Becoming a Journalist...

"Hi, I'm a journalist from Third Sector magazine, could we get a comment on..."

Now I see why Roberta wanted us all to go to weekly B2Bs! It's byline central and I love it - especially when people comment on your online stories. I've written lots of news, reviewed a few websites, on my way to a feature and done phone interviews in my sleep (OK, not quite in my sleep, but you do them so often that you don't even realise you're doing them!)

It's incredible how quickly we're writing NIBs (news in briefs - not y-fronts!) now: press release, phone interview, five Minutes later, NIB Done. Honestly, you pop the kettle on and a strong black Arabica later, you've got another byline - without the a,b,c, resubs!

Seriously though, and without wanting to sound like a Jerry Springer final thought, I really feel like Roberta and Keith, Ade, Tom, Will and Richard have, collectively, filled our journalist tool boxes to the brim with every possible colon, comma rule and contact book we'll ever need on a magazine! Forgot full stops though!

To anyone reading this wondering if it's worth the blood, sweat, tears and ten thousand resubs, I would say: yes. Dig out your old personal statement, dust off your CV and get on the PMA course.

Note to editor: the author did not get paid for this, rather advertorial-sounding, article!

Missing the gang though, third sector's office isn't as loud or as funny...

(And remember, take care of yourselves aand each other.)

I think my clock has stopped...

The first week of placement completed and only two weeks of the PMA journey to go...I feel like I have been trapped in time for the past seven weeks and truly cannot believe that it is March tomorrow. Or that I'm 23 for that matter...my birthday passed in such a blur of GYB magazine frenzy that when someone asked me my age the other day, I actually had to think about it. For a good ten seconds!

Anyway, placement is going well. Its great to have a change of scenery and put things into practice. And, it's quite nice to hand work in, see your name on the website and think- hey, I can actually do this.

The journey to Hammersmith has been a nightmare though, I'm nearing three hours of commuting everyday which works out at 15 hours a week, nearly a total of two working days...which is the very reason why I have the time to work meaningless facts like that out. Anyway enough random ranting.

I'm looking forward to catching up with everyone in a week, getting the shorthand exam (aaahh!) out the way and seeing the mag.

And then who knows...maybe I will actually BE a journalist.

See you soon guys x

One week down

Reached the end of the first week of my placement at Planning - the journal of the Royal Town Planning Institute.

Press day is Tuesday, so things were hotting up when I arrived on Monday morning. "We're starting to move into fourth gear," the news editor explained. Straight away I was given stories to follow up, and got myself a byline on page two of the magazine. Not a bad start to the week.

I've had plenty to do, working on stories they've given me, and finding some of my own. It's surprising how interesting it all is. Who would guess that housing estates in Southampton and footbridges in Devon could be so exciting. And Shepway District Council is having a meeting next Wednesday to decide on whether to allow the expansion plans of Lydd airport. I await the results with interest.

I don't know anything about the subject, which can be tricky when it gets complicated. The editor is still having a think about a feature I could write. "I don't want to give you something that'll make you want to kill yourself," he said. On the other hand, after only a week I've learnt a lot and I'm already starting to get a handle on the big issues facing the industry.

The strangest thing is that everyone arrives at 9.30, and goes home at 5.30. If I arrive at 9.25, there's no one there, and if I leave at 5.35, I'm the last to go. I thought that press day might be a longer day, but no! They actually finish early. How extraordinary to have evenings and weekends free.

PMA has prepared me well. There was a freelancer in yesterday. She was doing exactly the same job as me, to the same standard. The only difference was that she was getting paid. Now there's an idea. Perhaps I'll try that next.

Placements

First day of placements. Quiet. Phones sit in front of journalists, but they are rarely touched. Odd. Hours are 9.30-5.30 = heaven.

I've ended up at emap with MEED. A small and friendly team. Editor is really helpful and we'll be discussing possible news stories and features that I could write tomorrow. Excited. Read the style guide today, slightly different to Gap Year Business, but shouldn't be too difficult to master.

I miss PMA already

x

Two tears in a bucket......

