Newspaper Hires YouTube Finalist

A self-taught video-journalist has been taken on by the Washington Times as a direct result of his work for a YouTube competition.

Freelance writer Torrey Weekes entered the video-sharing site’s Project: Report competition, held in conjunction with the Pulitzer Center, and is now a multimedia journalist at the Times.



According to Journalism.co.uk, Weekes’s video report on life in Mexico brought him to the attention of both the contest’s judges and the managing editor of the Washington title.

Weekes said: “As someone who landed a job as a direct result of my work on YouTube, I’ve discovered first hand that it breaks down traditional routes to employment in a stunning way.”

He added: “I was really scraping it out as a freelance writer and didn’t have any credits to my name that would have landed me a job at a newspaper.”

Ultimately, he believes his experience shows that YouTube is a true meritocracy: “If you do good work people will pay attention to it, and the potential audience is staggering to contemplate.”