I have just witnessed the most egregious - violent! - example of “it’s more of a comment than a question”. A young man stood up and told Zadie Smith (!!) that he was having an identity crisis about being a writer and then ASKED HER TO READ HIS SHORT STORY
Obsessed with the rumour that Cummings called Carrie Symonds, “Princess Nuts Nuts”. Incredible “man upset his best mate got a new girlfriend and now doesn’t come to the pub as much” energy.
Have noticed a real trend recently for young journos posting about how many commissions they've got, how many pitches sent, how much they've billed this month etc. Fine if you want... but it's not compulsory to live tweet your career.
@poornabell
Look up their most recent earnings update and reply with "I see you reported £Xmillion in profits last quarter so I'm afraid I'm struggling to understand how there's no budget."
Hello I'm tentatively Back At Work. If you're freelance, let it be known I am ready for your pitches for reported features on things going right in the world. I'll be commissioning over the next few weeks Apr-Jul issue
And to the *other* young journos, who read the "I got my dream commission!!" posts and feel panicky and crap about their progress: you're prob doing absolutely fine! Now turn off twitter and go eat a biscuit and stroke a cat or something
I'm commissioning stories on the positive or constructive responses to coronavirus for
@PositiveNewsUK
– Pls send pitches to editorial
@positive
.news – and here are a few examples of things we've done so far 1/x
My mate and her fiancé have just returned from 3 months driving around Europe in their van. Their cat, who is unhinged at best of times, was not amused at being left with someone else and stopped grooming in protest. His fur turned to dreadlocks and now, well...
Please can 2021 be the year that publishers start offering an industry rate or similar so journalists can read paywalled pieces for research? Pls sir I am poor and I cannot afford full whack for FT & Times & Economist & Tel & NYT etc etc
Hello! I'm going to start commissioning soon for January issue of Positive News so freelancers, please, send me your pitches! But first, a short thread of tips for your pitching.
I'm commissioning for the Oct-Dec issue of Positive News, so get your ideas in. I'm after ideas for brilliant, reported features on solutions and progress. I'm *particularly* interested in stories of progressive/alternative models of policing
My email address is literally in my bio. It's there so people can contact me. If you need to ask how to contact me, I'm not filled with confidence in your ability to write an intelligent, well-researched and nuanced feature.
I know I've already changed my bio BUT just today is my last day at Positive News. What started as six months turned into 15 and I've had the lovely job of commissioning and editing some awesome pieces. Please indulge me in a little thread of some of the highlights:
Seen a couple of snarky subtweets abt the Time Out staff writer jobs not allowing remote candidates... it is not controversial for a magazine *literally* about stuff happening in London to require its writers to be in London where the stuff is happening
@poornabell
Any holiday/trip away/staying somewhere for a wedding is a pain. I really resent that I often end up less comfortable/in a shittier room/on a sofa because I don't have a partner, or have to pay double to have the same level of privacy and comfort as my married friends
Some news: v excited that in four weeks I will be joining
@PositiveNews
as editor covering Lucy Purdy's maternity leave. Can't wait to get started and in the meantime, send pls awesome pitches to editorial
@positive
.news
@hels
@Ankaman616
And parental jobs! Whenever I interview super young founders it doesn't take long to find out their dad was a serial entrepreneur, who encouraged them to take risks and had a load of contacts AND invested ££/$$
There should be a kind of nationally agreed peer-to-peer CV writing programme, where your mates write your job applications, for those of us who are pathologically incapable of selling ourselves. Like that dating website Sarah Beeney had, but for jobs.
There is a growing brand of journalism that appears to be simply "Slagging Off Other Journalists' Work" and, while I adore public displays of pettiness, I'm not sure it communicates the intellectual superiority intended
On holiday, dining solo in Palermo. Girl on next table explaining in great detail to her boyfriend why they should move to Stoke Newington. I can never truly escape east London...
Really trying to decide if Love Island would work if everyone was in their 30s and normal looking. Charismatic women with stretch marks and cellulite. Kind, funny men with receding hairlines and dad bods.
@amyrlewin
I have a very strong view FOR including them! Not including perpetuates pay gaps and makes it impossible for people to benchmark themselves. Plus if someone applies but the budget is e.g. £10/20k less than they're looking for, it's a waste of everyone's time.
