Profile Success
Meet our colmunist Rebecca Falconer
British expatriate Rebecca Falconer works full-time for News Corporation’s News Limited division as a senior sub-editor at NewsCentral SA in Adelaide, South Australia.
She is employed at the `subbing hub’ as layout, copy and check sub-editor for a variety of national, metropolitan and regional publications.
These include Adelaide’s The Advertiser (http://www.adelaidenow.com.au), the Northern Territory News (http://www.ntnews.com.au) and national News food supplement Taste (http://www.taste.com.au).
During her nine years in Australia the London-born journalist has gained experience across all areas of newspaper editorial production. This includes as a news, business and world editor and chief of staff at metropolitan and regional daily newspapers.
In her spare time Rebecca writes articles on topics from the serious to the quirky, for companies such as the International Business Times (http://www.ibtimes.com, http://au.ibtimes.com) and Britain’s M&Y Media news service (http://www.mandymedia.co.uk), http://www.mynewsagency.co.uk). This is because she has never lost her passion for all aspects of news producing.
After more than 15 years in journalism, she is hungrier than ever for news.
Rebecca has even worked the odd shift as a newspaper inserter after she finished her reporting day job at News Limited’s Centralian Advocate (http://www.ntnews.com.au/centralianadvocate) in Alice Springs. She filed many stories for the News Limited group during her time there (2002-08).
The 33-year-old journalist has seven years’ experience as a newspaper sub-editor and held senior production positions, including chief sub-editor of sport and acting chief sub-editor at The Canberra Times from 2008-2010.
One of her key sub-editing responsibilities at The Advertiser (http://www.bendigoadvertiser.com.au) in Bendigo, north of Melbourne (2006-2008), was to upload stories on to the internet.
Her editorial versatility saw Rebecca take on the dual role of reporter and sub-editor at the Centralian Advocate and Bendigo Advertiser.
Rebecca achieved a high distinction when she trained as a sub-editor on the News Limited online sub-editing course and the Advocate promoted her to entertainment editor. During this time she combined reporting with copy and layout sub-editing.
The Bendigo Advertiser agreed to hire Rebecca because of her newsroom versatility and sponsor her under the Australian skilled migrant programme to secure her a permanent residency visa.
Rebecca’s five years spent as a police and court reporter at the Advocate and Advertiser helped her achieve a good understanding of Australian legal affairs.
She delivered many hard-hitting stories, in Alice Springs in particular on indigenous issues, which were sometimes harrowing. Consequently, she wrote local history columns for both papers and would often write wacky stories to entertain readers, but also to ensure her disposition stayed cheerful.
Rebecca covered all levels of court and went on to mentor and train police and court reporters at the Advocate and Advertiser. She also nurtured many cadet reporters.
The University of Canberra employed her as a part-time tutor last year, when she worked full-time at The Canberra Times.
Rebecca tutored tertiary Print Journalism students and supported indigenous journalism students studying degree subjects including Online News, Broadcast Journalism, English Grammar and Creative Writing.
She is keen to continue to share her journalism experience, good and bad, and insider tips with journalists via her Press Jobs column.
Rebecca will be writing a regular column for PressJobs starting from next week.