Kickstarting your Career in Journalism: In Conversation with Lauren Cochrane
Lauren Cochrane is a freelance Fashion Journalist who has contributed to publications including The Face, ELLE UK, Vogue Business, Wallpaper*, i-D Magazine, and the Financial Times. She also works as a Senior Fashion Writer at the Guardian and is the author of ‘The Ten: The Stories Behind the Fashion Classics’. I asked Lauren to share her thoughts on how to get ahead in journalism, from emailing editors to managing shifting work priorities.
CODY: How did you start working in journalism?
LAUREN: I first started working when I was in my early 20’s. I had a slightly odd start in the industry while doing an MA in Fashion Journalism, a course which was not very common at the time. While I was doing that, I did some work for The Face before it launched. I met someone from the magazine who told me to ‘just send some ideas’ over. I did, and they sent them over to the News Editor of the Face at the time, and that’s how I was commissioned for my first piece of writing. I’ve been doing it for about 20 years now.
CODY: Do you think it’s important to balance working freelance with having other jobs?
LAUREN: I think it’s very difficult to say ‘Right, I’m going to be a Freelance Journalist’. When I first started as a journalist, I had four other jobs. I worked at a bar; I worked as an administrator at an office. I did various other things- you have to do that unless you’ve got some other way to not worry about money. Most people are going to have multiple jobs, and I think you should own that. You need to pay your rent, and everyone knows that- you can just do as much freelancing as you can alongside those other jobs.
CODY: Is there anything you think someone should know about working freelance if they are currently considering it?
LAUREN: The thing about freelancing is that there’s never been a month or a period that I can say it was the perfect amount of work. You either feel like you’re never going to work again or that you can’t think straight because you have so much work. It’s a job where there are quite a lot of extremes, so you need to be able to deal with that. I know a lot of my friends have tried freelancing and didn't like it because it doesn't have as much security or a solid routine. I think it's down to your personality, I like that I have the flexibility and that I manage my own time.
CODY: Do you have any advice about starting out as a freelance Journalist?
LAUREN: My advice is to always think about the publications that you like. Look at the mastheads at the front of the magazine where everyone’s job is and find the editor’s emails and email them. I think you can get really caught up in really organising how you're going to do something. I do think there is a strength in just going ‘I like this magazine; I've found the features editor of this magazine; I'm going to email them with an idea’. It’s also good to go to magazine shops and figure out which publications you're interested in. Use all social media platforms you are keen on- when you are starting out that can provide a very literal platform for your work. If you’re an aspiring art journalist, for example, you can do a post about an exhibition you like, and it gives people a sense of you. Even if you haven’t written much, you can put your Instagram handle in your email to show people your taste and interests. You would need to make a call on this personally, but I think sometimes if you want to get your by-line out there, you might want to do some work for free for just when you start. But I would say once you’ve got a few pieces under your belt, you should stop doing that. Otherwise, people will just think you’ll write for free forever. It’s also good to go to events. You never know who is going to be there and who you could meet. You could meet someone who's the features editor at a magazine you like. I think personally if you want to be a journalist, it’s like a chicken and egg, you can’t get the article without having previous commissions. You need to have a few previous commissions so people can see you’ve written that for x or y publication because there’s also the kudos of that.
CODY: What are the benefits of freelancing?
LAUREN: it's nice to have the freedom to decide what you want to do in a day. To organise yourself and have your diary and all that. What I like about it is, that I have like quite a short attention span, so it works because you can bounce between lots of different things in a day. So today, for example, I'm working on four different stories that are all completely different, so that stimulates my brain. I also like the fact that in journalism, you are often thinking about ideas. As a freelancer, ideas are your currency. It can be hard to think of ideas if you haven’t got any. But what I do like about that is that it means you are more plugged into the zeitgeist than if you weren’t doing this as a career.
CODY: Are there any final thoughts you’d like to share?
LAUREN: You’ve got to kind of reach out to these people with an initial email about who you are and what you want to do. And then the other thing I’d say would be don’t feel awkward about doing other part-time jobs for money, you have to do those things. My other point would be to shamelessly use social media because it’s like free publicity- what you want when you are starting is to stand out from the other people who are also starting.
