In our last online lecture we had the Web Development editor (business) of The Times, Joanna Geary, come in to talk to us about how she started in the world of journalism and what we could do to embrace all things online. Joanna was very friendly and I identified with her easily making the lecture a thoroughly enjoyable experience.
She took us through how she came to the conclusion she wanted to be a journalist. Aged 5 she decided she wanted to be a newsreader, which was very similar to me because when I was 6 years old I told my parents I was going to be a journalist and here I am 16 years later doing what I’ve always dreamed of doing. Though I didn’t achieve it quite as young as Damon Weaver the young boy who interviewed President Obama.
Aged 12 she wanted to be a war correspondent, then at 14 changed her mind and decided she wanted to be a reporter with a helicopter and a super human boyfriend (don’t we all!).
As she turned 16 she decided she wanted to be a political correspondent which then turned into wanting to be a journalist for BBC Radio 6 years later and finally at 23 she decided she wanted to be a newspaper reporter.
She stressed to us how difficult it was starting out as a journalist when you don’t have any official qualifications. She was always being told she was the second choice for the job. Something I’ve heard myself, though only when I was applying for retail jobs when I was 16, so its not quite the same. She was turned down by Coldfield News, Solihull Time and The Birmingham Post and Mail.
Finally her break came when she got a trial position on the business desk of The Birmingham Post. In December 2004 she was the general business reporter quickly becoming the enterprise editor 3 months later. Then in August 2007 she became the media and marketing editor. Pete Ashton created a blog called Created in Birmingham which was about cultural events happening in and around Birmingham. After discovering this blog, Pete encouraged Joanna to set up her own blog resulting in her setting up blog networks for The Birmingham Post and generating front page stories out of blog posts posted by non journalists. This again emphasizes the importance of User Generated Content (UGC). Joanna also told us that blogging has doubled her income in 18 months which certainly made more students prick their ears up. Personally I’d never even thought that blogging could increase my income in any way.
These days Joanna works for The Times , after being asked to visit the office via Twitter, sitting with the business team. She looks at new digital products, website development, new technologies, event planning and is involved in the paid content issue. Again we were told about the power of Twitter with Joanna saying that social networks were the future of distribution for journalism and I couldn’t agree more.
