The Bibby Stockholm death-trap, the British Museum scandal, the Queen’s passing, the King’s Coronation, Prime Ministers coming and going, the Downing Street parties, the Prince Andrew case – and that all aside from Covid and Brexit and all that is going on abroad, with wildfires, climate change disasters and many other big news items.
Journalists thrive on news and it’s been an undeniably fascinating time in that respect. That can create problems if you find yourself checking the news every five minutes because you can easily lose focus!
It can also make freelancing quite difficult – for the papers at least – as so many pages are dedicated to these major stories, but they know that their readers tire of such news items quickly as well and they need to keep things fresh.
As we often note, editors usually put staff journalists on to these stories. So unless you have a unique take on a story or an amazing contact, you’ll struggle to get a commission to write about these subjects, but don’t despair! What you can do is to try to think of some left-field ideas.
For example, back to the Downing Street parties, you could be sparked to write about whether it’s right to take your partner to a work party or bad things that have happened at a work leaving do or Christmas party.
Or, for a more serious story, take a look at the history of other countries and how they handle asylum-seekers and identify mishaps and good examples our country and politicians can learn from.
Look for ideas inspired by and connected to a topical subject that can hold a reader's interest and provide a break from the more obvious ‘big news’ stories to see your career flourish!
