This website has been defunct since December 2022. Now, I’m brushing away the cobwebs.
I am entering freelance journalism. This website will serve as my portfolio.
Immediately after secondary school, I decided I wanted to be a journalist. My plan was to focus on journalism whilst studying literature and creative writing at Aberystwyth. Journalism and publishing and all of the adjacent fields piqued my interest. But this is what I always circle back to. I can now call myself a journalist, albeit a young one in need of more experience.
I joined Aberystwyth University’s student newspaper in 2023. It was still relatively new, having previously been shut down by the Students’ Union at Aberystwyth. This is not the place for that story. But I was lucky enough to join the revived newspaper just as they were searching for an editor.
The process was surprisingly seamless. With a few months of editing under my belt, I became the editor-in-chief in the following year’s team.
A confession: I hadn’t written a single journalistic article for the student newspaper beforehand. I went in as an editor and continued doing that until March this year. In November 2024, I reached out to the editor of Cambrian News in the hopes of establishing some sort of working relationship.
One conversation with him changed everything.
Newspaper editors must be sharp, direct, logical. He was all of these things. I was stunned into silence by his force and clarity. It made me wonder if I was cut out for journalism at all. I wondered if I had wasted his time. But he gave me a chance: I was commissioned to write a piece about why aspiring journalists should bother going into such a volatile industry. Speaking to the editor of a national Welsh newspaper, and learning of the state of the UK journalism industry, quickly dispelled any romantic notions I had of the field.
He obliterated my expectations.
That is exactly what needed to happen.
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Before I realised what journalism actually is, I had the idea that the writing is the most important part. That is residue from my creative background — I write fiction, short stories, poetry, creative non-fiction, scripts.
That is not journalism. Writing is only part of a much larger process. What matters the most is the work behind it. Planning, researching, delivering the pitch, following your editor’s demands, interviewing sources, drafting, fact-checking, honing the work. Engaging with people and the world. Engaging in some way with politics, history, psychology, sociology… the list goes on and on. Writing is the result of all the work that comes before it. And those who read articles don’t want showiness or purple prose.
Journalism is about brevity. Concision.
Features and essays — the longer forms of journalism — are my main area. I also recognise the importance of the report, the bulletin, the snippet. I’m willing to write in all of the forms. Different articles serve different purposes. This being my own website, I can stretch out a bit and write pieces like this.
Articles about the world and about people demand more consideration. More detachment, brevity, objectivity. This is a personal introduction. Any other journalistic piece I write won’t have this looseness. This focus on myself.
So what will I be focusing on in my work?
- Community organisation
- Anti-war and environmental activism
- Subjects of Welsh interest (our arts, our politics, our language etc.)
- The journalism industry in general
- Literature, cinema, and music
- Travel
- Obituaries
…and much more, no doubt. This is what I want to write about. Practice will allow me to hone these topics into fine, specific areas.
The nature of freelance work means accepting commissions from those willing to hire you. But it also means pitching your own ideas and angles, working with editors to create your best possible work. I know next to nothing about the day-to-day of freelance journalism. I hope to find out what that entails very soon.
I’m not downplaying the importance of my time with the student newspaper, nor the fact that I’ve published an article in the Cambrian News. But I am still relatively inexperienced. Journalism is not something to take for granted. This industry will not be kind to me. It has no obligation to. The work will be demanding and sometimes arduous. I know the stress that afflicts a news team on publication day.
Journalism is the form that demands the most objectivity from writers.
Why? Because they’re writing about the world. Presenting it. Witnessing what is happening, contributing to society.
I, too, plan on doing just that.
Iestyn Tudor 