Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Stories
Bringing industry experience of magazine production to Leeds Beckett
Colleague spotlight | Carmen Bruegmann
Stories
Carmen has worked on major national newspapers and magazines including the Daily Mail (staff writer and commissioning editor), Cosmopolitan (deputy editor) and ELLE (senior contributing editor) and was deputy editor / acting editor of SHE. She was launch editor of international fashion magazine SHOO and has freelanced for many publications including Grazia and the Mail on Sunday. She started her career as a news reporter on the Hull Daily Mail before becoming an award-winning women’s editor of the Yorkshire Evening Post, Leeds. She is now a senior lecturer on both the BA and MSc Journalism courses at Leeds Beckett University.
Tell us a bit about you and what led to working with Leeds Business School
In 2012, I was invited to give a talk about my career in journalism at Leeds Beckett University and, shortly after, I was asked to teach the magazine production module as a part-time lecturer on the BA Journalism course. Over the years, I gradually began to teach more and more, and now I am module leader on feature writing and news reporting, as well as joint module leader on magazine production. I became a permanent senior lecturer in 2019.
What makes you passionate about your work around journalism and why is it important?
Having worked in the industry for many years, I know how exciting and valuable journalism is and I love to pass that message on to students.
We can expose injustices, highlight ordinary people’s extraordinary achievements, give a voice to those who wouldn’t otherwise be heard, as well as offer light relief when we need to.
My own career has seen me cover a wide range of stories, from interviewing rape victims, covering high-profile crown court stories and working on campaigns against domestic abuse, to overseeing fashion shoots in New York, entertaining A-list celebrities and covering international catwalk shows. The work can be challenging, thrilling, exhilarating and intensely satisfying. There are very few jobs that can offer such variety and take you on such an emotional journey.
How is collaboration integral to your work, and what are one or two collaborations that have been most meaningful to you?
Sharing experiences with others is extremely important. For me, having recently collaborated with a PR colleague, Dr Martina Topić, on a new academic paper, it meant combining our different and mutual skills to create a valuable piece of research on women working in newsrooms. Using my industry experience and contacts, and Martina’s impressive research background, we produced an insightful paper looking at how things have changed in newspapers over the years and noticing that women still face many challenges.
What achievements in this area have you been most proud of while working in Leeds Business School?
From a research point of view, our paper ‘The Girls at the Desk’: Timeless Blokishness in the Newsroom Culture in the British Press, has recently been published in Journalism Studies.
As a lecturer, what makes me most proud is being able to nurture student talent, helping to instil confidence in students and watch them develop into professional journalists. We have seen many of our students win awards and land amazing jobs.
What will your story be?
Studying with us is a great choice, check out some of our courses and see for yourself!
