Hi, I’m Susannah Birkwood and I’m a journalist and Guardian Student Media Award nominee with extensive experience in print and online media.
I was inspired to start this blog after participating in InFuze, a digital journalism training project run by the BBC and the University of Central Lancashire. As part of the programme, I was placed among the digital team at Trinity Mirror Merseyside, where I worked on news stories using print, video and audio platforms and organised the country’s first ever online literary festival on behalf of the Liverpool Daily Post.
I wanted to give current and future employers a way of finding out a bit more about me than merely what’s on my CV, and also to give myself a chance to showcase and preserve some of my cross-platform work efforts.
In regards to my past experience, I have worked with everyone from the BBC and the Daily Telegraph to the Navy News and Smash Hits magazine and have interviewed the likes of Feeder, Jason Donovan, Sir Bobby Charlton and Eddie Izzard. I have a BA (Hons) degree in Spanish and Linguistics from the University of Manchester, where I was awarded a scholarship in recognition of my academic attainments, and have spent several years working and volunteering in the Latin American countries of Costa Rica, Honduras, Chile and the Dominican Republic and also Spain.
A fluent Spanish speaker, I began my professional career at the helm of Student Direct, the largest student newspaper in Europe, following my election to the position of editor in the students’ union elections. Prior to this I edited the paper’s travel, arts and events sections throughout my degree.
During my tenure as Editor, I collaborated on a story with BBC1′s The One Show, Radio 2′s The Jeremy Vine Show, North West Tonight and radio stations up and down the country and achieved international media attention with my very first edition. I was nominated as Guardian Student Reporter of the Year and under my editorship the newspaper – which has a circulation of 60,000 – was highly commended in the National Union of Students’ Best Student Media awards. I was also responsible for creating and designing a new website for Student Direct, as well as doubling the publication’s advertising revenue while in the position of Director of the Student Direct board.
In addition to this, I have worked as a news correspondent at online news agency Adfero, where I met hourly deadlines to produce 25-30 articles per day for esteemed clients including FTSE 100 company GlaxoSmithKline and Prudential and gained an excellent understanding of search engine optimisation techniques.
If you’d like to get in touch, please leave a message with your contact details.
