Creative roles: journalism, copywriting and corporate PR

Journalism and copywriting

Journalism and copywriting are incredibly broad terms. Journalism can involve anything from investigative pieces and CEO profiles, to sports writing and tabloid stories. Copywriting can range from writing detailed thought leadership pieces, company profiles, website copy, and creative descriptions for consumer goods, to producing technical instruction manuals and content for help centres. Whatever the nature of the role, an ability to write accurately and concisely, with a strong structure and without ambiguity can be absolutely key, suggesting the technical writing skills developed whilst studying and practising law are highly relevant. Moreover, those who are commercially aware might be particularly well-suited to writing about (for example) legal, financial or business news.

Corporate PR

Corporate PR can involve a range of different tasks, which are largely centred on helping clients to communicate effectively with stakeholders. This can include helping clients to manage their reputations in times of crises, helping them to secure press coverage (including helping to write press releases), and promoting their products, services and brands (e.g. through planning events and launching campaigns). As with lawyers and law graduates, successful PR professionals must have strong networking skills (to build up those press contacts), an ability to write well (press releases!), and an ability to think laterally to help clients achieve their objectives, not to mention teamworking, communication, organisation and client-facing skills.