MAJ Archives

A journalist's profile, stories and careers in the field of journalism. Know a journalist who should be profiled here? Send an e-mail to Janet E. Bardon.

September 1, 2000
Craig Harris
Editor, Canadian Insurance magazine
Toronto, ON
charris@stonecox.com

My name is Craig Harris and I am editor of Canadian Insurance magazine, a monthly trade publication with a circulation of 11,000 and a focus on the general insurance and financial services industries. Although insurance is hardly anyone's choice for a dramatic journalism career, there are lots of interesting issues that affect auto, property and business insurers -- such as car theft, natural disasters and Internet liability. As someone once said, "there are no dull topics, only dull writers."

I chose journalism, especially magazines, because I love the impact of a well-crafted feature article and the sense of accomplishment after putting a strong issue together. As a journalist, you are able to get to the "meat" of an issue and give your readers something to chew on. You get to interview a wide range of people, do research and then put your own stamp on a particular topic. There is also a great sense of accomplishment in possessing the skill to take a humdrum or jargon-filled submission and transform it into a lively and compelling piece of prose. That is a skill that all journalists or editors should hone on a continuous basis.

My second career choice would be a psychologist. There are few animals more interesting than humans.

I attended McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario for an undergraduate degree in history. This was a good grounding and I highly recommend that young journalists pursue wider studies than just journalism. I also did a number of soul-deadening summer jobs in construction and this especially fueled my interest in journalism. There are some overlooked benefits to magazine work, despite the hectic schedule -- you don't get rained on and there's no heavy lifting.

After McMaster, I did a master's degree in journalism at Carleton University in Ottawa. This was a good program, though not for the reasons you might expect. The actual formal journalism training was adequate, but the real learning came from being thrown in with 28 other students from across Canada. We had a great class and there were many lively and entertaining debates during seminars. The one weakness of Carleton's j-school was a poor internship program. It's crucial for young journalists to get some early experience in their careers. Often what you think you might want to do for a career can change after getting a small taste of it.

A great experience that sparked my interest in journalism was volunteering at the McMaster University student newspaper, The Silhouette. I met a lot of characters there, including several who now work for the National Post. It also showed me the critical differences in writing from an academic versus journalistic perspective.

I think the highlight of my career so far was travelling for three months to Africa (Egypt, Kenya and Zimbabwe) when I worked for a magazine published by the International Development Research Centre. I journeyed to several development projects across these countries and interviewed many project leaders about the work they were doing. I covered everything from stopping animal poaching (elephants and rhinos) to sustainable fishing practices to cultivation of different plant and tree species (such as bamboo). I visited cities such as Cairo, Alexandria, Nairobi, Mombasa and Harare and went to famous sites such as Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, several game parks in Kenya and the Nile River in Egypt. One particular highlight was travelling up the coast in Kenya to a place called Malindi, a small village right on the Indian Ocean. It was probably the most exotic place I have ever been. I stayed in a thatched hut in a bed surrounded by mosquito netting and sat on the beach watching dhows (boats) bring in their daily catch. It was a tough assignment!

As for recommendations to aspiring journalists, I would recommend reading widely (taking notes of particular writing styles), gaining expertise in a topic or set of topics (i.e.. business, entertainment, politics) and keeping a very open mind to career opportunities. The bottom line is that if you want to get hired, you usually must have knowledge or experience in (or at least enthusiasm for) some critical areas that are important to a publisher. Very few get hired just on their writing skills or editorial flair alone.

I think the biggest challenge facing journalists today is the pace of change and the flurry of information coming at you from different sources (email, Internet, etc.). It's very difficult to stay on top of things in a particular industry or field because things change much quicker than in the past. The expectation today is that you churn something out almost instantly. Unfortunately, this cultivates a fast-food approach to journalism. I think journalists have to resist this trend and think about the bigger picture, about where longer-term trends fit in and context. Journalists, like everybody, need time to think. If they don't, they are not doing anyone a service.