Media Wish List

For me, my choice of reading matter usually needs to provide me with intellectual stimulation and a sense of aspiration. I like to have learnt something when putting down a magazine, or gained some information about a new book I could read, skill I could master or place that I could go to. Interviews with offbeat, fascinating people are a must, as is the chance to broaden my cultural horizons. From a newspaper, I enjoy strong opinion and comment from writers whom I can respect.

Catch 22 have some very prestigious media partners and, while I would consider myself lucky to gain any kind of media work experience, I will enter into a brief reverie. If I may... 

I have been reading The Daily Mail for ten years. I quickly came to realize that far too many of my ideas for the morning features meetings were coming from The Mail online! I like the fact that the newspaper isn't afraid to propound strong opinions and I also enjoy the debate that the website engenders. In the last few years my weekly reading of You magazine (in the bath!) has come to be something I look forward to greatly. Its mix of fashion, lifestyle and cultural articles is exactly what I look for and enjoy in a magazine. Recently I have come to appreciate the previously overlooked Live magazine; it has that magical quality of making one feel more intelligent! 

The Mail online has recently climbed to second place in a list of the world's most popular news sites, beaten only by The Huffington Post!

The words 'Conde Nast' strike a chord in the heart of anybody who is as interested in the world of magazines as I am. The clothes and culture contained within the pages of Tatler represent a level of sophistication that I have always aspired to. While I was studying the long eighteenth century at university I referred to the Tatler of Addison and Steele for cultural context and thus I enjoy the heritage and links to history that the modern magazine has. Reading Tatler has been described as 'being like sitting next to an intelligent and witty person at a dinner party' and this is precisely why, for me, it is such an enjoyable read.

I have enormous piles of NatMags publications all over my house that I have collected over the last few years. I used my mum's Tesco Clubcard points to get myself a subscription to Harper's Bazaar and when it drops through the letter box I settle down for a couple of hours with a pot of tea to savour the glossy pages. It features a wide variety of interesting people and the fashion and lifestyle articles are always grounded in something substantial, rather than being too frivolous.



There are often copies of Good Housekeeping and Country Living scattered around our house and, although they probably weren't intended for my age group, I love them too!

So if my thoughts on the matter were to be bounded in a nutshell, so to speak, I would enjoy work experience at a newspaper with strong political opinions and controversial comment. Alternatively I would feel at home on any magazine that mixes lifestyle, fashion and culture with a certain amount of gravitas. But, as I (hopefully) begin my journalistic career I will welcome (with open arms!) any work experience that comes my way.