Eileen Rothwell >>>  Current Travel & Features  Editor of The Cairns Post         Newspaper (A News Limited title) >>>  Current Editor of Tropical North Queensland's premier tourism magazine - Passport to Cairns and the Tropical North (click on the logo below to view sample publications) >>>  Accomplished magazine Editor  (CV, References and Portfolio          supplied on request) >>>  Editorial Consultant >>>  Co-Founder of Offbeatrips  Travel and Tourism Journalism

Eileen started her journalism career in 1992 with The Sun Newspaper in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, eventually graduating to magazines and becoming Editor of FHM (For Him Magazine - an eclectic men's lifestyle title from the UK publishing house EMAP) by 1998.

Eileen's current role as Travel and Features Editor for The Cairns Post newspaper, Australia, cements her position within the Travel genre, providing a truly authentic insight into real, current publishing practices for students of The Complete Travel Writer® course.

She has also contributed hundreds of freelance feature and travel articles to newspapers and magazines worldwide. Eileen has seen life from both sides of the Editor's desk, and as such fully appreciates the challenges faced by publishers, staff writers, photographers, freelancers and editorial assistants. She brings to Offbeatrips a wealth of knowledge and insight into the publishing industry, and a keen commitment to help budding freelancers on their path to being published. Eileen observes: "Magazine and newspaper desks range from utter chaos to absolute bedlam. Editors simply don't have the time to tell neophyte freelancers where they are going wrong, and this is a key frustration on both sides. Many freelancers never discover how to improve their work, and Editors tend to suffer in silence, fielding generally inappropriate, poorly-targeted submissions from a global panel of uninformed freelancers. There were times when I had to discard over 70% of freelance submissions that landed on my desk. Nobody wins in this sort of scenario.

I see my role in Offbeatrips as an ideal opportunity to pass on to freelancers all those vital tips that many busy editors don't have the time to impart. The results are very positive and rewarding - especially when I get 'phone calls from excited, newly-published course participants from Dublin to Dunedin!"

Click on Eileen's mugshot to talk to her!
    Eileen Rothwell: eileen@offbeatrips.com  
    (Travel and Features Editor - The Cairns Post, Editorial Consultant and Co-Founder of Offbeatrips      Travel & Tourism Journalism)  (AKA 'The Big Stick') 

Stephen has always been a traveller. His first big trip was a cruise from England (Southampton) to Australia (Perth) as a toddler in 1970. There was much to-ing and fro-ing to the Mother Country during the following two decades, always taking in a string of other countries enroute.

Stephen's preference for extended stays in overseas countries became well established - and inevitably the spectre of making a living while abroad raised its niggly head. He solved this conundrum by embarking on a travel journalism career in April 1992, after a lengthy paragliding foray through South East Asia.


Initially he wrote about his flying exploits for Cross Country, a worldwide free-flying magazine based in Paris, France. Later, he adapted some of his adventures into travel articles that were aimed squarely at newspaper and magazine travel sections.

By the mid-1990s Stephen had taken to the sea, circumnavigating the island continent
of Australia in an 18ft (5.5 metre) yacht. He wrote extensively on matters nautical for sailing magazines such as the UK's Classic Boat and Australia's Cruising Helmsman as well as penning a wide variety of travel articles and feature articles on subjects as varied as ecology, sport, technology, aviation, health and finance.

After completing his lap of Australia, Stephen studied travel journalism at the University of Western Australia under Athol Thomas, a tireless and pioneering exponent of travel journalism. Athol, long-time Travel Editor of the West Australian Newspaper and Walkley award-winning author of over 20 travel books, was an inspiration to Stephen - urging him to go forth and discover as he had done half a century earlier.

Stephen needed no pushing, as it turned out.

In late 1999, Stephen relocated from Australia to Malaysia; a key Asian hub from which he radiated out to cover overseas assignments, to locations as far-flung as Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula, Scandinavia, Antarctica and great cities from Mumbai to Moscow.

Through extensive research and relentless information-gathering from print media and travel industry professionals, Stephen developed a system of working that gives equal weight to the four key elements of freelance travel journalism:

(The Artistic Components of Travel Journalism)

(The Commercial Components of Travel Journalism)

This complementary and holistic approach proved to be so successful, Stephen was forced to hire other freelancers to fulfil the requirements of his many print media clients. In mid-2000 Stephen and Eileen Rothwell founded Offbeatrips Travel&Tourism Journalism, a media syndication company dedicated to marketing its member journalists' article packages, and providing total PR solutions for the travel and tourism industry. Offbeatrips flourished as a result of the company's incisive insight into the workings of both the publishing industry and the travel industry. By early 2001, Offbeatrips was contributing travel article packages to over 50 magazines and newspapers on four continents, including such titles as Tatler, Gourmet Traveller and FHM to name but a few. In mid-2001, Offbeatrips developed a comprehensive Self-Study travel journalism training course called The Complete Travel Writer, with the goal of furthering the professional development of travel journalism. The course was initially offered to budding travel journalists in Southeast Asia.

Course participants became successful freelance travel writers in their own right, spreading the good word until enquiries about the course poured in from Britain, Ireland, Australia, the USA, Canada, Hong Kong, Spain, India, Singapore and New Zealand. It became clear that there was a demand for the 'The Complete Travel Writer' as THE definitive travel journalism manual.

After moving back to Australia in late 2001, Stephen and Eileen Rothwell set about the mammoth six-month task of compiling the course on CD-rom, comprising 135,000 words of text and hundreds of photographs and tutorial diagrams. Today, the course is being shipped to a diverse global client base; travellers, photographers, journalists, students, editors, tourism authorities and operators, homemakers - in fact anyone who has ever wanted to get their writing and photographs published - for fun AND profit.

Stephen Rothwell stresses: "The field of travel journalism is not one you can just walk into. There are many elements of the writing process alone that require rock-solid information and a definite step-by-step plan to keep the budding writer from straying off course. Add to that the need for high-impact, targeted photography, tempting sponsorship proposals and bulletproof marketing campaigns and it becomes abundantly clear this is not an easy field to break into. But with the right information, the path to becoming published is clear and streamlined. It is always a thrill to see my own work in print even after ten years in the (travel writing) business, but I am overjoyed every time a course graduate gets published."

In January and again in May 2004, Stephen returned to The University of Western Australia (UWA) to lecture in travel journalism, respectfully following in the footsteps of Athol Thomas, his mentor. He will return to lecture at UWA in 2005. Stephen is also set to lecture in several other Australian and overseas universities in 2004, on dates to be announced on the Offbeatrips home page.


Click on Stephen's mugshot to talk to him!

 Stephen Rothwell: stephen@offbeatrips.com
 (Travel Journalist, Senior Lecturer and Co-Founder of Offbeatrips)