Eleanor Halls Interview (The Telegraph)
Eleanor Halls is associate culture editor and music editor of The Telegraph. She's also co-host of the excellent podcast Straight Up and author of the Pass the Aux newsletter, both of which often focus on the journalism world in one way or another. In this excerpt from our interview, Eleanor talks about where music journalism is headed.
How did you get to where you are today, professionally?
After applying to every job under the sun (Aldi's grad scheme, Foxtons, AMV, the Civil Service) and getting unanimously rejected, I decided to give journalism a go. It was always what I'd been drawn to but I was put off by how badly paid I knew the industry to be, and all of my friends had already snapped up shiny jobs in the city. After securing a few work experience placements at The Independent, The Times and Vogue, I got a three-month, unpaid internship at a local magazine.
But a week into the placement, I had been offered a dream, PAID, six-month internship at British GQ, which I'd applied to as an enormous shot in the dark, hungover one hot afternoon after coming back from a festival. I think I must have still been drunk or I probably wouldn't have had the confidence to send it off, assuming that no mens' fashion mag would want to hire a 22-year-old woman. But, I got an interview and then the job, so left the local placement (which I hated anyway) to start as GQ's features assistant, and the only woman on the features desk!