Freelance profile

Matt Salusbury

I currently write for Fortean Times magazine and I am a proofreader with an exam board for English language tests. I am a former co-editor of the Freelance, a resource for fellow freelance journalists (www.londonfreelance.org) I am a former news editor of EL Gazette, trade magazine of the English as a Foreign Language teaching industry. My latest book, Mystery Animals of Suffolk, was published by Leiston Press in August 2023.

* Click here to see sample photos

Contact details:

Street: Islington
Town: London N1
Region/nation: London
Country: United Kingdom
Website: http://mattsalusbury.blogspot.com
Also find me on: LinkedIn | Twitter | bigcatsofsuffolk.com
Mobile: 07918108529

Skills:

See suggested rates:

Feature writerRates: Print media
Commissioning editorRates: Print media
ProofreaderRates: Sub-editing
Subeditor or editorRates: Sub-editing
ReporterRates: Reporter
ResearcherRates: Researcher
from the Freelance Fees Guide.

Subjects:

  • Current affairs
  • Education
  • Media
  • Trade unions
  • History
  • Humour
  • Politics
  • Offbeat
  • Sciences
  • Foreign affairs and overseas

Major clients:

  • Fortean Times
  • The Freelance
  • EL Gazette
  • History Today
  • The Guardian

Profile last updated: 2023-10-16 22:44:34


Extra information:

I currently write for Fortean Times magazine.  My most recent features for them have been based entirely on Dutch language sources.

I am also a proofreader with an exam board specialising in English langauge tests.

I worked as news editor of English language teaching industry trade paper EL Gazette (www.elgazette.com) from 2007-2021.

My duties as editor have included mentoring entry-level journalists who have a first language other than English. I was commissioning editor running a team of freelances. My beat was the English language teaching industry for the entire world – I spent a lot of time on Google India, Google Malta, Google Ireland and Google Canada. I ran the Twitter account @ELGazette. In my time as editor, EL Gazette stories made it into the Guardian (front page), the Sunday Times Ireland edition and Private Eye.

I worked as deputy editor of the Freelance (www.londonfreelance.org/fl) the NUJ's online and print newsletter for freelance journalists from 2007-2022, for which I learnt to use HTML.

Mystery Animals of Suffolk (Leiston Press, 2023) is my latest book, for which I did the layout myself in Indesign. It features numerous reports of sightings of big cats from across the county of Suffolk, many based on my interviews with eyewitnesses who believe they've seen one. I am BBC Radio Suffolk's "big cat expert" with several appearances on the station to date.

I am also Chair of the Trustees of  Dunwich Museum in Suffolk, as well as designer and editor of their newsletter Discover Dunwich. I recently oversaw the transformation of Dunwich Museum into a Charitable Incorporated Organisation and led its succesful application for a Heritage Lottery Fund Sustainability Grant.

For Pygmy Elephants (CFZ Press, 2011), my previous book, I travelled to Kerala, South India to investigate reports of kallaana, a mystery animal said to be a five-feet (1.5m) tall elephant. It was a crash course in zoology, ecology and paleontology.

I am a regular contributor to Fortean Times (www.forteantimes.com).

I have worked as a sub-editor for The Independent, BBC Worldwide (BBC History), John Brown Citrus, Book Club Associates and EL Gazette.

I was previously a news researcher for media forward planners Advance Media Information (AMI Ltd), www.amiplan.com

Other specialisations: higher education, language issues in politics, protest, police surveillance, civil liberties, Data Protection Act, English language teaching, strange phenomena, offbeat, forteana, science (zoology, parapsychology) Visited Northern Iraq Spring 2004.

Credits include:

  • Guardian

  • Time Out London

  • The Independent

  • New Statesman

  • Islington Tribune

  • BBC History

  • Construction News

  • Times Higher Education (THE)

  • Fortean Times

  • Big Issue

I also work as an English for Academic Purposes Tutor and mentor, teaching on a Cert HE Business and Management course at the Language Gallery in partnership with St Mary's University Twickenham. I previously taught English to international students in summer schools – preparing them to start MA courses. I taught at the Langauges Centre of the London School of Economics in summer 2019. I taught at a Brunel University summer school in summer 2018, I was tutor to a class that included students starting MAs in Media and PR.

I studied Periodical Journalism on a postgraduate BTEC course at London College of Printing (now University of the Arts), 1999-2000.Subsequent training includes Investigative Journalism Summer School (CIJ, The City University, July 2009), Promote your book with iMovie videos (Society of Authors, 2016).

I am a fluent Dutch speaker. I've written stories for Fortean Times, The Freelance and EL Gazette using sources that were Dutch language only, and I've written articles for EL Gazette for  which all the sources were in French. I speak rudimentary Turkish, having worked for a year in Istanbul (1989-1990.)

I am a former NUJ London Freelance Branch Chair and a former NUJ National Executive Council member.   I am also a member of the Society of Authors and the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS), I previously represented the NUJ on ALCS's Writers' Organisations Advisory Group (WOAG).

Photographs

Please click on a thumbnail to see a larger version.

EL Gazette News page, January 2020 © Matt Salusbury EL Gazette News page, January 2020
I have been news editor of EL Gazette, trade magazine of the English language teaching industry, since 2007.
Fortean Times, June 2019 issue © Matt Salusbury Fortean Times, June 2019 issue
I have been a regular contributor to Fortean Times since 2001. This is my feature commemorating UNESCO's International Year of the Periodic Table