Meet Niamh Ingram the weekend editor of Mixmag magazine. Niamh runs the magazine on the weekend making sure that everything runs smoothly and throughout the week she spends her time studying for a Masters and running her own podcast called Belta.
Niamh started out writing by being obsessed with Jaqueline Wilson's books and writing her own stories from a young age."As cliche as it sounds, I have always written from being young – I was obsessed with Jacqueline Wilson and used to sit and write my own little stories and create my own little magazines. It turned into writing copious blogs in my teens, and I suppose everything just went in a domino effect to Journalism! "
In the pandemic, Niamh joined her university magazine and after getting poorly with long Covid she decided to try and make her dreams come true from her bed. " During the pandemic, I was in my first year at University and joined the University magazine, Lippy. Our flat got Covid within the first couple of weeks, and I ended up very poorly with long covid and my heart so spent the latter half of 2020 and first half of 2021 essentially in my bed, not going much further, therefore I wrote a lot. I stumbled across Seb Wheeler on Twitter who at the time was Mixmag’s Head of Digital. He had a tweet up, calling for young writers who wanted to enter the electronic industry to hit him up. I reached out and we had a couple of calls where he gave me the confidence to pitch to publications to try and make a bit of money. In late 2021 I was offered the weekend editor job by Mixmag. They’re such a lovely team, and even though I’m not based in the office down in London, I feel like I really am a part of the Mixmag family. "
Niamh has found in her career that she has experienced sexism. "I definitely think there’s greater perception - from, might I add, folk who have NOTHING to do with the industry or who don’t know how it works - that you’re landing X or Y job perhaps because of tokenism, or because of your looks, or something. I’ve overall worked with such lovely people from Editors to PR to fellow Journalists which I am so grateful for, however, there was one time I was covering an event and during a tour of the event, one of its higher up members started talking to my boyfriend as if he was the journalist, not me, totally by assumption! Needless to say, I made my presence known rather swiftly."
As well as being the weekend editor, Nimah is studying for a Master's degree and running her own podcast. "Every day is different, honestly! Alongside music journalism, I also study a Master’s degree in Digital Media and I’m also a DJ and run my own podcast Belta, so there’s a lot to juggle. Every weekday I’ll do something Mixmag related, as I’m responsible for the website and Twitter output on weekends, so I’m scheduling things, scouting for stories, and trying to make my way through a lot of emails! Then, depending on the day, I might be prepping Belta either liaising with guests, getting some talking points together, creating promo… or maybe doing some reading or research for my degree… or maybe I’m creating a DJ set. It’s very varied!"
In this industry, she has had to push herself out of her comfort zone to get the positions she wants ."At home we say ‘Shy Bairns Get Nowt’, and honestly, it is so true in this industry. I am such a nervous, anxious person, but find that actually, people you look up to are so happy to chat! Drop them that email, ask for a little chat about what they do, or any tips. It’s so worth it."
Her main advice is to keep writing what you love and to connect with people in positions that you would like to work in. "Just keep writing away, and make sure you want to work in this industry because you love writing. So many people are entering things for coolness, or clout, these days, but when it comes down to things there are a lot of deadlines to be met, more intense periods than others, and no one work day is ever the same. I wouldn’t change it for the world, but just make sure you genuinely love what you are doing."
Post a Comment