The amount of airspace taken up on twitter dot com by editors and freelancers sniping at each other about pitching style is just more evidence that the journalism industry is fundamentally broken
Looking for somewhere cheap but nice to live in east London? Maybe you're a young journo on a rubbish journalism salary? I am looking for a new housemate! Small double in house w/ garden, big living room and a cute dog for under £500 inc bills
Help editor friends: I'm looking for a writer who can turn a story about economics/interest rates into a fascinating mag long-read. Someone who can do narrative journalism & is shithot on finance. Any recs?
New issue of Positive News is out now! Somehow, we found good stuff to write about. Grab a copy to find out how the new normal will be better than the old + my chat with Rutger Bregman on why Trump would never have survived pre-history
Personal News!! (wanted to do one of these for ages) I have now officially joined the team
@couriermedia
as the new managing editor of Courier magazine. Thrilled to be working with a talented team on an amazing mag!
I have received A Lot of pitches recently. My inbox is wild! So please do bear with me while I got through your pitches – but either I or
@PositiveNewsUK
's new digital editor
@gavin_haines
will do our best to respond soon
Anyone else experiencing the opposite of Sunday fear atm? The last two weekends, I've been a depressed puddle of a person, but then the week starts and it's like "cool, work is really busy, that's a great distraction, feel ok again now".
ANYWAY! I'm re-entering the world of freelance so please do hire/commission me. Can do whatever you want with words – write them, edit them, move them around an InDesign document so all the columns are an even length etc etc
Brilliant issue of
@PositiveNewsUK
. That’s a year of issues done. The best £30 I spent all year. If you want to look after yourself, learn some new things, and notice the amazing amount of good in the world, then get yourself a subscription. 👊 Renewed immediately.
As
@MarcusRashford
challenges the UK government on free school meals, we look at how a new generation of footballers are using their influence to push for positive change
#FreeSchoolMeals
I really can’t understand why the Kamala Harris beauty story discourse has got so much mileage. 1) It wasn’t the Telegraph’s only coverage of her; 2) it was from the beauty desk; 3) have we not moved on from “cAn i Be A fEmiNisT & LikE mAkeUP??”
My number 1 piece of advice for freelancing: get some freelance buddies. People to bounce ideas around with, give you an alternative perspective on that niggling feature idea you want to pitch, and to whinge to when it's soul-destroying.
Not only did it make me feel less crazy and alone, I gained confidence and got better as a freelancer. And I made some genuinely lovely friends (hi
@lucydougtweets
@jessicabateman
!) So I thought I'd bring it back in a virtual capacity.
Twitter help me! Since Xmas I have been desperately struggling to get out of bed in the mornings. It's becoming a problem. What tricks do you all use to wake up?
I know I've said this before BUT I really really really want to write a proper long read profile of Roger Whiteside and how he's turned Greggs into the most culturally relevant high street business (don't argue) in Britain today
Greggs is handing its staff a £7 million bonus, equivalent to £300 each, after its record year on the back of a vegan sausage roll and 138 new shops. Bakery chain already hands 10% of profits to employees each year. And vegan steak bake and doughnuts on their way.
Remember how Kay Burley was found breaching the (tier 2) restrictions and was immediately suspended from her (not publicly funded) job and then issued a public and unreserved apology for letting people down?
People who have left journalism to do other things: what do you do instead? And how did you get into it? interested in answers beyond PR... (not for A Thing, just my own curiosity/research)
Both my parents have now had their medical licenses reinstated and will return to work which is lucky because Dad’s run out of things to chop down and burn and Mum’s been talking to a sourdough starter and there’s a real risk of them killing each other
Business owners in the arts/creative industries: I’d like to chat about what business looks like at the moment and how you’re managing during this cluster***k. A
#journorequest
in my freelance capacity (not for Pos News!)
Also, petition to change the term to "reproduction rate", not "fertility rate". Many women *choose* to have fewer children/not have them at all. "Falling fertility rate" all sounds a bit Gilead tbh
LADY HALE: Graduated top of her class with a 1st in Law from Cambridge. Professor of Law at Manchester. First woman to be appointed to the Law Commission. Only the second woman to be appointed to the Court of Appeal. President of the Supreme Court.
THE DAILY MAIL: “Ex-barmaid.”
Working on a big feature on farming and food and - my god - the disconnect between public understanding of sustainable food production and the actual practice for food producers (I.e. farmers) is insane
I just signed up for a desk at the coworking down the road for the whole of May and I am giddy! I can *go* to work! And it won't be the same as where I go to cook or eat or relax! I am thrilled!!
