By Madeline Sidgwick, Senior News Editor
Jethro Robathan is now a Market Reporter at Angus Media but was once the Associate Opinion
and Debate Editor at The Orbital Magazine and English Literature student at Royal Holloway.
From experience at The Independent, The Financial Times and The Times, Jethro is an example
of how The Orbital began a journalism career.I reached out to Jethro to talk all things
freelancing, financial journalism and his experience at both Royal Holloway and The Orbital
Magazine.
Q: Tell me a little about your background and what led you to Royal Holloway?
I have always known I wanted to work with words so an English degree felt like an obvious
choice. RHUL had/has a great reputation for creative writing and literature, plus I had a few
friends already at RHUL so it was an easy choice.
Q: What was your experience like at Royal Holloway?
I stopped and started my degree as I wasn’t sure I wanted to switch degree programmes to
something adjacent to English Literature – I felt like something with more technical skills
training would be more professionally beneficial. I ultimately decided to stay the course and
finish my degree rather than start from scratch.
Q: How did The Orbital shape this experience?
I started writing for The Orbital early into my second-year because I wanted an outlet to
contribute my thoughts. It was good fun and I enjoyed the occasional meet-ups with other
student writers. I took my extra-curricular activities more seriously in my final year because I
was focused on building a solid entry-level CV for the upcoming job search.
Q: Did The Orbital prepare you for a career in journalism in any way and if so how?
I became an associate editor of The Orbital in this year and also edited for The Founder. Both
publications were great and I am sure they helped me gain a foothold in the various entry-level
schemes I applied for at the time. Writing for student publications is a great way to get some
early clips to show employers when starting out. Looking back, it’s a good time to learn about
core journalism skills while you have plenty of free time as a student: filing FOIs, interviewing,
finding sources, etc.
Q: How have you found breaking into the financial journalism industry?
Financial and business journalism kind of found me. I was keen to be a culture journalist when I
began my career but I quickly realised this meant relying on freelance work and it lacked
stability. There are very few staff culture jobs and anything I would want to write could still be
freelanced on the side alongside other journalism roles. There is plenty of training around
technical subject matter and my internship with the FT really helped open doors in the business
journalism space. In terms of internships, just apply to as many as possible and really use your
cover letter to show off your writing style. With few clips early into your career, most employers
in journalism seem to use a cover letter as an important part of assessing your ability to write
fluidly (from what I have been told).
Q: Why market/ business journalism?
I was encouraged to pursue more news reporting work early into my career and business
journalism was interesting to me because I like numbers (they are a good source to
interview/interrogate, not dissimilar to a person) and it is one of the few journalism specialisms
that has more stability for prospects (less AI interruptions, plenty of real human reporting, lots of
exclusives to be found). There are more business reporting roles open to early career writers than
you would think as long as you consider trade and niche publications, where plenty of
national/international reporters tend to cut their teeth. Most stories you see in national outlets
have business angles: the cost of living, the affordability crisis, supply chains around the world,
corruption and misuse of power are rife. If you want to get into a competitive area like
investigative journalism (as I do) then having technical skills like financial and corporate
reporting can really help you stand out.
I want to thank Jethro for his insights and willingness to be interviewed by The Orbital
Magazine.
If you are alumni of The Orbital, please reach out to [email protected] for the
chance to be interviewed!
Image credit: Jethro Robathan