Barry Anderson, aged only 31, has already made a big name for himself in the field of Journalism. Already the chief sports writer of The Edinburgh Evening News and The Scotsman, Anderson is targeting bigger and better things.
During the meeting at the headquarters of the Scotsman and The Edinburgh Evening News, Anderson spoke of his love for football and his childhood ambition of becoming a professional; as a youngster, he represented both Partick Thistle and Clydebank at youth level. His dream of becoming a professional never aspired, however and he turned his attention to his other great passion in life: writing.
Admitting to “not being good enough” to play professional football, Anderson decided to combine his two great passions in life and become a sports writer: “the two things I find stimulating in life is writing and football and getting paid to watch football matches was something that really interested me.” After leaving school, he went to College to do an HND in journalism at James Watt College. This certificate granted him access into second year of a journalism course at Edinburgh Napier University. During this time, he had part-time jobs with The Sunday Post and Weekly News: “it wasn’t much of a job, just involved getting lots of tea and coffee and generally kiss-assing…managed to make contacts in the right places though.”
Anderson left Napier in 3rd year as he believed that gaining experience was far more important than getting a BA certificate: “BA is useless, gaining experience and getting contacts in the right places is far more important if you want to become a successful journalist.” He believes that his part-time jobs during University were what helped him get a job as a sports writer at DC Thompsons. After spending a year there, he became freelance before being employed by the Edinburgh Evening news to cover everything related to Heart of Midlothian. Within two years, he was promoted to chief sports writer.
In recent times, it has been claimed that new media technologies spell the end of journalism. Anderson, however, disagrees: “technology is reducing the need for human labour, but will not spell an end to journalism as a whole.” He did concede that newspapers may not exist and it will be purely web-based. That, however, does not spell the end to journalism.
Barry Anderson has managed to make it big through hard work and dedication to his field. He has managed to do this without a degree proving that experience is paramount.
Gmclarty91's Blog 
Leave a comment