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Email to: journalist@nuj.org.uk Post to: Te Journalist 72 Acton Street, London WC1X 9NB Tweet to: @mschrisbuckley


H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H A commitment to read a submission felt like


gold dust, so I crafted three stories of appropriate length and – I believe – thoroughly in tune with the magazine’s typical content and values. I spent time polishing and reworking them and


finally hit send, expecting to hear nothing back for a while, as per said commissioning policy. Imagine my surprise when, less than six


minutes later, I received the following from editor Harry Mount: “Thanks so much but not quite right for us.” I tried again. This time, the response came


back in less than a minute: “So sorry but not quite right for us.” Of course, it’s an editor’s prerogative to treat


unsolicited submissions as they see fit, but these replies didn’t accord with the published policy. I wrote to the publisher, James Pembroke,


When diminishing returns combine with dashed hope


I returned to freelance journalism after spending a big chunk of my career running a publishing business in the airline industry and, latterly, a marketing business. I’ve always been a journalist at heart but life can derail one’s best intentions. How things have changed: my first big


freelance sell, back in the 1980s was a front-page feature in a new leisure section in The Times. I was paid £500 – a princely sum then. I now count myself lucky if I get £300 for a 1,000-word feature, notwithstanding decades of inflation. It’s hard coming back and finding yourself


bereft of commissioning contacts but, nowadays, people rarely answer a telephone and hardly


The Journalist budget cut may be false economy Thanks for the latest edition. I have downloaded it and, maybe, I’ll get round to reading it at some point. If it were in print, I would already have read all of it. Maybe I’m a dinosaur, but I simply don’t enjoy reading on a screen the same,


ever respond to an email, so finding new outlets for work is challenging to say the least. Last year things were ticking over OK, with a


fairly regular gig with The New World and a twice-yearly aviation magazine to edit and publish. Then the aviation company went bust. I researched outlets and was attracted by the


The Oldie’s guidelines: “The Oldie is one of the very few magazines in the country who [sic] believe in dedicating time and effort from our limited resources to reading all unsolicited pieces, so please do your bit – pay attention to these guidelines… “We regret that, owing to the volume of


submissions we receive, we are unable to call or email unless a story is accepted for publication. We only read unsolicited pieces one day a week, so replies can take a month or so. If you have not heard from us within ninety days, please assume that we will not be able to publish your manuscript.”


especially after having been sat in front of one all day writing. Publishing only every other issue of


The Journalist in print seems an odd move and, arguably, gives the digital-only issues less exposure. I know from previous


correspondence with the editor that she struggled to fill the letters page


suggesting: “If you no longer want to encourage submissions, then say so. Modify your email bot to say that you regret you are no longer able to consider unsolicited material. He replied: “I do understand your


disappointment. We are a very small team and we handle a great many submissions. Ninety nine per cent of magazine editors don’t even reply, often because they don’t want to cause offence.” Sadly, this missed my point – if The Oldie is


too busy to read unsolicited material, it should take down material suggesting otherwise. Editors might reflect that it is not just their


own time that is of value. Stan Abbott Durham


James Pembroke, publisher of The Oldie, writes: An experienced editor like Harry can spot whether he likes a piece within a few minutes. Richard Ingrams and Alexander Chancellor were the same. I can’t see how this contradicts our policy of welcoming submissions.


H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H


when The Journalist went digital only during the pandemic. The savings may also prove to be a false economy. While I support the NUJ’s other work, I’ve always considered my NUJ membership a partial magazine subscription. But now, after almost 30 years of membership,


I am seriously considering whether it’s worth the subs without more than two tangible publications a year. For the record, I earn a living writing for both print and online outlets. Owen Ralph Preston, Lancashire


theJournalist | 23


DENIS CARRIER


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