Eva Short is a reporter with the Sunday Business Post. Previously, the TCD graduate worked as a journalist with Silicon Republic and The Phoenix Magazine, before freelancing as a content writer and editor with Reach plc.
How did you get into journalism?
I always liked storytelling; my mother tells me that I used to mock up front pages of stories about my stuffed animals when I was young! I studied English in college and during that time joined one of the student newspapers, Trinity News. I also did a bit of freelancing for RTÉ radio, wrote album and gig reviews for GoldenPlec, and reviewed films for Totally Dublin. I got the RTÉ gig when a researcher found my student journalism work online; the other gigs I just applied to myself using my student journalism as samples. Free gig tickets and movie screenings, what more could a broke student want? After college, I got internships with Newstalk and the Irish Times; not placements, I just stuck my neck out and asked two people I knew who worked in those places, and they agreed. Then, I got my first job in Silicon Republic, and the rest is (relatively recent) history!
How do you think the profession is evolving?
Our industry unfortunately still has no idea how to contend with the rise of the internet, and how that has impacted all facets of our profession; how we deliver news, what we report on, who reads it and its perceived value. So obviously it’s all only going to get more digital; I can’t possibly summarise the various impacts that will have, but those impacts will be considerable. Subscription models have been floated as the way to counteract the bottom falling out of advertising revenue, but I think time is running out on that too; people have so many subscriptions and are already pulling away from that model due to the expense of paying a certain amount for access to a number of individual publications. I think services like Apple News will become more common, more one-stop shops, but I’m hopeful these services won’t solely be provided by ‘big tech’.
“Our industry unfortunately still has no idea how to contend with the rise of the Internet, and how that has impacted all facets of our profession…”
I’m hopeful that the use of micropayments, either to pay-per-article or pay for day passes, will become more popular. When Tim Berner-Lees founded the internet, he built it with the assumption that easy, quick payments for digital services would be a given, but the world has been slow on that, and I think the media should try to embrace it a bit more.
What are the challenges of working in print media?
I work across both print and digital, and I think the tension that exists between those two mediums can be really difficult and complex. Print has firm deadlines, while online does not. Print also has firm weekly requirements; online not so much, as the digital side is very much a beast with an insatiable appetite. However, with print, it can be easy for stories to be whipped out from underneath you, particularly when you work for a weekly such as the Sunday Business Post. Sometimes a story can move so quickly that by the time your print edition comes out, there has already been an update. That’s challenging to say the least! However, I think it has given rise to a new way of viewing weeklies and has encouraged more long-form, in-depth work, which I think is a good thing. Nothing a writer likes more than a large, meaty assignment after all.
Who do you admire most within the industry and why?
Maybe it’s a bit maudlin, but I really admire my more senior colleagues at the Business Post. It’s a great environment to start your career; there are lots of very talented and insightful writers and editors, all of whom are really generous with their time. In particular, I’ve met so many inspiring women journalists through the paper who have always been willing to support me as I develop at this pretty early stage in my career. I’m a great admirer of Sally Hayden and the foreign correspondent work she does for the Irish Times. Also, of course, I love settling in to listen to Sarah McInerney’s interviews; she’s undefeated in her ability to cross-examine her subject.
I read an amazing book recently by a New York Times journalist named Robert Kolker about the history of schizophrenia research, told through the lens of a family called the Galvins that had six-out-of-12 children develop schizophrenia. The book perfectly married clear descriptions of lofty scientific topics with really affecting storytelling about the human impact of this mental disorder. It was one of those books that I read and immediately wished I’d written. In terms of other journalists I have idolised, I have to mention the likes of: Joan Didion; Gay Talese; Phillip Roth; Norman Mailer; Susan Sontag (more essayist than journalist), and David Foster Wallace.
What has been your most significant story or project to date?
I don’t know about it being significant, but I did some reporting a while back on student accommodation providers getting permission from Dublin City Council to open their doors to short-term lets and tourists. It became something of a hot-button issue for student organisations, who wrote to Owen Keegan about the practice and later staged a protest outside the council building. Some of them even cited my work as a direct inspiration! I think that’s what any journalist aspires to; their work playing a role in stoking action and civic participation. I don’t think that I, individually, necessarily played a huge role; but it felt like a huge personal achievement to see my name mentioned within the context of students pushing for their voices to be heard.
I’ve also been really enjoying the work I’ve done surrounding cannabis and hemp, be that through investigating funding policies towards hemp farmers, speaking to researchers about the potential applications of the cannabis plant, and talking to pharmaceuticals about cannabis-derived medicines, and tracking the progress of how drug policy more broadly is evolving in Ireland. I think these are topics that are only going to become more relevant with time.
How do you spend your time outside of work?
With friends and loved ones as much as possible. Going for runs, hiking when I can get to the mountains, gym a few times a week. I love going to the movies too; I can watch them at home, but the cinema experience is a cut above. I also love to cook and bake; I would spend all my time in the kitchen making flatbreads and preserves if I could.
