Newspaper and Magazine Jobs
Careers in newspaper and magazine journalism involve research and producing reports or articles, often with pictures. All journalists need to have an excellent command of English, persistence, inquisitiveness and a good understanding of their readership.
Newspaper Journalist
Newspaper journalists work as reporters on local, regional or national newspapers. They collect information, investigate stories and events, and write articles.
Reporters collect background information by using personal contacts, libraries and the internet. They gain an insight into events by interviewing people. They need to produce their work to deadlines.
Reporters work at weekends, evenings and nights, and may have to travel long distances to cover a story.
Magazine Journalist
Magazine journalists work on a wide range of magazines. These include business, technical, professional and consumer/lifestyle magazines. They write news and features and may also carry out editing of written work.
Journalists often specialise in a particular area, such as fashion, and have to keep up to date with trends and developments in this area. They normally need to do a lot of research before they write their articles.
Some journalists work freelance using their specialist knowledge to write features for a number of magazines.
All journalists need a good command of English together with fluency of style and the ability to conform to a house style.
Picture Researcher
Picture researchers choose relevant pictures or illustrations for use in books, newspapers, magazines and websites. The editor or author of the publication asks the researcher to find a picture that is suitable for the content and layout of the manuscript.
Researchers find illustrations by looking in library and museum catalogues, picture agency directories, The Picture Researcher’s Handbook and using the internet. The researcher also supplies captions (words) for the pictures.
They must work to deadlines and to a budget. Picture researchers can either be employed by publishers or work freelance.