Helen McCabe has blazed a strong career path in media, from major newspapers and the parliament press gallery to Australia’s leading magazine, the Australian Women’s Weekly. She is also the chairperson of the Federal Government’s Positive Body Image Awards, a board member of the National Adoption Awareness Week and an ambassador of the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation. McCabe shares her story and advice with The Business Woman Media with our Power Pack…
What sparked Helen McCabe onto this career path?
I felt passionately that I wanted to be a journalist from about 15. Now that I look back I think that came from an interest in social justice issues (Indigenous affairs, disabilities, women’s issues, victims of crime ect) and I think that came from being in a Catholic girls school and taught by nuns. If that makes sense.
But as to how I ended up on The Australian Women’s Weekly, well that was by accident. I had spent a lot of time on politics and working on The Australian. I never imagined I would work in magazines. But when asked, I found it too hard to say no, even though it was a very big decision to leave newspapers. I loved newspapers and my time on both the tabloids and The Australian.
What have been the biggest challenges you’ve faced? I think learning new skills, moving from TV to newspapers was tough. Actually I found TV very hard too, as I am not an extrovert and I don’t like being the centre of attention, at all. So I have found all of the public stuff challenging. I hasten to add I have dealt with that and I am fine these days but it has been challenging.
But in the early days of TV as a reporter for Channel Seven it was terrifying and I was pretty awful at it. These days I have at times found the criticism of me or the magazine challenging. But I think perhaps the hardest thing in any of these roles is when you get it wrong and it hurts someone else and damages the publication. That is the stuff that keeps you up at night.
What have been the biggest rewards and highlights? I guess being appointed Editor-in-Chief of The Australian Women’s Weekly is hard to go past. I found it enormously exciting to work on The Australian with an exceptional group of journalists at the time, who are all in major roles these days. But there are many rewarding days on AWW. For example we have raised around $10 million for breast cancer research, we are big contributors to awareness around ovarian cancer and in February we launched an incredible campaign to stop domestic violence. I love working on stories where ‘ordinary’ women get a voice and of course the launch of a scholarship fund for young women last year was very satisfying as it was a dream of mine.
What is Helen McCabe next goal?
No idea but I want to continue to contribute somehow, somewhere. It is probably no surprise to readers but this really is where the real satisfaction lies.
Although I do want to build on the scholarship fund and develop an event that we held this year to really become significant in discussing the modern challenges for women.
What 3 things would you say to women embarking on a career?
- Read widely and be informed
- Back yourself
- Choose something you enjoy
Helen McCabe is the editor-in-chief of The Australian Women’s Weekly. She also makes regular appearances on the Today Show, The Project, and 2GB. Helen joined AWW after 12 years in newspapers working as the Deputy Editor of The Sunday Telegraph, Night Editor of The Australian and a number of roles on The Daily Telegraph. She has also reported from London where she was the European Correspondent for News Ltd. Helen began her career in Adelaide television before moving to Canberra Press Gallery with the Seven Network. She is also the chairperson of the Federal Government’s Positive Body Image Awards, a board member of the National Adoption Awareness Week and an ambassador of the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation.
