Hi…im 17 and senior in high school and im looking to become a journalist. I was wondering if anyone knew of any online(or not) magazines, newspapers,etc, that would accept writings of a 17 year old…or any contests,etc. Also, if anyone has any journalism tips or know where i can find any that would be greatly appreciated too! thanks
I’ve had a small amount of experience freelancing.
If you write a good freelance piece, there’s going to be no concern about your age: just call the editor, say “I’ve got a piece on X - are you interested?” They’ll probably ask you to email/fax it through.
Note that if you do this, you’re ethcially bound not to send it to any other publication until the first one has said yes/no. If they say no, go somewhere else. Rinse and repeat. If they say yes, then you get into price negotiations. If it’s your first piece, you’re not going to get much, but if you get more stories published, your price will go up.
thanks…ya, i actually have done some of that…i guess i just have to do more…
i also love to write poetry and i was wondering if anyone knew of any legitimate poetry conests or places that publish poetry. thanks
Type poetry submission guidelines into Google and explore.
I believe the editions of Writer’s Market have a separate category for poetry and literary magazines that may be helpful for you.
I’ll second what others have said about using Writer’s Market as a starting point. Good writing will find a home, regardless of your age.
Andy Benoit got a book deal with a major publisher while he was a junior in high school, writing an annual football preview book. Christopher Paolini was 18 when the first installment of his Eragon series was published.
If you’re serious about writing, the best way to prove it is to do it. Start a blog, or contribute to a local paper. Then use those articles to show others as an example of the quality of your work.
And my two cents… don’t waste your time with contests. They’re all looking for customers, not writers.
Check out monster.com classified ads for writers. You’ll see all sorts of “bloggers wanted” and free-lance ads. Many of them don’t care how old you are.
A word of caution. Free-lance writers (whether journalism, advertising or literary) are at the bottom of the food chain when it comes to payment. If you go in with the expectation that you’re gaining valuable experience and looking to build your portfolio - rather than to make money - you’ll be less likely to be disappointed.
Writing thoughful ‘Letters to The Editor’ of your local paper on current topics of interest would be one way to exercise your skills.
Up to about a year ago a teenager in mid america was furnishing a weekly column on topics of the day to an on line daily news publication. Did a fantastic job. Quit to further his education in other channels. His name escapes me at the moment.
Not necessarily. You’re not going to get lucrative contracts to start with, of course, but as a photographer, when I worked with writers, they generally worked at $1 - $1.50 per word. This is for publications like Car & Driver, Business Week, Parade Magazine, and the such. It depends on the publications you write for. Work for one with large advertising revenue, and you can get paid very handsomely as a freelancer.
Have you ever written before? Perhaps for your school newspaper?
Newspaper editor of 20+ years experience here.
- If there’s still time, take a high school journalism class.
- Write for your high school newspaper.
- Go to college. Major in journalism, or major in English and minor in journalism. Either way is fine.
- Write for the college newspaper while in school.
- Work your ass off no less than five years for small dailies and weeklies, while living on Ramen noodles.
- Move up to bigger papers; learn why there’s no future in newspapers; switch to magazines or online content.
- Get married, start a family, buy a house.
- Spend the rest of your life banging your head against a figurative brick wall, wondering why in the hell you didn’t get teaching certification when you could.
Let me know how it works out for ya’.
thanks sunrazor…I think that helps. haha…so with your experience would you say journalism is a good profession? or would you deter youngins like me from delving in?? thanks for your advice!
Newspaper work ain’t easy, but it can be very rewarding, and now’s the time to start preparing for it if that’s really want you want. to do
I spent the better part of a decade working as a sportswriter. I wrote for my high school paper and college paper, doing free lance work for other papers and magazines along the way. After college I got a job as a beat writer covering a major league team. The pay wasn’t horrible, and I got paid to watch my favorite sport and talk to star players every day. The downside was the constant travel, plus the fact that sports are generally played at night and on the weekend makes it hard to have a family life. When my kids were born, I quit the beat and did freelance writing fulltime. I was able to fashion that kind of career becuase of the reputation I’d earned in my years as a newspaper writer and because of the contacts I’d made.
My advice to people who say they want to be writers is to tell them to write. Write and write and write some more. Start with a blog or with a school paper or a local weekly, and just get some experience. The great thing about writing is that you have your body of work to show people, and if you’re any good, that will open doors for you.