I had a long overdue appointment with Dr. Duvet this morning and it was goooooood! Yesterday was a double celebration as we wrapped on GYB and celebrated Naomi's b-day (because we're not in on Sunday). We all pretty much overdosed on sweets and chocolates to celebrate.

It was a bit of a surreal moment finishing the mag. The countless hours of writing, subbing, laying out, re-subbing, re-re-subbing, proofing and panicking finally paid off.

We start placements on Monday. Everyone is nervous, aiming to make a good impression no doubt.

I'm gonna miss the rest of the gang and the jokes that we share. But by the end of it I'm sure we'll all be flying high like Jeff Hardy.


© WWE

There is still loads of work to do. Three features for Will and a couple of hundred resubs for Keith! Oh yes and can't forget the teeline.

One final message to the crew.......click me

Willow the Whisp
xoxo

STAGGERINGLY late with this post - I should have done one ages ago. Oh well, it's only a deadline. (!)

Everything has been busy, what with producing a magazine and all that. Still, it's done now. I'll miss InDesign - I was just getting the hang of it.

What's that? It's done? The magazine, finished? I can hardly believe it. All that work and we're finally there. Or are we? Perhaps there'll be even more work to do when we get in tomorrow morning...

Of course there will be, with or without the magazine. There always is. "Lot's to do tomorrow," said Roberta. And she would know. I expect most of the day will be taken up with cleaning the office, although that will probably take most of the weekend.

It's a doddle this journalism, isn't it?

Stop the press!

It's the evening before the magazine goes to print and I am struggling
to string full sentences together...so I think it's rather lucky that we have all the
copy written!

Today has gone a bit like this:
Put copy on page, take copy off page, add image, change image for
copyright reasons, write standfirst, cut standfirst and re-do byline,
make text box, re-size text box, align text box.

REMEMBER TO LOOK AT POST-IT THAT SAYS: BLINK (thanks Keith).

Put copy on page, take copy off page, add image, change image for
copyright reasons, write standfirst, cut standfirst and re-do byline,
make text box, re-size text box, align text box...and it goes on and on.

However, we are getting there and if I may say so myself, it is coming
together beautifully!

One more night of restless, stress-ridden, magazine dream-filled sleep
and it will all be over.

But this is just the dress rehearsal. Next week it's off to placement
for the real macoy.

Yikes.

Running late and gaining weight

Hi all,

I'm sorry that I'm late to the blog again. I was meant to write on Valentine's Day but I had to move to my new pad in Shoreditch and visit a night of confessions for my feature. It was definitely an interesting way to spend a day meant for love. I was squashed in a room with 50 people revealing all manner of naughtiness and nastiness about their lives, interspersed with a man playing a banjo accompanied by an animated Henry the hoover. The life of a journalist is truly varied.

Another excuse is that I haven't been able to eat properly while on the course so I have put on weight and my fingers are getting fatter making it more difficult to type (honest Keith - they're like a packet of Walls). Seriously, at this rate I'll be wearing a moomoo - one of those sheets with an elasticated neck - that people wear on Jerry Springer.

Well GYB, premier B2B for the gap sector, has truly landed and the pressure is on. Tomorrow is deadline day and we are still rummaging around in the hovel we have created for ourselves. Charlie is king of the heap and he's giving Tracy Emin a run for the money with the pyre he's cultivating under his desk. In between, making are way through the mounds of paper and piles of Cougar bars, we are furiously laying out copy and killing all the widows and orphans.













Charlie's desk

The mag is really coming together and is looking fabby doobie even if I do say so myself. We are still managing to laugh despite Roberta turning up the heat on headlines and Keith wandering in and out to point out problems from a distance. He has the ability to spot a typo from 20 paces and it always seems to be on one of my pages.

I am still struggling with grammar and Will has informed me in the nicest possible way I'm a crime against punctuation but I guess it's just my mountain to climb. Really need to climb it soon well before midday deadline tomorrow :s

Right, I must dash and write a few more headlines buoyed by Gloria Gaynor's I am What I am.

