Profile: Jem from Journo Resources

Jem Collins doesn’t realise how big of a deal she is. You would think she would - with a few of the nine awards she’s won since founding Journo Resources sat on a shelf behind her in our zoom call. Or maybe she’s just humble, and maybe I’m just biased.

After despairing over breaking into journalism at the start of her career eight years ago, Jem decided to take matters into her own hands and start the website Journo Resources. Today, it is invaluable for journalists at all stages of their careers. You can find job listings, freelance rates, guides to graduate schemes, invitations to workshops and invoice templates – to name a few. The website claims to have a community of 200,000 journalists, and their opportunities newsletter is the leader in the sector, going out to 16,000 people.

Jem meets me on a Wednesday afternoon, having just arrived back from a work-from-home lunchtime walk. Ever down to earth, the first thing she says is an apology. Specifically: “My cat always decides to go to the toilet just as I’m about to go on a meeting!”

Founded at 3am in Jem’s bedroom, the website has shifted from existing to inform, to a champion of greater inclusivity and mobility in the journalism world. They are confident in their mission to encourage greater diversity in an industry in which 51% went to private school; 54% went to Oxbridge; and only 11% are working class.

For Jem, these statistics ring true. “I come from a working-class background; state educated.” From North Devon but now living in Stratford, she always felt physically far away from the world of journalism. “There are still two local papers [in Devon], but they’re the kind of local papers where you look through and every byline is by the same person.”

“It wasn’t like I knew anyone here [London].

“The whole thing was about transparency”, Jem explains. “You don’t have that information, or you don’t know those people. How can it possibly be equitable?”

After studying Journalism at the University of Kent, she continued to struggle to find advice or information about getting her first job.

“I kept trying to find stuff. I kept trying to find opportunities. I just couldn’t really find the stuff I needed.”

After compiling so much information herself, it felt worth putting out there for other people to use. To start, “it was literally just me putting things on a list. It had this horrible free picture on it from Pixabay, the logo was terrible!”

The trajectory from then, to now, is remarkable. Jem is working full time as director of Journo Resources and has a team of seven part-time staff. Jem can’t quite believe this transformation herself.

The day we meet, Jem has been working on what she describes as “a big mish-mash of stuff”. These tasks include chasing invoices; finalising the details of a workshop she is running the next day; working on content with the Guardian on their Scott Truss Bursary; and (most arduously) responding to people who want her to film some TikTok's.

When they started posting job listings, Jem decided that they would not post any jobs that didn’t advertise a salary. Today, Journo Resources remains the only site in the industry to have this policy.

I ask her what the impact of this policy has been. “We would be so rich!”, she jokes.

Reflecting more seriously, she says: “Over the last five years of having that policy, I do think that’s changed for the better. So, I’m really proud of that.”

Another highlight of her work is the sense of community that she has built. Those subscribed to Journo Resources’ weekly opportunities newsletter will be aware that it’s addressed personally from Jem and begins with a few paragraphs about how her and other staff members are.

“I always feel really pleased when someone replies back to the newsletter and is like, ‘Oh this really spoke to me,’” Jem says.

Jem doesn’t seem to feel any pressure as a figure who accidentally fell into this role of change in the industry. If anything, she is eager to do more – flicking from idea to idea within our hour-long conversation alone.

“I’d love to see a bit more support for people when they get into newsrooms as well”, she explains. “I think it’s really really hard to break into newsrooms, and I’d love to see more equitable access, especially from people from marginalized backgrounds.

“But I think it’s just as important that when people get in, that they get support. A lot of organisations will be like yeah, tick box, done it. And then it’s like, okay, you’ve hired some people, how are you going to support them?”

Before she goes, I tell her that myself and all the other young journalists I know have her website bookmarked on our laptops and subscribe to her weekly newsletter. To this, she says: “I’m just glad that somebody actually reads it!”, and this response tells you everything you need to know about Jem Collins.