Hi everyone. I am completely new to freelancing/journalism in general and need a bit of advice (well, a lot of it really).

I have always wanted to be a journalist, but have never done anything about it, taking the safe option with a job in the civil service instead.

I have messed around for years writing football related articles for fun and very occasionally sent them into magazines without success.

In the last few weeks I have stepped up my output and widened my horizons to include newspapers as well.

I usually get a reply from the magazines I try (along the lines of 'we've already covered this subject' or 'too general to be of interest'), but have never had a response from a newspaper.

Which newspapers are more likely to entertain a new kid on the block and what is the best way to approach these types of contributions?

Should I send an article to more than one publication at once or wait for a reply before I try someone else.

In hindsight the stuff I'm producing now is a lot better than before, but I'm wary of submitting to people who haven't replied to me in the past.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.