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It’s a long time now since I sat in front of a high school career counsellor in Dunedin and told them I thought I might like to be a journalist. I was post-mullet, pre-moustache and pretty much only paying attention properly in history and English.
The counsellor laid out the path I’d likely need to take and I duly ticked those boxes – through an undergrad degree defined more by intense socialising than intensive studying and a last gasp post-grad sealing shorthand test.
So here I am today without any sense there’s something else I should have done.
Grace Biber, winner of The Age Essay Prize in the 19-24 age group, with The Age’s deputy editor, Mat Dunckley.Credit: Joe Armao
I was reminded of that high school experience this week when I had the great pleasure of announcing the winners of The Age’s inaugural essay contest. In the room were a dozen or so young people ranging from mid-teen high schoolers to early 20-somethings.
They made a line to take selfies with our banner at the front the room. It was exactly the feeling that we hoped to inspire in these aspiring young writers and a great moment to reflect on the place we hold in this city.
Several told me that journalism was where they hoped to end up. One showing particular promise made a beeline for our national editor David King to hit him up about an overseas posting.
Smiling, she told me later she was “geeking out” just to be part of the room. I have no doubt she’ll be putting her foot into doors belonging to editors and politicians in no time.
In a conversation with another young man and his brother we discussed the tremendous variety of work in a newsroom – you never really know what the day is going to throw at you. These days, too, the options for a journalist to tell their story have never been broader.
There’s the written word of course, but there’s also the opportunity to make video content for our site or social media, audio, including podcasts and the expanding galaxy of digital visualisations.
As I’m sure many of you know, our flagship podcast is Please Explain, a daily look at the news hosted by Samantha Selinger-Morris. Last week it was judged the best daily podcast in the country. It’s seriously good.
Please Explain does much more than just riff on the news of the day.
A week ago we produced a two-day special edition on Charlotte Grieve’s remarkable investigation into the deaths of Tony Cawsey and Moses Kellie.
It was powerful journalism featuring the voices of many of the people she wrote about in her piece for the site and newspaper. It complemented perfectly the remarkably deep reporting in her features but it is also an excellent piece of stand-alone audio.
There’s also the weekly Inside Politics session with Jac Maley, David Crowe and a rotating panel of guests, which runs every Friday.
I caught up with our head of audio Ruby Schwartz this week to get more of an insight into how her team works and what they’re up to.
A key message is that daily podcasting doesn’t really get turned around in a day. The producing team – Julia Carr-Catzel, Tammy Mills and Chee Wong – work hard to bring more narrative to the news.
It is not about rocking up in front of a mic and making it up on the fly.
“We want to zoom out, provide the historical context, ask what does this mean?” Schwartz told me.
That takes planning. The team will spend the day or two before an episode organising, strategising and pre-interviewing journalists.
Then there’s the post-show work where they’ll gather audio from other sources or news reports to really bring the story home to listeners. Music is mixed in and the whole piece is put through a ringer of reviews with suggested tweaks, edits and re-records.
It’s hard work but you can hear it when you listen (which I usually do out for a run around the creeks).
Our podcast stable is growing strongly as well as including some longer running favourites like Real Footy , and Good Weekend Talks featuring in-depth interviews with interesting people.
It’s been fascinating, too, to see how our journalists have taken to podcasting as a way to reach a wider audience for their stories.
As investigations editor it is now a common part of the rollout of our biggest pieces to alert Schwartz and her team to book in reporters such as Nick McKenzie to talk through their latest work.
Schwartz says she’s got some ideas about where we might go next with our audio offering and we will likely hear more about that in the new year.
One thing she did call out is that we want to be doing more of those miniseries. Aside from Grieve’s work, a Please Explain special bouncing out of Eryk Bagshaw’s investigation into abductions in Japan was part of the podcast’s award-winning entry.
Heading into 2024, we would love to know what episodes you’re enjoying or what more you want to hear. You can email Schwartz here and, as always, our editor Patrick Elligett would be happy to hear from you too.
She’s also thinking about how to get a little more reader involvement: “If we’re covering a story where people are very affected like rising costs of living – we’d love voice memos from them.”
That sounds good! Much like Please Explain.
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