Joseph Morris (journalist)

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Joseph Morris is an Australian-born journalist and editor who has also worked in the United States, England and Spain. Morris has had more than 30 years experience as a freelance writer and correspondent. He commenced his career as a cadet journalist on Rupert Murdoch's Sunday Mirror. Mr Murdoch broke his own rules to employ him as Morris' father, veteran crime reporter, Joe Morris, also worked for the same organisation and exising policies prohibited family members working on the same newspaper. Joseph Morris worked on a string of Australian newspapers, primarily as a feature writer and hard-news reporter before doing a two-year stint in Australian radio and television mainly for the national broadcaster, Australian Broadcasting Commission.

Joseph Morris also worked as a correspondent with Australian United Press (AUP) and United Press International (UPI), filing Australasian stories to international media. It was here he discovered how to turn many of the parochial stories he encountered into ones with international readership appeal. "This taught me one of the great secrets of freelance journalism," Morris says. "Some of the best stories can be found in your own backyard." Chasing funds to buy a cruising yacht, Morris left mainstream journalism and took the plunge in starting his own two weekly newspapers, a children's newspaper, Zoot, and another dealing with general sport. He then wrote, edited and published a series of newsletters including On Assignment, an international newsletter for travel writers and, Briefing, a monthly newsletter for the media providing editors with story ideas. Morris then launched the American Collge of Journalism, the Australian College of Journalism and the Morris College of Journalism in the UK. The Colleges provided a range of media-training courses via distance learning and have trained students in more than 80 countries and territories.

At the time of writing, Joseph Morris is director of the American College of Journalism and the British College of Journalism. But he still finds time to write freelance, primarily about his great passion, remote travel. Morris says he has crossed the Equator and the International Date Line more times than he can remember.