Students of Sussex, we are recruiting new writers

Consider yourself formally accosted to join The Tab Sussex, the biggest student media platform in Brighton. For some, 2016 was a year we would all rather forget but not The Tab Sussex. For us, 2016 has been our most successful year with our platform reaching on average over 190,000 unique readers a month and many of our stories going on to be published on national papers as well as on our own national site.

We can offer you one to one guidance and workshops to improve your writing and help create a portfolio which is absolutely vital if you are considering a career in media. But hey, if you don’t want to pursue journalism or media as a career, having writing experience on your CV can make you stand out from the crowd.

What can we offer you?

I mean, what is the point of this after all? What is in it for me I hear you cry. The opportunities really go as far as you want them to, if you want to create content that you think people will want to engage with we offer the platform for you to do it. The Tab Sussex is going strength to strength with an ever growing talented team of students, who are passionate about what they do.

Our news stories have been picked up by national papers such as our interview with Sussex’s new drag society, our attempt to recreate Snapchat filters in real life, our coverage of Sussex’s new gender neutral language policy, we literally do everything. We even got stoned and baked cakes in our ‘great baked bake off’.

Other notable stories that spring to mind was our chance to chat with Casablanca frontman Sammy Sarfas, our review of the I360 (which lead to us being interviewed by the BBC for TV and radio), the day we went to see how SeaCider was made, and of course the same story I always post where I drunk all the beers in East Slope bar in one night. Our resident mascot, Ollie, followed suit and drunk all the beers in Falmer bar. Nothing is off the table for us.

The Tab Sussex is all about putting the fun back into student media which is something that we found is a bit lost. Sussex can be overwhelming sometimes with overly political demagogues, seagulls, expensive rent, and the loss of East Slope bar to name just a few depressing things that come to mind. We want to bring a bit of light back to Sussex.

Work experience and workshops are all on the table when you join. Our lovely people in the London HQ send us through job opportunities and internships daily. Many writers go on to pursue a career in media with many going to the likes of Vice, The Sun, Sky, Evening Standard, BBC, The Times, Daily Mail, and lots more.

Our traffic and size has doubled this past term meaning that over 190,000 people read us! Not bad for a student paper is it? You want to be read by all of those lovely people then jump on board.

Not only will you have the opportunity to write for our large audience, but you have the chance to be featured on our national site should your stories do exceptionally well. Oh, before I forget, the national site gets around 6 million readers each month, imagine your story being shared on that platform.

We’re also getting pretty big in America with 70+ Ivy League universities now included.

Every week we have socials from the standard pub crawls to scavenger hunts around campus for condoms (yes we really did that) and we also get a lot of press passes to cover events. Most recently, we were allowed to cover Boundary Brighton, The Brighton Winter Ball, Farr Festival, Oktoberfest, and many others. The opportunity to take part in creating some amazing content is right there for you, it all depends on if you want to take the plunge (so cheesy).

What do we want from you?

Very little in fact. Writing is a trade like carpentry or plumbing, you only get better the more you practice. You don’t have to be the next Samuel Pepys or Robert Burns and many of Sussex’s core team had very little experience in writing who now are extremely confident in finding their own stories with very little help (a very good talent should you wish to do journalism as a career).

We don’t leave you high and dry though, if you have no idea where to start we have Facebook groups and chats where we discuss ideas and commissions several times a day. Ideas are posted on the groups daily and so if you have no idea where to start, pick up one of the commissions and we will help you every step of the way.

Come to meetings, contribute, and most importantly come to our socials. We are a society after all.

Want to get involved? You can email me at [email protected] or you can message us on Facebook here. You can also sign up on the site here and will be contacted within a day.

You can also come to our open meeting on the 31st January and see all of our mugs.

The Tab has improved student journalism”
– Huffington Post

“The Tab is a unique platform for students to get their voice heard. There is no other organization offering such creative freedom with such a big audience. It was the most fun thing I did at uni, and I wouldn’t have the job I have now without it.”
– Flo Perry, BuzzFeed

“Putting The Tab on my CV instantly made me stand out from the masses of other wannabe journalists – it has a profile and people know that Tab writers have a spark to them. Editors at national newspapers are intrigued by its slightly anarchic spirit – no one in the real media cares about pieces regurgitating student union motions, but they care about Tab investigations and its get-out-there-and-do-something journalism. When it came to actually working at a newspaper, my experience at The Tab meant I was able to jump straight in without being bewildered by how the news really works and what people actually want to read about”
– Phoebe Luckhurst, Features Writer, Evening Standard and former Tab Editor