See you post deadline,

Much love from your favourite sausage-fingered scribe xxx

Lois Lane Lays and Subs

I ve come to the conclusion that paper grows in our office. Everytime it is cleaned up, it returns by the box load. As for being eco friendly, I think that went out the window with my sanity.

Back to a more serious issue: the magazine. Deadline is looming. We've all being trying to master laying the pages out, subbing copy and chasing pictures. It is stressful, especially as my bloody page keeps disappearing! However, I have a feeling, at the Daily PMA Planet that it's all going to be worth it.

It can't be as bad as yesterday's law exam, well not unless your name is JT and The Kid (who both passed with flying colours). I have to say it was not one of my best moments. So, I, like the majority of my class, will have to fit in some serious study in the next couple of weeks.

No chance of skipping out of my work placement at Inside Housing then?

That's a Roberta 'NO!' on that.

Roll on March 12th........x

And so I'm left wondering...is there anything else to eat other than bread and biscuits?

OK, back on the blog train, although I'm not sure that I can top the Triska ditty!

Bourbons, bread and bean soups are on the menu tonight! Not too dissimilar from, well, any of the other 35 nights here at Chez PMA! There were some Rich Teas at one point though (you know it's bad when there's nothing but a Rich Tea on offer). Then there was biscuit-gate with the stolen fig rolls.

Anyway, enough biscuit talk. The mag is well underway and so to avoid doing any more sub-editing, I'm blogging!

Today's been a real fun-filled photo day! And, as we were looking for front cover inspiration, I stumbled upon these Ms. C Bradshaw images. Surprised there were no Carrie comments on the blog as yet, I thought we might like to O.D. on them - enjoy!

Oh, is that the front door! The Chinese has just arrived - well, we can't have custard creams all the time! N x

There are a lot of commas in poems

The PMA is the place for,

hang on a minute,

I've not thought this through,

What am I to say?

I haven't a clue.

Perhaps it's best I introduce the few,

who make the days go by - I bring you the crew.

Sitting next to me is Fiona,

She likes wasabi, and we adore her.

And then there's Naomi,

Prompt and so timely,

Together with crumpet loving Rehanon,

They make fine impression-companions.

At the other end of the room sits Emily,

As editor in chief, it's she we have to please,

Opposite her is Khidr,

His name is pronounced Khidr (خدر)

A seat down is our Charlie,

The Sun journalist, his language so classy.

The smooth tones of Jonathan,

reverberate sounding Elizabethan.

Simon the inquisitive soul,

Which leg? Which leg? We'll never know.

Lest we forget chess-master Matthew,

Quiet in the corner,ready to woo.

And finally, there's me,

Your humble servant, "the queen".

Clearly we have far too much time on our hands, or I basically possess "the craft."

Magazine is coming together nicely. Still learning the tricks and tips to master the skills of inDesign.

Talking Sex with my Boss

Yesterday was our last features with Will, which I think went well. I have two of the six features passed at present, and I was told my copy has improved since the first one, which I liked to hear. Most everyone else is passing their assignments at speed too.

Today is a day I have been looking forward to for a bit, though I bet I regret saying that by the end of the day. We begin DTP (desktop publishing) which is something I kind of enjoy, but having never used inDesign that all might change.

The main change since the last blog is that I am trying to proof read everything. From the post you are reading now, to a text message to a mate. It’s making me a massive nerd, but I suppose in the long run it will (hopefully) help my copy.

Sorry for building this post up with an amazingly enticing title and then just giving you what we have done… but that’s what a blog is.

Si

Birthdays are for subbing!

Ok, not exactly how I had envisaged spending my birthday, but who said subbing couldn't be fun!

With cake from Keith, chocolates and a jacket-potato inspired card...and general PMA cheer- what more could a girl want!

We are on our merry way to finishing the magazine and I cant wait to see the final product. Deadlines have been set, stories subbed and pictures sourced. Now, we just have to double the amount of copy we already have!

Forgive me, I will leave it there for today. I am compensating for the rather short blog with two lovely pictures of the gang! Over and out.

