Which are your favourite dog magazines? I don't read any at the minute but as I do journalism in uni I'm looking for work experience and thought a dog magazine would be a good place to start.

By all means gather information to help any choices that come your way but I think this will be a case of beggers can't be choosers and that they will be inundated with applicatants every year so I would get yours in fast and pick and choose if you get the opportunity.
Good luck :)

I simply don't know any dog magazines! LOL

Josh,
As a journo student you should be putting those skills to use and track down the magazines by, at the very least, doing a google search!!

If I were you I'd try to put together a few articles and offer them along with a plea to do work experience. One thing that you'd be looking for in a journo is bags of initiative and lots of ideas, so try to take examples of both to the table. If you scour around on this forum there are plenty of discussions that could provide the kernels of an article idea.

Good luck.

>I simply don't know any dog magazines! LOL

Fail!!!! :-D

Here's some of the best known I think
http://www.yourdog.co.uk/contact-the-your-dog-team.html
http://www.dogsmonthly.co.uk/contact-us/
http://www.dogstodaymagazine.co.uk/contact.htm

and dog papers might be worth a look
http://www.ourdogs.co.uk/about/contactpage.php
http://www.dogworld.co.uk/section.php/1797/1/_header_contact_us

> As a journo student you should be putting those skills to use and track down the magazines by, at the very least, doing a google search!!
>

Darn, I did it for him! :)

I know. I did feel a bit cruel but it was to make a point. Work experience in any media outfit is very competitive and you need to stand out from the crowd. It is a matter of what can you do for them, not the other way round- and yes, you still have to make the tea.

Oh no, you are quite right Freelancer.

Hmm.. going to a group of people who know and asking their opinions seems like using journo skills to me ;) Thanks for your input- I did think people would think that I was lazy, however having exhausted google and found quite a few.. I thought I'd ask the most knowledgable people who are likely to read these sorts of magazines and I was also hoping to find some of the more 'niche' magazines that will be less inundated with work experience requests.

Thanks for all your help once again!

The competitiveness was why I was looking for what I thought might be more 'niche' magazines! Having secured work experience with ITV  and gaining a place in their talent pool, I know exactly how competitive it is.

Josh,

Well done on the ITV side, that'll look good on your CV. Don't kid yourself dog magazines are niche- they have a large readership, plus they would not want to be thought of as niche. I would think competition for work experience on these mags would be fierce. Try to think what line/USP you are going with. Is your interest in the show/breeding side, the behavioural side, the rescue side, dog law/ current legislation? What can you offer them and why would they want you? What side of magazine work are you interested in and why- editorial, sales, production?

There's a lady on here who goes by the name of Polly. Try to see if she would have a chat with you. You can research her on here.

> Which are your favourite dog magazines? I don't read any at the minute

I don't read any either, and the odd one I've seen at the vets doesn't really hit the spot.  I've never been a big fan of magazines though as they are a lot of money for a small amount of useful information (useful to me, anyway).  That said, I love Uncut (a music magazine) so perhaps it really is about finding the best one for your interests.  Along those lines I do like the dog papers, Dog World and Our Dogs...

Nowadays there are many outlets for writing and some local papers will take regular articles on a theme.  I would think that a small local paper would be a good place to start although I know it's not that easy.  Good luck

Not exclusively Dog-focussed, but The Field often has articles about dogs in field sports.  Also might be worth looking at other country sports magazines (unless you have ethical reasons not to want to write for such interests :-) ).

I get Dogs Today every month, i use to read your dog but it seemed like it was full of peoples diarys on what they were doing rather than articals on stuff so i stopped reading it. Dogs today have done some realy good articles on thigs like anaul vacinations, early neutering ect which id rather read than where matyboy down the road is walking his dog.

I've given up on all the magazines.
Dogs Today used to be really good, but now it's more like Woman's Own, and I'm sick of those puppy diaries in Your Dog, Dogs Monthly is just a comic IMO.

Oh I'm mentioned? lol

> I've given up on all the magazines.
> Dogs Today used to be really good, but now it's more like Woman's Own, and I'm sick of those puppy diaries in Your Dog, Dogs Monthly is just a comic IMO.

Perhaps the magazines are not what you are interested in as you know quite a bit about dogs. for the average pet owner Your Dogand Dogs Today are the niche magazine for these folk. Most pet owners would be bored rigid reading Dog World and Our Dogs. All magazines develop over time, years ago when I first started out Our dogs was the top paper for dog breeders it covered shows and for the gundog folk it also covered field trials. A lot of breeders these days would not be happy if Our Dogs covered field trials out side of the gundog world. There is nothing in between really at the moment, which has enough show news but also enough for pet owners. It is a difficult niche to fill.

I'd be interested to know how you got into magazine writing Polly :) What I don't know is if these sorts of magazines are more interested in experts in the field, with less concern about their writing skills, or whether or not they look for somebody with an interest/understanding of dogs and good writing & interview skills. I do feel that I am more savvy than your average dog owner, however I'm not involved in the showing or working circles. My main interests are in writing, however I'm also very savvy with design and layout work, too.

Hi give me a call and we can chat I'll pm you my number.

I subscribe to Dogs today. love it!

Polly, I used to get our dogs, loved it when Joan Mason wrote the breed notes. when she stopped doing them I moved to dog world and have stayed ever since.

After PDE in 2008 Our Dogs won a lot of readers from Dog World. Many breeders told me they were following my news and featured articles on a variety of topics as they thought I always wrote a fair piece with every angle looked at so they could make their own minds up. Even a con man wrote to support one of my articles saying he had read my article and admitted he was a guilty party and felt he could not support people who had questioned my writing that he was basically a conman! lol

Of the two papers although they both cover the same news headlines, I think they have very different styles and a lot can be gained from both. I remember reading hem both as a teenager working in a large kennel in 1969/70. They were different from today's versions but that is progress I suppose, although seeing the working dogs in in them at field trials and sometimes sheep trials was certainly interesting and a constant reminder that some breeds were working breeds.

I liked Joan's notes too, and find it disappointing when neither paper has any breed news. Part of the problem for the breed note writers is that people don't always let them know what they are doing or how their dogs are progressing. I was asked to write breed notes for another online magazine, but turned it down because I knew I did not get to enough events shows trials etc and knew how difficult it is for breed note writers to get information to print.