In addition to your school paper, you may want to check into your local papers. If your town has a small weekly or daily, talk to the editor and see if they want some student reporting.
I was going to post pretty much what anson2995 said, but I have a couple of pieces of additional advice.
First, be very conscious of spelling and grammar when you write. This includes message board posts, instant messages and e-mail. Even though it’s “just the Internet”, it’s easy to get complacent and let the informality of Internet style creep into your work.
Second, talk to your English teacher (and your journalism teacher, if you have one) and ask him/her to go over some old papers with you to get a feel for your strengths and weaknesses. Valid constructive criticism is essential to improving your writing, and some (me among them) think you can’t improve without it.
Third, to be a good writer, you must READ. Read the newspaper every day and pay close attention to both content and style. Read magazines and books about current events, too, especially if you’re interested in becoming a journalist.
Finally, visit your local newspaper and see if you can shadow one of their reporters for the day. Learn something about how the job is actually done. Explore the salary and benefits, as well as possible career paths. You can (and should) do this with your local newsradio and TV stations, as well. Find out if you can do an internship for school credit.
Good luck, and e-mail if I can answer more questions. I have a BA in communications and journalism and am working on my master’s in communication.
Robin
Journalism, yes. Newspapering, absolutely not. It’s elitist, it’s hidebound and that’s why it’s dying.
Online content is the place to be. Shoot for journals like Salon or Slate – something with real credibility, and that has a sense of gatekeeping mission. The biggest problem with online “news” is that there’s no gatekeeping. And remember, journalism is 24/7, because the world is 24/7.
But the rest of what I said – go to college, get on the college paper, etc. – I really meant that. Do that. And don’t look past the small colleges. I first went to a junior college, then to the #3 public university in Colorado. A degree from a small college is as good as any other, unless you want to work for TIME or the Washington Post, but if you really had a shot at that, you wouldn’t be asking Dopers for advice on a journalism career.
anson2995 and msrobyn have some good advice, but it should go without saying. You need to be passionate about it, or it’ll end up being a very bad experience.
Hmm…guess who here owns a newspaper?
Gee, that must be me! No fooling. Small, but growing quickly.
Sunrazor, I’d take issue with the ‘paper newsprint is dying’ meme your spreading. While it’s true that daily newspapers are taking it hard weekly community and alternative newspapers are growing in circulation at an approximate rate of 1% per year (dates 1996-2003, E&P Magazine quotes by the NAA).
What we’re seeing happening is that more and more people aren’t turning to newsprint for breaking stories as there are now faster ways to get that sort of info. Deeper features and local information (i.e. that stuff not available readily in the national media) is still finding demand.
I also own and run an online newsletter covering a technology industry that’s a strong growth market. It’s fun.
I back up that the best thing you can do to learn to write is simply WRITE. Get a feel for style and importance. Assign priority to the data you’ve gathered and learn how to get it into 10 or 15 column inches. It’ll be grueling for a while but after a year or so it’ll be second nature to you.
Let me know if I can help. I’m currently holding internships for two local colleges at my paper and bringing the kids along is now a big part of the game for me.
I go to the University of Missouri-Columbia . It is one of the most renowned journalism schools in the country.
It is a very competitive school. We have sectors for magazine, newspaper, advertising, photojournalism, broadcast, and convergence (combining multiple mediums - like online newspapers and magazines etc).
When you get into the journalism school, you get hands on experience in your chosen field. If you do newspaper, you work for the Columbia Missourian paper. If you do magazine, you work for the Vox Magazine, if you do broadcast, you work (and possiblly anchor for) at KMOU TV.
The school also offers a lot of great study abroad options for journalism students. It’s a good way to make connections too.
If you’re serious about journalism, at least check out the school.
Rolling Stone has famously published writing by teenage writers (Elizabeth Wurtzel and Cameron Crowe come to mind). There are areas of the culture (Popular music, computer games, sports and extreme sports) where (a) there is a serious shortage of people who can write knowledgeably and well about the subject and (b) teenagers tend to know more about the subject than adults.
If you can write well and don’t have lavish expectations about how much money writers make, you should be able to sell nearly as many articles as you can produce.