Mark Rees
Verified
As seen in:
Apple Podcasts,
The Waterstones Podcast,
MSN UK,
Good Morning And Win Today Messages And Prayer - With Bless Neo Thaele,
Nature,
Yahoo News UK,
Taylor & Francis Online,
Cynon Valley Leader,
Rhondda Leader,
South Wales Echo
and
Covers:
Arts and culture, art history, theatre, opera, visual arts, museums, what's on, entertainment, travel, history, folklore, paranormal/ uncanny, features, reviews, music, classical, pantomime, musicals.
Author | Art Historian | Cultural Adventurer.
Arts journalist, speaker & PhD researcher in the Gothic, uncanny & Halloween. Ghosts & Folklore of Wales podcast.
Interview
What was your first job as a journalist?
South Wales Evening Post.
Have you ever used a typewriter?
Yes.
How is social media changing news?
In every way possible, and not for the better.
Who's your favorite fictional journalist?
Vicki Vale.
What does it mean to be a journalist?
Life is never dull.
What's the funniest news-related #hashtag you've seen?
I feel this question might have worked five years ago - hashtags, alas, have gone the way of Twitter (remember how good TweetDeck was?)
How do you prefer to be pitched on stories?
If it's a good story, anywhere and everywhere.
What tools and software do you use to do your job?
Pen and paper in the pocket, Microsoft Word on the PC screen, mobile phone for any additional wizardry.
What's your favorite social network?
Twitter - RIP - was the most useful and least problematic.
Who do you wish followed you?
I'm assuming this means on social media, in which case, I have no wish list - anyone who might derive some joy from my musings I guess.
Why did you become a journalist?
It looked like fun - and I was correct, it was.
Did you work for your high school newspaper? If so, what did you do there?
There was no school paper as such, but I published zines punk rock style.
What story are you most proud of writing or working on?
Travelling Switzerland in the footsteps of Richard Burton, which has inspired others around the world to do the same.
What advice can you offer to aspiring journalists?
Love the words.
When's the best time to pitch you?
Between 9am and 5pm?
What's the best pitch you ever got?
Anything that involves free food and drink as part of the story.
What's the worst pitch you ever got?
What a mean-spirited question! Even the bad pitches are usually well-intentioned. I refuse to name and shame.
What's your favorite drink?
Black coffee, sometimes pumpkin spiced.
When you're not at a computer, where are you most likely to be?
At a book.
Aside from your own, what's your favorite publication to read?
Apollo.
What's the most common misperception about your beat?
The biggest change is "the arts" has become "what's on" - which means less Shakespeare, more "the best places to eat a burger this Easter."
Would you like to take the Muck Rack Interview?
Create a Muck Rack profile.