A website which offers young journalists the chance to boost their portfolios - and their chances of landing a job - expects turnover to break six figures only a year after it went live. Greatreporter contributor Alex Walker takes a closer look at the idea...

www.greatreporter.com gives young journalists a platform on which they can publish their work.

The articles are then offered to magazines and newspapers, and any profits from publication are split between the site and author.

Its creator, Richard Powell, (below) got the idea from his own experience of trying to break into the industry.

He said: "I have a lot of editors who wouldn't give me the time of day when I started out to thank for the idea of greatreporter.com."

A strong portfolio of published work is essential for those hoping to forge their way into professional journalism and greatreporter.com aims to provide wannabe-journos with a way of doing this outside the usual routes of the student press.

Richard said the site's first year had been incredible.

He said: "We've clocked up nearly a million hits, been written about in over 10 languages and our reporters' work has been published in mainstream publications around the world, meaning we've been able to expand our service while getting our contributors paid.

"I'm delighted with how it's gone and particularly love reading the material we get sent, especially in print after we've edited and placed it."

The site allows registered users to submit articles for consideration, and those of high enough quality are published on the front page, from which editors can commission work for their own publication.

"The stuff we've had in ranges from the absolutely superb to downright abysmal," said Richard.

"There's a reason people have to spend three years doing accredited journalism courses and embed themselves in the rest of the media to see how everyone else does it."

The site has sold copy to publications across the world on a wide range of subjects. Because of the requirements of the professional media, Richard demands a high standard. Of the 700 articles submitted so far, only a third made it online. Thus, his site is aimed at experienced student hacks on the edge of the industry, rather than those just starting out.

For newcomers he still recommends the traditional route of the student rag.

He said: "I think it would be a minor miracle for any journalism student to get something published in the mainstream press without first developing their skills in the student press arena.

"greatreporter.com may be an open opportunity for serious young journalists to get their work published, but it is definitely not for chancers or first-timers and the student press offers the perfect practice ground."

Recently, student journalists have been criticised for not paying attention to serious issues and following the mainstream media's obsession of celebrity and trivial tittle-tattle.

But Richard said the articles that he deals with show little evidence of this.

He said: "Most of the material we receive is of a serious nature, from committed observers who are writing about issues that interest them personally - as long as they can keep an objective distance from the subject, it's made good journalism.

"Saying that, the most-read stories on the site have been celebrity-orientated or involving sex, both of which sell," he said.

Richard is an experienced journalist who has covered stories in many countries. He studied Journalism at the Southampton Institute. A year into running the site, which currently has 1,300 members worldwide, Richard has been travelling the globe promoting it.

The articles published on his site represent a large diversity of global journalism. It also carries pieces from experienced journalists offering advice on how best to enter the industry, as well as a discussion forum for journalistic debate.

For its second year, he hopes to expand to cater for more than just print journalists.

He said: "We're also looking to run our reports as audio, so they can be bought by commercial radio stations.

"Another wing of the site that allows users to submit accompanying photography and will let them build their own online portfolio of all their work is also about to launch too."

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