Every now and then I think I should be more active on LinkedIn fOr mY CaREeR... and within 3 minutes of reading the vacuous, self-aggrandising, sycophantic bollocks on there, I want to throw up
The latest issue of shop fave
@PositiveNewsUK
has landed and it's packed full of uplifting stories from across the world about saving newts, footballers as social chmage heroes and three super inspiring role models working to help young people of colour tell their stories 💛
We are the High Council. We speak for all our kind. These are our terms: We leave your bins untouched; we keep our noisy sex out of earshot; all we ask in return is that you surrender the one you call "Jololoynon".
guys I don't mean to brag but I just called my GP surgery and asked to speak to a doctor and... they just gave me an appointment??? To speak to a real life general practitioner??? In 2023?????
@BeeBabs
Omg massively!! When she’s like “I dunno why he turned on me??” Um bc by your own admission you’re like his mother figure - after he’s been consistently let down by adults that are supposed to care for him - and when he *most* needs you, you’re on Strictly?? I’d be angry too
ok hear me out: This is a *genuinely good* example of the "I was wrong to leave London" genre – complete with bonkers busybody neighbours obsessing over a dog's balls
So this is a great example of how our society looks down on single people. We don't debate "Is it sad to eat in silence because you can't think of a single thing to say to your spouse, with whom you are trapped in a loveless marriage?"
'Go and make some friends!'
The UK is turning into a nation of 'Billy No Mates' with a trend for eating out alone. But fans of 'solo dining' claim it promotes healthier 'mindful' eating as they focus on their food, rather than being distracted by chatter.
Is dining alone sad?
16year-olds getting FT commissions bc they have the audacity to describe themselves as mesmerising could be the final straw that makes me quit this cursed industry
I have asked the writer where he gets his sass from. He told me that this is a nifty trick with a high success rate. He told an editor of the FT that his pitch was 'mesmerising' and he got the commission. Why don't they teach this at City?
Guys I'm really not sure "quiet quitting" is a thing, it sounds a lot like something journalists make up when we need a fresh angle and we're on deadline. honestly don't worry about it, it's not that deep
Today I am going to work in a real life office with new human colleagues so naturally I’m sitting in my towel having an existential crisis about what to wear
It was very lovely y/day reading all the tweets about how this year has taught people how strong and resilient they are. I do not feel this. I don't feel stronger or more resilient from experiencing 3 lockdowns and re-entering the job market in the worst downturn of my lifetime.
20 odd years ago, Harold Shipman, a GP, was convicted of murdering victims to whom he had a duty of care. He exploited the trust they implicitly had in him because of his profession. There was a public inquiry. (1/x
Spent a few days in the Portuguese Atlantic town Ericeira and a weekend in St Andrews and I now strongly believe we need to bring back “going to the coast to take in the airs”
I think one of my favourite parts of working in magazines is the photography. Commissioning amazingly talented photographers and then seeing what they send back is such a treat
I think the whole Brooklyn Beckham wedding thing is so confronting bc it's like seeing your nephew or your school mate's kid get married, like we all remember him being born like 3 months ago and now he has a whole wife
@BeeBabs
Exactly! And there’s defs a degree of the betrayal he feels abt Jerry being directed at Monica - which, again, completely understandable given his trauma. If she’s gonna insert herself as the parental figure she’s gotta be prepared to parent!
Don't know why everyone is so triggered by the "journalists are good at conversations" tweet. If your job is to speak to strangers and be personable and ask them questions and find stuff out about them, it stands to reason you'd be good at that in your personal life too 🤷♀️
*small voice* Would changing the Christmas guidelines actually make difference at this point? I feel like people have made up their minds about what they’re going to do...
*small voice* What if it wasn't <actually> Meghan's idea? What if Harry decided, after becoming a parent, he didn't want his child growing up like he did?
We're expecting to see a response from BrewDog imminently. We currently understand this will be an open letter, which staff are being strongly urged to make a quick decision on signing. Some are already refusing. The current draft is here; sorry we only have images at present.
I don’t want discourse about the book burning. I want to live in a world where a successful artist can do something fucking mad with her own work bc she was pissed off, and then be like “lol yeah prob overreacted 🤷🏻♀️” and we all move on
Incidentally, since my career pivot I’ve started following a lot more advertising/creative strat people on here and pleased to say there is just as much hot air and inflated sense of importance on Ad Twitter as there is on Journalism Twitter