9. Writing for Newspapers, Magazines, Contract Publishers and News Wires

The differences in approach that you will come across in working for different types of journalistic media are mainly to do with the kinds of deadlines you will encounter and the number of people you will work with. Taking each of the major outlets for press writing in turn . . .

Newspapers

Tend to be at least weekly in frequency and will often have a relatively large number of in-house writers, although a large amount of content is also bought in from agencies and stringers (freelance writers who act as correspondents for the paper). The editorial agenda is usually driven by news and there may be several deadlines in a single day for different editions of the paper.

Features desks operate at a (slightly) more leisurely pace and tend to farm out more of their work. It is normal for different columnists and contributing editors to ‘own’ a page or section of the paper and produce most of the material for it.

Magazines

These tend to be at most weekly in frequency and have relatively few in-house editorial staff. On features-based magazines it is not unusual for practically all the stories to be commissioned from freelance writers.

Rates tend to be better than for newspapers. When pitching stories, however, bear in mind that pictures can be an important part of the subject matter; you may need to make sure images are available to go with your text.

Contract publishers

Contract publishing is the term for customer magazines produced by publishers under contract from the owners of well-known brands. It includes in-flight and supermarket magazines, for example.

From humble beginnings, contract publishing has grown into a major industry which deserves an entire book to itself. Some of the highest-circulation magazines in the UK are contract-published titles and virtually every major magazine publisher now has a contract arm, competing with dozens of specialist firms that have hitherto dominated the sector.

Customer magazines tend to operate along lines that are essentially a mix of magazine publishing and internal communications (see Chapter 12). Each title has a small number of editorial staff, with a large amount of material being farmed out to freelance writers, but there is also a level of editorial input and control from the client.

Frequency tends to be no more than monthly and so deadlines are correspondingly long. Expect rates to be roughly on a par with those in the traditional magazine sector, although there may be room for negotiation if the client feels you can contribute specialist knowledge.

News wires

News wires and agencies provide much of the news that goes into ‘the news’. Pick up any paper and if you spot a by-line that says ‘staff reporter’, it is more than likely that the story came from an agency such as Reuters or Associated Press. Although many of the larger agencies have features departments, the daily story agenda is likely to be almost completely news-driven. Most editorial staff work in-house or under contract and information tends to be published as soon as it has been written up, so there are no deadlines as such. Rates tend to be modest compared with, say, the magazine sector.