Some might think it's necessary to head east if you want to make it in the music media, but Adelaide local Sose Fuamoli proves the opposite is true.

“It’s really weird; it’s some odd perception thing that when people realise that you’re from Adelaide or you’re from a smaller town, they automatically think you’re trying harder,” Sose Fuamoli says.

As the newly appointed national Editor in Chief of The AU Review, it’s possible that Sose’s work ethic is more than just a perception.

“I was with the AU two years before I got my first promotion and I became the South Australian editor,” Sose says.

“That was the first time I got flown to Sydney for something and I started thinking ‘ok, they’re taking me seriously now.’ That was the only time where I was like it would be easier if I was over in the eastern states.

“But then… after I did my first overseas trip with The AU Review, I realised how much I actually missed it here, and I missed certain things about it here, and seeing how stressed other people are living out there – nah, I’m fine staying here with my affordable apartment and everything where I left it.”

When Sose started at The AU Review six years ago, Australian music press was in a slightly healthier position.

Most major publications had dedicated editors for each state and could afford to spread their focus more widely across the country, giving young writers like Sose more of a chance to get their foot in the door.

This is no longer the case.

“When I first started there were… a lot of Adelaide hubs here… It was a real shock when all of a sudden you woke up and there’s only two media outlets available,” she says.

“Ever since we lost events like the Fuse Festival, ever since we lost the Big Day Out, Soundwave, Future Music, and everything else… it makes sense for editors interstate to look at Adelaide and go ‘well, there’s no market there.’”

But where there is an apparent void of opportunity, Adelaide has often provided plenty of opportunists, and according to Sose, that’s true of our local music media scene.

“I can look back and I can see kind of the new guard, if you will, of younger people coming through now,” she says.

“They’ve now got a situation where they kind of have to think on their feet a little more and be like ‘how can we get a bit more creative?’ and therefore the content they’re coming up with is really cool.

“You’ve got the guys at Yewth Magazine [and] One and Three, who have joined forces now. Whether that means you have your own magazine but you’re also delving into artist management as well… You can’t just solely exist on one end anymore.”

As for where she would like to take her own publication, the objective for Sose is to refocus on emerging artists, give young writers and photographers a platform to follow their passions rather than trends, and most importantly, work towards creating a system within The AU Review where they are able to pay all of their contributors.

“That’s a severe pipe dream,” Sose admits.

“I think we’re in an industry where that just doesn’t happen. Even at an editorial level it’s super hard to keep this all going, but there are some things in the works that are kind of leading us to get to a more secure place, where we can send people along to a major show every once in a while and go ‘do you want to shoot? We can pay you $50 to go shoot.’

“I want to be able to give young people that sense of… giving them something for their time, because it takes a lot of effort. I think a lot of people outside of the arts don’t realise how much goes into what we do.”