A Day In The Life Of… Chris Stevenson, International Editor at The Independent

Chris Stevenson has been at The Independent for the past two decades and has climbed the ranks across roles in a way that is admirable to many and aspirational to all. He began his career as a reporter in 2010, back when, as he puts it, “people were willing to give new people a chance”.

Between 2014 and 2024, he was the newspaper’s assistant foreign editor, their international editor while based in the New York office, editor of voices, premium editor and, finally, the UK’s international editor. We spoke to Chris at the Student Publication Association‘s National Conference 2024 about a day in the life of the international editor of The Independent, his early passion for journalism, and how to avoid redundancies in a job that is, for many, a vocation.

What does a typical day look like for you?

Mine is quite regimented, particularly in the morning. So, I’ll get in having read as many of the sites and papers that I can try and get a hold of. And, normally, I’m very much a person who’s in the office five days a week; that’s a personal choice, not necessarily a whole organisation-wide thing.

So, I’ll get in about eight o’clock, we’ll have our first news conference at 8.30am, where I’ll lay out the things that we’re working on. That tends to be more led by the audience and the things we know we need to get out early to help build up our views early in the morning, but also obviously help set the agenda for the day. So, we would come out of that conference and I’d go through, commission out whatever those were, and make sure all the homepages and things are updated and all of that.

And then, obviously, while keeping an eye on the live blogs that we’ve got running and the reporters that we’ve got running on stories. You’ll try and make sure that you’re keeping on top of that commissioning. Then, as we get towards the end of the day, we’ll figure out what’s going on the front page of our app edition and the front page of the website, what we’re going to leave on overnight. Once that’s decided, we have what’s called a splash conference at 4.30pm where that’s been laid out.

Then, you finish working on the stories that you know need to be finished by that point, set up the late team so that they know what’s coming and run it through. Make sure that, again, all your homepages and things are updated. [I’ll] leave probably around 6pm if I’m lucky, and if it’s a big news day, a little later than that.

What would you say was the pivotal moment for you where you decided ‘I want to be a journalist’ but also, when you were in that position, realising you were happy with an editorial role?

I’m one of those people that’s wanted to do it ever since they were quite young, like aged nine, I think I first told my mum I wanted to do it. Then, in terms of the whole thing, you know, student media, then tried to get my foot in the door, I was lucky enough to get onto a master’s course and then did it that way, but obviously would have been straight into newsrooms otherwise if possible, starting locally.

And, then,  I think in terms of the editing, it was partly driven by necessity in that that was the job was coming up [and] they needed people to help on the desk. I started as a desk assistant at points where I’d just help them do the admin for a particular foreign desk. There have been points where, as there ever is across the industry, with job losses and things, and you pick a different way, and they decided to trial me on the editing shift. I found out that I was much better at helping other people’s work than I was creating my own, so it was a very easy move for me after that.

That was when I was 23, so yeah, I was just lucky. The Independent was always one of those papers that would give people a chance if they were either short or needed. So I was lucky, but it was quite early for me. I figured it out, and I haven’t stopped it since.

Would you change anything about your journalism career to date?

In terms of a change, redundancies are never ideal across the industry as a whole. And, I think, it certainly was one of the factors that actually probably gave me my start.

But as a general rule, I don’t think I’ve changed anything massively about my career. I think I’ve been quite lucky, but I think we lose a lot of people that are very good at it. And I’m always telling people to stick at it and they will get where they want to be.

There are points where it has seemed hard, but I would still say the same thing to everybody. If you really want to do it, it’s not the easiest job in the world. But if you really find yourself wanting to do it, you will find a way to do it. You’ve just got to take a bit of the rough with the smooth, with the way that the industry is changing.

Are there any moments in your career that you’re especially proud of, and why?

I’ve been lucky enough to work with some really incredible journalists, and I’m mostly proud of helping them put out some of the work that they can do. Bel Trew is a good example at the moment for us at The Independent. She’s doing some brilliant work from video and being out in places, and I’ve worked with correspondents, you know, Kim Sengupta to Patrick Cockburn. There have been some people who have done some very good work while I’ve been there, and I’ve been lucky enough to be there while it’s happening and help them do that.

I think that’s what I’m most proud of because, particularly with the foreign end of things, you want to make sure that you’re telling stories about people that need to be talked about, and we’ve had some people who are incredibly good at doing that, and I’m just glad that we’ve amplified some of those stories.