Hello

Okay, so no pressure, only the first blog post on my actual website that has been years in the making. Well, actually, truth be told, it hasn't been years in the making. Rather, this has been a thing I have been meaning to do for years and finally got around to doing in the last few days; ahem. Better late than never, though, right?

And you know what made me actually get around to finally doing it, after all this time? It was a meet-up IRL with a fellow freelance journalist, Marianne Guenot, who kindly shared her own experiences of setting up a website. If there's one thing I have learned as a freelancer, it's the importance of community - more of which later - and if that involves catching up over a cup of coffee, or a glass of something stronger, then so much the better.

Anyway, aside from paying tribute to the fellow journo who finally helped me get my website over the line, which after all this time is frankly nothing short of a miracle, I thought I should perhaps start by briefly introducing myself.

So, here we go, I'm Caroline, a journalist and editor of more years than I care to count - and freelance for the last few. I was fortunate to start out in local newspapers in the UK, back in the heady days when they were still thriving, and when the training was second to none. I will forever be grateful to all the brilliant journalists I got to work with and learn from back then. After that, I went on to edit a regional magazine of around 250 pages, which was sold in newsagents and via subscription, and where I stayed for a decade. And then I went freelance - and moved to Paris - but that's a whole other story.

I don't want to ramble on too much for now, but I did just want to say one other thing in this, my first, blog post (yep, well and truly channelling the early 2000's here...). 

Despite all the challenges faced by our industry today, I believe passionately that journalism still has a hugely important role to play in our society. It might sound grandiose to say so, but journalism really is one of the cornerstones of our democracy - and the freelance community is an integral part of that - and, therefore, worth fighting for I feel (more of that later too...). 

So, here I am, just a lowly freelancer, standing in front of you, a reader, and hoping you will join me for all the fun and frolics (I use the term loosely...) of my freelance journey.