July 7, 2020 (Updated )
At Journo Resources, we know how hard the COVID-19 crisis has hit the journalism industry as a whole. And, in particular, we’ve received dozens of messages from people about to embark on their journalism career, expressing their fears about a diminished jobs market and lack of opportunities.
During the last few months we’ve offered our support to journalists in various ways, but now we’re going one step further, by introducing the Journo Resources Fellowship. The Journo Resources Fellowship, supported by the Journalists’ Charity and The Society of Editors, is a paid scheme for those at the start of their working career.
As a fellow you’ll get one-to-one time with various members of our editorial team to develop your ideas and skills, get access to a full suite of free tools to help develop your journalism and job hunting skills, and at least one original journalism byline to your name.
Thanks to the support of the Journalists’ Charity, their fellows will also be offered a one-to-one mentoring session and CV clinic.
Who Are We Looking For?
In short, we’re looking for people who are passionate about making their way into the journalism industry and are ready to make their first steps into paid work. You might have just finished studying or have been on the job hunt for a while, but you won’t already have a full or part-time job within journalism or still have a year or more to go with your studies.
We’re not interested in fancy bylines, but we would like to see some previous examples of your work, so we can get a feel for your interests and what you’ve done. This might be from a student newspaper, your own personal blog, from freelancing or work experience, or perhaps some work from your course. It’s less about where the byline is from, but what you’ve actually written.
We’ll also be looking to raise the profile of people who are currently underrepresented within the media at the moment. Our whole mission is about making the media better represent the country we serve, and this is the perfect chance to put this in action. When we say underrepresented voices we mean this in every way – we’re keen to hear from people of colour, disabled writers, those who are working class, people who identify as LGBTQ+, to name but a few. We also want to hear from people from across the UK and Ireland – not just those in London.
Finally, it’s worth noting here that even if things do return to “normal”, we won’t be going back to our offices. That’s mainly because we don’t have one, so we’ll be looking for people who are good at keeping in touch and working independently.
What Will I Be Doing And Learning?
As a Journo Resources Fellow, you’ll be working across a whole range of stuff across digital journalism and paid at least £120 for every feature you complete. Across the course of the scheme you’ll:
- Learn how to pitch a story to an editor, and put it into practice by successfully pitching your own original story to our editorial team,
- Create at least one full length feature or investigation for the Journo Resources website, which will involve original research, interviewing, and editing, with the support of our team,
- Learn how to take a solutions journalism approach with your reporting,
- Translating your story into native digital content for Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, with the help of our social media experts,
- Get a full, in-depth CV review from either our team or the team at the Journalists’ Charity, giving you actionable points and advice,
- Receive a one-to-one mentoring session from either our team or the team at the Journalists’ Charity,
- Undertake additional journalism training, with access to our full back catalogue of online webinars on a huge range of journalism topics.
How Can I Apply?
If you think this all sounds like you, we’d love to hear from you! All you need to do is fill out our short application form by the end of the day on July 21. Unfortunately, after this point we will no longer be able to accept applications. We will aim to give a response to successful applicants by August 1, however this date may change.
As with all our job applications, we aim to give personalised feedback to every person who applies, however, please be aware this may be a longer process – we will always inform you of the outcome first.