Taking the Biscuit

PMA journalists were shocked to discover the disappearance of a number of their fig rolls.

Shocked journalist Khidr Suleman, 22, said: "This is unacceptable behaviour. I can't believe people do things like this and I am devastated. I'd spent my last bit of spare change on a delicious jammy dodger and now it's gone. It's been hard to DIGEST this terrible news."

The fig roles were last seen in the PMA communal kitchen and journalists are searching for crumbs (Evidence - surely Ed).

Met Police Detective Inspector Knacker told PMA: "For God's sake, stop ringing me otherwise I will charge you with wasting police time."

Lois Lane has a new hobbie!

Gone Fishing!

Please contact my secretaries - Miss Flying Wosit or Miss Keithfish on the lobster phone or by re-nose email.

Many thanks

Over and out

F xx

To be the man, you gotta beat the man

Everytime we see Keith the work level triples. At times, I'd rather be on the receiving end of a Shooting Star Press....



Have mercy indeed

or a Spiral Tap......




Yes that was the Phenomenal AJ Styles

But I will draw the line at being thrown off the top of a cage.....



Just in case you were wondering they didn't stop the damn match!

Anyway, I digress.....It's Friday evening and I'm finishing off "subbing" four pieces of work for Keith. I don't know why but for some reason he's starting to remind me of Ric Flair.

Today, Roberta rejoined us from Portugal and kindly let us spend the day working on features on our mag, Gap Year Business or GYB as our Paris office calls it. I have to say it was strange not have a class today. I could almost get used to that!

The workload continues to pile up by the day though and next week is shaping up to be more intense. Saying that, the course is really enjoyable and there have been many times when I have been crying with laughter due to the many humorous things that occur.

It's all about keeping the faith. And that's the bottom line coz Stone Cold said so!!

I think I'm turning Japanese...I really think so

Oi oi saveloys,

I'm writing my feature on Japan for GYB (the premier B2B for the gap industry) and I'm just nipping away from it to write this blog.

Here's a question - how do you get from a cardiologist to a male ballerina to a female ballerina to a brewer to a boxer and finally to the keeper of the Crown Jewels ? (Keith I'm giving this capitals but if it's not house style please feel free to whack me with the style guide)

Well I will tell you, it's by having to do this blinking Life in the Day of feature :s (grumble, grumble). It doesn't help, that I get really nervous about interviews. It also doesn't help being bounced around by potential interviewees. Anyway, at least it's now sorted and it's parr of the course in the life of the journalist. It's called the right royal runaround.

Enough moaning it's boring and unattractive, but I think we've all been doing a touch of it and rightly so cause this course is bloody hard. So although I'm not an expert, I can tell you now there will be either 10 super bad ass journalists or a pile of corpses at the end of this debacle.

I think if anything is going to be the death of me and my fellow students, it will be blinking subbing. That reminds me I must blink, Keith told me to. I am just grateful I colour my hair, as the grey would definitely have shown by now.

The other issue dividing us is John "who haven't I had" Terry (Ade - I'm aware this is repeating libel but I will use the defence of the truth), who Guber thinks is legend and, who me and the other gals think is a right dirty beggar.

Despite the hellish work load and Keith's manic laughter as he delivers us yet another subbing abomination we are all pulling together and willing each other on.

Right I must get back to Japan, well in print anyway.

Ta ta my lovelies,

xxx

Lois Lane is flagging at the Daily PMA Planet

Sleep deprivation, no biscuits, missing the tube home, law, resubs, grammarnitus are just a few of my non-favourite things!

It is Groundhog dog at the Daily PMA Planet and at home. I remember laughing my head off in the cinema when I saw the film 'Groundhog Day' it was so funny. What's so hysterically worrying is that I am now playing the Bill Murray character. Just get it right Fiona (your grammar and resubs) and your life will go back to normal.

Home life is practically non-existant. It was a treat last night to bath my little boy and read him Teeline, sorry I mean a bedtime story. Conversations with my hubby usually consist of the following:

Hubby: 'What time are you coming to bed tonight?'
Me: 'No idea darling'

Four hours later - 2am

Hubby: 'Oh my god there is a strange woman in my bed, who is she?'
Me: 'It's me your wife, Teeline Resub....er, I mean Fiona!'

