Tag Archives: andrew hankinson

Rosie Taylor: ‘Impossible to get a foot in the door without several thousand pounds’

Rosie Taylor, who describes herself “an undergraduate student who wants to beat the odds and become a journalist”, comments on the Unleashing Aspirations report that finds journalism “one of the most exclusive middle-class professions of the 21st century”.

“[I]t seems to me to be an irrefutable fact that it is practically impossible to get a foot in the door without several thousand of pounds in your pocket,” she says.

Exclusive? Yes. Middle-class? Definitely. A profession of the 21st century? Maybe not for much longer.

A good one to consider alongside a piece in yesterday’s Observer Magazine by freelance (and recently made redundant) journalist Andrew Hankinson. Hankinson, who stubbornly refuses to give up the print trade he loves, looks at the ‘Lost Generation’ concept across the board, but his own experiences might strike a chord or two with 20-something (and maybe 30-something) struggling journalists. The comments underneath the piece are worth a peruse too – he provoked a mixed reaction.