The British Society of Magazine Editors and the ‘How To Be A Woman’ author will help an up-and-coming journalist from an underrepresented background break into media.
A young writer aged 18-25 in the UK could be the next star journalist, all thanks to a new competition offering a £12,000 bursary, a year of mentorship from Caitlin Moran, the award-winning author and columnist, and work experience with top UK editors.
The brand-new prize, launched in partnership with the British Society of Magazine Editors, aims to support those from underrepresented backgrounds who lack the financial support or contacts to make it in the media, regardless of their experience.
Applicants should submit original work via the BSME website, including a feature, review, opinion piece, column, personal essay, or a piece of creative writing based on a real-life experience or event.
Entries for the BSME Young Writers Prize are now open, with the competition closing on 8 May 2026. Meanwhile, highly commended runner-up writers will get work experience placements and mentorship opportunities.
The winners will be announced at the BSME Editors Awards in London in November, which celebrates top UK magazine and newspaper editors from titles such as Vogue, Empire, The Economist’s 1843, Computer Weekly and many more.
Explaining her motivation for supporting the prize, Caitlin Moran said: “At fifteen, I was on a council estate in Wolverhampton, obsessed with the idea of being a writer, but clueless as to how I could get… there.
“Then I won my whole career – my whole future – in a writing competition. God bless everyone behind the 1990 Observer Young Writer of the Year – who gave me my first bylines, and showed me those rooms.
“Now I’m 50, I’m equally obsessed with something else – the idea of ‘paying on’ the shot I got, plus adding bells and whistles to it.
“The money is vital. I know how quickly a lack of cash can crush your ambition: a month after I won the Observer prize, I was offered the chance to review a gig in London – but couldn’t afford the £28.42 train ticket down there. I was simply too humiliated to explain why I had to turn it down.
“I don’t think l’ve ever cried more in my life. For months, I was terrified I might never work again. Thank God that, by the time I got my next offer of work in London, l’d had the presence of mind to sell my brother’s skateboard, and invest the proceeds in my future.”
Dan Green, BSME chair and editor of The Week Junior Science+Nature, said: “We care deeply about the future of magazines, so we have a duty of care about who gets the chance to write for them. We know there are deep-seated issues around access to journalism.
“The barriers to entry are high, and the wages are low. The Next Gen Journalism Report 2025 from Tickaroo found that 80% of young people see low pay as a barrier to entering the industry. That should concern all of us.”
Alongside her work as a music journalist for Melody Maker and columnist at The Times, Caitlin Moran has written several best-selling books, including How to be a Woman, More Than a Woman, and What About Men?
Her book How to Build a Girl was turned into a film starring Beanie Feldstein and Alfie Allen in 2019. Meanwhile, her life story inspired the Channel 4 series Raise by Wolves in 2013.
The prize has been funded by a host of partners, including Mantis, the contextual advertising technology developed by Reach PLC, which publishes local and national news titles including The Mirror, The Daily Express, the Manchester Evening News, and Birmingham Live.
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