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| Life isn't all roses for London's would-be journalists either | Life isn't all roses for London's would-be journalists either |
| (about 2 months later) | |
| London isn't all sunshine and bylines, let's get that straight. Travel expenses are like gold dust and payment is but an urban legend I've come to ignore. Is it easier for the stereotypical privileged candidates? Yes, of course, but with print slowly being crushed like a boa constrictor's plaything, it's not likely to change. The recent blogs on the Guardian Northerner by Grace Newton and Glen Keogh and others point out the value of experience at local newspapers and the class gap created by high living costs in the country's media capital, but both assume too much about the opportunities and supposed perks. Growing up on a south-east London council estate in Peckham has never put me in the frame for any profession beyond an Only Fools and Horses caricature, so to be on the Newspaper Journalism MA at City University has proved to be quite the coup. While it would be easy for me to give a list as long as the Leveson Report detailing my hard life so far, it'd be wrong to suggest that most of the problems I've faced aren't the same as those experienced by 99% of aspiring hacks like me. | London isn't all sunshine and bylines, let's get that straight. Travel expenses are like gold dust and payment is but an urban legend I've come to ignore. Is it easier for the stereotypical privileged candidates? Yes, of course, but with print slowly being crushed like a boa constrictor's plaything, it's not likely to change. The recent blogs on the Guardian Northerner by Grace Newton and Glen Keogh and others point out the value of experience at local newspapers and the class gap created by high living costs in the country's media capital, but both assume too much about the opportunities and supposed perks. Growing up on a south-east London council estate in Peckham has never put me in the frame for any profession beyond an Only Fools and Horses caricature, so to be on the Newspaper Journalism MA at City University has proved to be quite the coup. While it would be easy for me to give a list as long as the Leveson Report detailing my hard life so far, it'd be wrong to suggest that most of the problems I've faced aren't the same as those experienced by 99% of aspiring hacks like me. |
| I'm not saying I didn't win the geography lottery by being born in London. If I was born in Sheffield I would be there studying journalism instead of City, but living in London hasn't meant I get to bypass the same road blocks as those up north. It's true that a lack of support for students like myself is an even bigger disadvantage for my northern colleagues, but in my experience the nationals seldom offer much to be desired. More often than not you get palmed off doing someone else's research; if you're lucky you'll get an additional reporting byline, and that's a big if. The time of young hacks is better spent at good regionals, where there's an actual opportunity to write your own stories and even score a front page splash. Before I ever landed any experience on a national I had to cut my teeth at the locals and prove my worth. Even then, I had to persuade one paper to take me because at the time I wasn't on a journalism course. Privilege may open doors at the nationals, but more often than not you'll find grass root journos sneer at that sort of nepotism. My peers have waxed lyrical about what's almost an institutional bias at local rags against students on courses like mine, which is baffling. Only last month we heard of Trinity Mirror cutting 40 editorial positions from its regional divisions, indicating that locals and regionals are continuing to struggle. In these hard times, how (and why) would locals take on trainees when seasoned journos are being cut like yesterday's news copy? Courses like mine provide training and advice from experienced journalists, not to mention arming me with more than your bog standard reporting and shorthand skills. While my heart lies with print, I'm web-ready for when it utters its last words. It's no wonder that journalism courses are in such high demand, when the graduates are so versatile and retain an impressive employment rate. Somewhere along the line, these journalist factories are doing something right, and that can't be a bad thing, can it? | I'm not saying I didn't win the geography lottery by being born in London. If I was born in Sheffield I would be there studying journalism instead of City, but living in London hasn't meant I get to bypass the same road blocks as those up north. It's true that a lack of support for students like myself is an even bigger disadvantage for my northern colleagues, but in my experience the nationals seldom offer much to be desired. More often than not you get palmed off doing someone else's research; if you're lucky you'll get an additional reporting byline, and that's a big if. The time of young hacks is better spent at good regionals, where there's an actual opportunity to write your own stories and even score a front page splash. Before I ever landed any experience on a national I had to cut my teeth at the locals and prove my worth. Even then, I had to persuade one paper to take me because at the time I wasn't on a journalism course. Privilege may open doors at the nationals, but more often than not you'll find grass root journos sneer at that sort of nepotism. My peers have waxed lyrical about what's almost an institutional bias at local rags against students on courses like mine, which is baffling. Only last month we heard of Trinity Mirror cutting 40 editorial positions from its regional divisions, indicating that locals and regionals are continuing to struggle. In these hard times, how (and why) would locals take on trainees when seasoned journos are being cut like yesterday's news copy? Courses like mine provide training and advice from experienced journalists, not to mention arming me with more than your bog standard reporting and shorthand skills. While my heart lies with print, I'm web-ready for when it utters its last words. It's no wonder that journalism courses are in such high demand, when the graduates are so versatile and retain an impressive employment rate. Somewhere along the line, these journalist factories are doing something right, and that can't be a bad thing, can it? |
| Brett Leppard is 21 and lives in London. He read politics at De Montfort University and is now on City University's Newspaper Journalism course. When he isn't Tweeting he is usually blogging. | Brett Leppard is 21 and lives in London. He read politics at De Montfort University and is now on City University's Newspaper Journalism course. When he isn't Tweeting he is usually blogging. |
| Fledgling journalists have got a good debate going on the Guardian Northerner which we would like to continue. Posts on the issue are warmly welcome from other would-be or trainee journalists. You can read back to other contributions via our home page. | Fledgling journalists have got a good debate going on the Guardian Northerner which we would like to continue. Posts on the issue are warmly welcome from other would-be or trainee journalists. You can read back to other contributions via our home page. |
| We can't pay and we apologise for that, but we can give you a platform and a modest loudhailer. And we have some interesting - and interested - media people reading. Please email us on northerner @guardian.co.uk. | We can't pay and we apologise for that, but we can give you a platform and a modest loudhailer. And we have some interesting - and interested - media people reading. Please email us on northerner @guardian.co.uk. |
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