Cornwall ON – Last fall as my career as a Journalism student was nearing its end I began pondering about what kind of jobs awaited me after graduation. At this time of reflection it became embarrassingly apparent that I had no idea how to market myself and no understanding on how to get paid to write.
In normal circumstances this can be a big downfall for someone seeking a career in journalism. The fact that we were, and still are in a recession made even more difficult to obtain working experience. After sharing my concerns with some of my peers I learned of a new upstart media company known as the Cornwall Free News. It only took a few emails back and forth from the Editor and Chief Jamie Gilcig to convince him to take me on as his first intern.
In retrospect this ongoing internship with the CFN has been a great move for me. Not only has it given me a place to practice and hone my craft, but I have been given the freedom to discuss any topic I choose. For a junior writer this is almost unheard of and even though I have enjoyed my freedom, it has made it difficult for me to keep my writing focused.
Throughout the past few weeks I have been receiving more and more curious questions about the various topics I choose to write about. These questions have been coming from my editor, my close relatives, and my peers. The concern is that by discussing so many topics that have no connection to one another is that I am not resonating with my audience. Since this has been brought to my attention I thought it would be wise to ask you the devoted readers of CFN a sincere question.
What would you like me discuss more of? Your answers can be as simple as politics/sports or they can even be solid leads to news stories.
On that note I will be focusing more of my attention to my own interests such as writing, politics and the game of billiards. In the near future I plan to write extensively on all these topics as well as incorporating the suggestions from our readers.
This newspaper belongs as much to thousands of people who contribute to our over 100,000 page views a month, as it does anyone else. Therefore I welcome any story ideas or suggestions to either my personal email at markus.noe@live.com or to just simply blog it on the website. Feedback of any kind would be appreciated while I am travelling on this long and winding road to becoming a successful and profitable 😉 writer.
Markus Noé
The best way to learn the trade is to write a lot. Try to have a weekly column released on a fixed day of the week. Readers will then look forward to your next column. Good luck.
Markus, I enjoy reading your articles from time-to-time. What I believe you should write about is the fact that taxpayers give the governments money to operate and look after us. They are obviously operating! Do you think that they are looking after us to the best of their abilities? We, the Canadian taxpayers, should be the MOST IMPORTANT item in their agenda, but are we? I think not!
Markus
Good luck in your endeavors. A suggestion, tell the truth from an unbiased cynical perspective and always always give credence where it is due.
I have yet to find a media source that does not taint views to promote itself. Stay away from that and you will earn worthy reputation.
Anything else is tabloid.
smee day off today?
hec no just efficient
Somthing lacking out there, are follow up stories on stories. Not just the big items like was the money ever paid back from adscam, but others as well. You could break up articles into groups, political, non political, news, weather etc. Even take a week in history, recent or not, scan the headlines, and go from there.
No charge.
Oh and “career as a Journalism student was nearing its end” made me wonder how being a student was a career.