search to check authenticity, their existence underlines how many instances there have of photographs being used wrongly. There is still a huge need for


specialists and, like those of the previous Starting Out writer, my experiences also suggest that it pays to acquire a specialism, particularly an unusual one among people your age. Unlike most students, I have long


enjoyed writing about higher education policy, interviewing university leaders and analysing university reform. Building expertise about higher education has helped me secure two of my four jobs. My other advice to young freelances


Demanding that journalists have such a long list of skills can have a negative impact on specialists and lead to a fall in quality


“ ”


would be not to get too disheartened by job rejections or not getting replies to a pitch email first time around. Just as reporters are increasingly overworked, so too are commissioning editors; don’t be afraid to email twice to check they got the ideas you sent. It can be demoralising when you pitch what seems like the perfect article at the perfect time to an editor you’ve written for before and don’t hear anything. But your first email was probably just buried in press releases. It can often feel like it’s harder than


ever to make a living from journalism. And it probably is. More than anything, though, the challenge is to remain positive after countless rejections you’re likely to get. Or when you need to apply to as many roles to get two months somewhere as your friend who walks into a well-paid financial services job has to in their lifetime. That’s a reflection on the industry, struggling due to factors largely beyond your control – like the popularity of adblockers or certain publishers’ shortsighted business models – not a reflection on you. We don’t do it for the money. Most of us never have.


Zaki Dogliani is co chair of the NUJ’s London Freelance Branch


@zakidogliani


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