ED2013 News

ThreeWeeks Editor’s Letter: Introducing the ThreeWeeks review team

By | Published on Tuesday 25 June 2013

caromoses2013

So here we go with another update from ThreeWeeks, as July approaches and this year’s Edinburgh Festival gets ever closer. Everything sorted yet?

No, me neither. In fact every time I look away, the to do list seems to get longer. However, the one big box I have ticked is “recruit review team”, and what a very fine team they are this year.

For the uninitiated, let me tell you how reviewing works at ThreeWeeks. Sitting behind the magazine and website is a very popular media-skills training programme, aimed at aspiring writers and journalists. Each year we recruit a team of about 100 young writers. Some are students, many recent graduates, and some are already working, in the arts and media, or elsewhere. All are united by a passion for culture, and a desire to hone their critical and writing skills.

Each of our new recruits (about a quarter of the team are ‘returners’) then attends a very packed one-day training course in late July. We introduce them to the Edinburgh Festival, the role of the reviewer, what kinds of things our readers want to know about shows, and how best to communicate that information in a punchy review. These people then become our review team. We select shows for them to see based on their genre knowledge, and they write reviews to our guidelines, many receiving feedback as we go from our professional sub-editors.

This programme means that every year ThreeWeeks enjoys a fresh set of reviewers – our eyes and ears at the Festival – telling us and you what is good, what is innovative, and what is exciting, and providing young culture fans with an insightful guide to Edinburgh’s mad cultural extravaganza. Meanwhile, just like the Fringe itself hones and showcases the next generation of arts talent, we help launch the next generation of journalists and arts media people.

Our review team is supported and backed up by our core editorial team of experienced editors, led by me and co-Editor Chris, and both of us are doing this for the eighteenth time this August. The core editorial team brings years of Festival experience to the mix – reporting on events, interviewing performers and commissioning guest columns, and processing the hundreds and hundreds of reviews our review team submit – making the ThreeWeeks team one of the freshest, yet one of the most experienced at the Festival.

We’ll introduce you to this year’s reviewers at the end of July, and you’ll be able to start reading their critiques on Thursday 1 August. Meanwhile, I’ll get on with the other hundred things on my to do list. Read on for this week’s news and features, and don’t forget to get your ad bookings in for the ThreeWeeks preview edition.

Caro Moses, Co-Editor, ThreeWeeks

For a round up of the latest interviews and news stories posted to the ThreeWeeks website, and information on advertising and getting covered, click here for the full ThreeWeeks email update. To get the regular update email in your inbox sign up for free here.



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