Being gifted a "stab-proof hoodie" for "doorstepping" as a naive, antipodean reporter in the capital seemed funny at the time. But nearly two decades on my thoughts on this have evolved.
God, that's a tough life in journalism, but it sounds fun too. Except for all the waiting around in the rain and the cold for people like Paul McCartney.
The stabproof hoodie sounds a good idea. If you can't completely ban knives (because they're used in kitchens to prepare dinner), why not reduce the risks? After all, the police and military have them to reduce when in dangerous situations.
I wanted to be a technology journalist and tried to do freelance work in the early 1990s, but had to give up because the rejection rate. When I eventually "sold a story" to the Mail on Sunday in 1995 for £400, it didn't appear under my name. The consumer affairs editor I sold it to, Christopher Leake, totally rewrote it and it appeared under his byline, with me just quoted as a "source" in the text! Not exactly helpful and the money didn't cover all the work on previously unpublished articles. The only places that I could be an author in, were obscure technical specialist magazines paying £80 per printed page (small 8-point type so it worked out around 20p per word).
Yes you can see why I got sucked in (for a while). Oh dear but why does that surprise us about the Mail? But £400 isn't bad. I think the most that I managed to get from the Express was £500 and they also took the story and completely rewrote it and stuck their name on it! Bet the rates have gone down now.
God, that's a tough life in journalism, but it sounds fun too. Except for all the waiting around in the rain and the cold for people like Paul McCartney.
The stabproof hoodie sounds a good idea. If you can't completely ban knives (because they're used in kitchens to prepare dinner), why not reduce the risks? After all, the police and military have them to reduce when in dangerous situations.
I wanted to be a technology journalist and tried to do freelance work in the early 1990s, but had to give up because the rejection rate. When I eventually "sold a story" to the Mail on Sunday in 1995 for £400, it didn't appear under my name. The consumer affairs editor I sold it to, Christopher Leake, totally rewrote it and it appeared under his byline, with me just quoted as a "source" in the text! Not exactly helpful and the money didn't cover all the work on previously unpublished articles. The only places that I could be an author in, were obscure technical specialist magazines paying £80 per printed page (small 8-point type so it worked out around 20p per word).
Yes you can see why I got sucked in (for a while). Oh dear but why does that surprise us about the Mail? But £400 isn't bad. I think the most that I managed to get from the Express was £500 and they also took the story and completely rewrote it and stuck their name on it! Bet the rates have gone down now.