Struggling at the 'Daily PMA Planet' is what I do everyday and I know I am not alone. Features is interesting, but if I have to write about or go near Camden market again I will cry very loudly. Our GYB magazine reminds me of when I have to go for my smear test. Not pleasant but you have to do it.

Oddly, I am still enjoying myself, having Naomi supply me in nuts, Rehanon doing her impressions, Khidir providing communal bread and Charlie sharing his crossaints with me makes my day a little easier.

My current record for studying late is 5am, however Rehanon has beaten me (only just) on not going to bed at all, for a day. Will have to do a re-nose on that!

Keep the faith

Fxxxx

its not my day

Shh. This isn’t my blog day. Honestly the thought of working on the ‘Othello’ piece makes me want to Feng Shui my room just to have something else to do.

Today was subbing with Keith, which I think is going to help me no end with my lists, grammar, sentences and structure. Well, I hope it does, since we last spoke I have been going to bed at the ‘Jeremy Kyle hour’ of the morning and getting up less than a handful of hours later. I have been avoiding the urge to moan on this thing for a number of reasons. The main two are, I know I will look back on the posts in like a year and think ‘you moaning arse’, and I don’t want the past students to chuckle away at our misery.

Each and every day my desk seems to look like I am a detective obsessed with a murder case. Having to put up post-its and paper evidence of who did it, but I can’t crack the case. The case of the feature for GAP year business.

We have finished our features days with Will (until Monday at least) and have been set a task entitled ‘a day in the life’. I have set my sights a little high and finally ended up (I hope) with the guy who runs TFL lost property.

If I am honest I’m really looking forward to next week. DTP should be awesome, and I am quite intrigued as to what inDesign can do.

Anyone I am off to do some teeline… right after I have read War and Peace, in French, backwards.

Legal Pickle

I’m shaking as I write. I hope no one is reading.

We just did media law, and it seems you can’t write anything without being sued. Possibly jailed.

We discussed the defences journalists can employ against libel charges, such as fair comment, public interest, and speaking the truth. But none of them seemed to stack up...

I really hope no one is reading. If you are, forgive me. I didn’t mean that thing I wrote about the time you used a pickle to… Oops! I just remembered: never apologise, it can be used against you in court. Just pass the complaint on to your editor. Or Keith and Roberta!

Keith?

Roberta?

Someone?

with all the very best wishes and warm regards

Haircuts. The length of hair at the PMA has suddenly shortened. From ten minute trims to two hour designer snips, the boys have embarked on new looks. Perhaps it's their way to offload the burden of re-subs, or maybe they were preparing extra room for the doom cloud of media law around their heads. Who knows?

The routine is the same. Wake up. Travel. PMA. Nina. Lessons. Coffee. Lessons. Lunch. Lessons. Tea. Lessons. Resubs. Resubs. Resubs. Resubs. Travel. Home. Sleep. Repeat.

Lunchtime discussion: how to sign off emails: (are these colons right Keith?)

yours sincerely (seriously guys, it's an email, not a letter!), kindest regards, kind regards, warm regards, regards, all the very best, all the best, with best wishes, with the very best wishes, best and my personal favourite, cheers blad.

things are piling up

The last day of features with Will. Someone from the Sunday Times travel section came in to talk to us about intros. Brilliant.

Would have been quite an easy day, were it not for the fact that we have SO MUCH TO DO. Here's a list of some of the things that fill each day:

• doing the work we've been set
• doing the work we've already done that we need to do again
• doing the work that we've already done multiple times and still keeps coming back needing more work
  
• shorthand
• frantically calling people up to find news for our magazine
• thinking of features for our magazine
• researching and writing the features for our magazine
• media law
  
• reading the papers
• reading the travel news
• looking for jobs
• applying for jobs
  
• eating (when we get a moment)

All this doesn't include the classes that actually fill up the whole day. It is mental. It's also tremendous fun, which is lucky.