Advice for getting into journalism

Hi Lee, first off, great work on the book. Thanks so much for putting together such a comprehensive read. I actually have a question for you that has nothing to do with bikes though: how did you break into the journalism field?

The more you click, the more I can post. Lee Likes Groceries dot com!

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I live over in Golden and work down in the DTC doing technical writing/editing for an engineering company but it is slowly sucking the life out of me. I would love to be able to parlay my writing experience into a career in journalism (expository pieces, op/ed, that kind of thing) but am not really sure where to begin.

Thanks in advance and keep up the great work on the website.

Cheers, Evan

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Hey Evan,

I studied journalism and wrote/illustrated/edited for my schools’ newspapers and magazines, so when I graduated I had a ton of clips and a direct line on an internship. From there it was all about experience and clips.

– It’s all about clips!

– Decide what kind of writing you want to do, then do it however you can. Small papers, free papers, whatever. Demonstrate your kung fu, and save your clips.

– Become part of whatever you’re covering. Local politics, business, bikes, crafts, whatever. Become an expert.

– Parlay that into increased freelance assignments or a regular “stringing” gig. Example: Covering the local high school football team.

– From there you can move into a “real” job.

Be aware that you’ll work more and earn less.

I enjoy writing for private companies: I get to be creative, and they pay 5-10X what MTB magazines pay (when they bother to pay).

Good luck,

— Lee