Thank you again for participating in our spotlight interview and giving us your time!
Firstly, could you tell me about your initial experience in the industry, have you always wanted to pursue a career in Journalism?
I had no desire to be a journalist initially, and also got very annoyed when people thought I did - I studied a Creative Writing degree at the University of Wollongong, which at the time was purely focused on literary writing and featured no journalistic components. I just wanted to write books. After I graduated I started writing a comedic blog (blogs, unfortunately, date me) for fun, and after some of the articles did well, I had a couple of editors reach out to me to write comedy based articles for them. I did smatterings of freelancing for years like this, which broadened into reviews and other arts and culture commentary, but not really seeing it as "journalism". I loved that kind of writing, and one day realised that I could maybe form a career as a writer by doing it full time. At the time, my most regular freelance outlet was youth media website Junkee, who was doing the most interesting digital media in Australia, and I decided to try and get a job as a journalist there - which I managed after freelancing, doing some contract work for them, then getting hired as a weekend writer and then staff writer. I ended up as the editor of the site before it was sold. It was in these jobs where I broadened my journalistic practice out and grew to love the entire trade.
You recently started a new role with the Star Observer, what does a typical day look like as a Digital Manager and Journalist? What does your media cycle look like?
As a queer news site, our priority is covering the news cycle relevant to our LGBTQIA+ audience, which means usually I log on in the morning and immediately tackle the biggest story of the day. Since I started at Star Observer, there has unfortunately not been a lack of big stories affecting the queer community. As a Star Observer journalist I will usually write multiple news stories a day, sprinkled with longer features such as interviews, reviews, explainers and investigations. What I try to do over a week is follow the big or interesting stories and provide extended coverage so our community feels empowered to not only be informed of the news, but can also contextualise and understand how it affects them. Or I'll write a silly story about something weird a drag queen did, which is also fun. Then as Digital Manager, I run our social media and audience building strategies and processes, each of which should really be its own job - we're a tiny team, so we wear a truly deranged amount of hats in our roles.
I understand that you also run the Nonsense Newsletter on Substack, how have you found the experience of running your own newsletter? How has it differed from your experience in traditional journalism?
The newsletter boom feels very similar to the rise of blogs to be completely honest. The biggest different to traditional journalism and my newsletter is mostly that the opportunities for interesting, fun and funny cultural writing in Australia for media outlets has mostly dried up - while I still write some fun stuff for The Guardian and SMH/ The Age, a lot of the digital media that I used to write for has wrapped up or pivoted entirely to video. I love the act of writing, and my newsletter allows me to write directly to an audience that enjoys my work. It means I can be both more niche and daring with my writing. When you write for mainstream media, you have to write in a way that's suitable for a large, general audience (which is fine) - but my newsletter means I get to write weird little things for my defined audience. And, along with freelance opportunities drying up, so has the majority of the money for freelance writers - my paid subscribers on Nonsense allow me to freelance as a result.
Do you have any advice for new and emerging journalists wanting to start a career in the Australian media industry?
The media industry is constantly shifting and changing and not usually for the better - I think the two things which remain stable and eternal is making sure you have an impeccable work ethic, and a point of difference. The work ethic can manifest in lots of different ways, but as an editor I've had freelancers who made my life harder by being late with delivery or flakey with responses - who have then applied for staff roles. Why would I take them over someone who has proven to be reliable?
As for the point of difference - have a speciality, an expertise, and a body of work to support that. Often you'll be competing against people equally as qualified and experienced and talented as you, but when the hirer can identify what you can uniquely add to the publication, that will often make all the difference. It certainly drives my commissioning of freelancers.
Finally, what makes a good pitch?
Specificity - when I can really see that they've approached me with something designed for my publication. You can always tell generic pitches.