MA-J portfolio

September 9, 2008 8:48 AM

I'm a young Canadian based in Toronto, looking to beef up my Journalism Masters application for next year with more clippings and media work. Can anyone suggest some places to pitch stories to? I'm thinking along the lines of CBC Outfront or Spacing magazine. I'm sure there are lots of places out there I haven't thought of. Thanks!
posted by pcameron to media & arts (5 comments total)

you could also try writing decent articles for blogto.com -- most of the stuff there is pretty tepid and not written especially well, so there could be a good chance for you to make your mark.
posted by modernnomad at 8:54 AM on September 9, 2008

As cool as blogTO and other blogs are, blog posts generally won't be considered "clips" in a media sense, since pretty much anyone can publish on the Internet.

The folks looking at your clips want to see that you've been assigned stories as a freelancer or employee of a for-profit media organization, that you've been paid for your work, that you've worked with editors and carefully gathered your own facts or covered events.

Blogging about cool things going on in the community or other news stories generated by media in that community does not count as media work.

So yes, you should try pitching stories to magazines or Web sites that seek paid content.

All that said, hopefully you've carefully considered the current state of for-profit media as you apply to a graduate program in journalism. Because of the freedom and relative anarchy of the Web, readers are gravitating more toward blogs that more closely represent their opinions, and free, community-driven Web sites like blogTO or metafilter, over general interest magazines and newspapers. I just left print media, and can tell you that in my neck of the woods, finding paid work in media that isn't teevee (shudder) is pretty tough.

There will hopefully always be some sort of model in which reporters are paid to observe and write in an unbiased fashion about what's happening in the community and world, but the transition to whatever that model will look like is going to be ugly.
posted by M.C. Lo-Carb! at 9:40 AM on September 9, 2008

You could try Eye Weekly and Now Magazine.
posted by Dasein at 9:59 AM on September 9, 2008

Metro, too.
posted by twiki at 10:34 AM on September 9, 2008

The folks looking at your clips want to see that you've been assigned stories as a freelancer or employee of a for-profit media organization, that you've been paid for your work, that you've worked with editors and carefully gathered your own facts or covered events.

Actually, major city blogs like Torontoist and blogTO do cover about 90% of this. It's on a smaller scale and varies by blog, but they can be quite organized with thorough writing+editing processes and yes, payment. I'm more familiar with Torontoist than blogTO on this count, but it does seem to be a stepping stone into the grown-up journalism industry (and the National Post in particular) for many of its writers.

The real downside is that the effort may not be worth the results you're looking for. I believe Torontoist requires a fairly steady contribution rate from its staff writers, definitely more than the occasional freelance piece. I get the feeling it's more of a part-time career than a temporary portfolio-beefer-upper. So for the amount of work required, someone with your credentials (I'm assuming you have some if you're applying for your MA) will probably be able to find other work that can fill your portfolio more efficiently.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 10:35 AM on September 9, 2008