Cracking it as a news journalist

Melissa Davey is a trainee journalist with the Sydney Morning Herald, where she has been working for the past 11 months.

‘Study is easy. Getting into the industry is hard. I don’t have a magic formula. I advise kids thinking of being journalists to consider the theatre instead. There will always be jobs for tap dancers.’

These were the inspiring words of one of The Herald’s most well-known and best-loved journalists, David Marr, when I asked him what advice he’d give to someone who wants to get a break in the industry.

He’s right. There is no magic formula. Newsrooms are packed with people with all sorts of skill sets and backgrounds. But as someone who’s coming to the end of a cadetship with the Sydney Morning Herald, here are a few of my thoughts.

It is an exciting time to want a job in print journalism. That may seem like a strange thing to read — those working towards a job in the field will no doubt be used to hearing negativity. Newspapers are dying. Getting a job is impossible. Newsrooms are shrinking. There is no future.

The naysayers have always existed; they always will. And while it is important to be realistic about the challenges facing journalism and how tough it can be to find work, you don’t need to look far to see that inspiring change is happening too. These changes bring opportunity: for ideas, for work and for journalists.

It is difficult to say what a print newsroom will look like in five years time, or even a year from now. There are visions of technology like iPads and iPhones on every desk, plus terms thrown around like ‘integration’ and ‘convergence’.

So how do you prepare yourself for a future and a career in print journalism (taking print to mean text, encompassing newspapers, online and platforms like the mobile phone and tablet) without knowing what a future print newsroom will look like?

The reality is, the core skills to be a journalist haven’t changed. You need to have an instinct for news. To be able to wade through masses of information quickly and grasp the heart of a story, then tell it in a clear and compelling way. You need an interest in people and listening to their stories, and with that comes the ability to build trust and develop relationships. You must be genuine. Flexibility, adaptability and willingness to embrace change are a must. Those nostalgic for a time of ink-stained fingers, or who resent technology and lament the decline of papers will struggle.

For those with passion, there is no one path. In any newsroom, there are people with varied backgrounds, degrees in everything from journalism to engineering to business. Some
never went to university; some came straight into newspapers from high school. Others travelled, lived overseas, learned languages or had other careers. Journalists are being sought from any number of areas so it is useless to think there is any one route to take. As data journalism and visualisations become more common, even mathematicians and statisticians are being brought into newsrooms.

I studied terrorism. Not in a training camp on the Afghan border, but at university in Perth, where I did a double degree in International Relations and Journalism (Print). That was five years ago, and my degree didn’t even include online media. Newsrooms hadn’t really started thinking about online being part of, rather than separate to, traditional print journalism.

My first opportunity to get published came when I was 15 when I began interning at School Matters, the newspaper for the Western Australian department of education. I never stopped interning from there; for street press, community radio, websites and at one stage, a think-tank.

I learned early that you don’t need to be loud, pushy or abrasive to make contacts or get your foot in the door. If you meet someone who works in the industry, strike up a conversation with them as you would anyone else. When someone thinks you’re just talking to them because you want a job, their guard goes up. Treat contacts like you would anyone else. Have a conversation, show genuine interest in their background and what they do, be open with them in return and build up their trust.

And if someone eventually throws you a line by inviting you to call or email them, asking you to intern or suggesting a contact, always follow-up on it, fast.

In my final year of high school I went into the office of Grok Magazine, the publication for Curtin University, and was given the task of Vox Pops. At the time, I wasn’t even sure if I would pass my high school exams and get into Curtin. Thankfully I did, and spent the next four years working my way up until I became the editor. During those years I also wrote for street press, interviewing bands and reviewing gigs and albums. It seemed there was a shortage of heavy metal reviewers in Perth at the time and, wanting an opening, I offered myself up for the role. Don’t be fussy. Give everything a go, and be proud of it. At the very least you will discover what you don’t want to do and what your weaknesses are. I worked on community radio, producing and announcing for a three-hour current affairs show. I learned I was terrible at broadcast. But I also learned how to do it, how to edit content and produce a show. Perhaps my least glamorous job was as the editor of an online air conditioning magazine, called Inside Air Australia, but from doing that I learned how to upload and develop content for a website.

In this era of multi-skilling and platform journalism it is important to at last know how to take a photo, shoot a video, record an interview and upload them online. There is still room to specialise in writing and make it your focus. Good, solid writing is more important than ever. The integrated newsroom will focus heavily on specialists working together to deliver a package of content for a variety of different mediums. But those specialists won’t always be immediately available to you when you are out covering a breaking story so you need to be able to do it all yourself where necessary.

Two weeks from finishing my degree I was offered a job at the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) in Sydney, where I had interned nearly two years earlier on my university break. The IFJ runs international campaigns on journalists’ safety, press freedom, ethics, gender equality and decent working conditions.

The decision to move across the country was a tough one. I only had a couple of weeks to think about it and I didn’t know anyone in Sydney. Thankfully, I had mentors telling me to take the leap. Be prepared to move – across the country, overseas, regional.

Don’t expect the first job you get to be your dream job, but do use it as a valuable opportunity to learn and build contacts and mentors. Working in Sydney gave me access to new contacts and when one of them told me to apply for a job at News Limited Community News, I did. It took a few months of follow-up calls and emails, but in 2008 I was offered a job at a weekly paper, the Northern District Times, based in Epping.

I loved working for community news. My editor there was a fistbanging, phone-slamming man who was passionate about his newspaper and, although he came from the ‘old school’, embraced changes to the physical paper and also online. He taught me to stand up for stories I believed in and to argue my case. He respected people with ideas and trusted me enough to develop a Facebook page for the paper and made me responsible for uploading each edition of the paper online. Being a weekly paper, getting stories up online was a vital part of the job – not all stories would hold for a week. I learned to think about what elements of the story should go up right away and which should be saved for the paper.

By the time I applied for a cadetship at the Sydney Morning Herald last year, I had already applied unsuccessfully for scores of journalism jobs. Sometimes I never heard back, other times I made it through to interview stages only to get knocked out. Keep your rejection letters. Embrace them. Relive bad interviews and ask for feedback. And remember; you will never stop learning.

Melissa Davey is on Twitter @MelissaLDavey

Photography by Richard Birch