Oxbridge and journalism

[pigeonfeathers]

My DS1 is in last year at a RG university. He really wants to be a sports journalist. He has a blog and has an offer of a month's work experience at a broadsheet newspaper after he has graduated He also has done two stints of work experience at specialist sports magazines in the past.

He is considering applying to take an MA in Journalism at Cardiff which we would support and finance,as we would at anywhere else to be honest, due to the recession/lack of jobs etc.

My only concern is that, in reality, most successful journalists on broadsheet papers seem to be Oxbridge educated.

Are there any journalists on here who would like to shed a light as to whether he really stands a cat's in hell chance of ever making it on to a newspaper if he isn't from an Oxbridge background????

And is it worth taking an MA in Journalism at all????

DH (non-Oxbridge) is a journalist on a national broadsheet. In a recent editorial conference they had a show of hands on who went to Oxbridge. About 50% put their hands up.

I'm a freelance and former staffer (also non-Oxbridge), and would say ad hoc work experience not linked to a training course such as the Cardiff MA is unlikely to ever 'lead anywhere'. Would definitely advise the MA - there are far too many aimless and frankly desperate serial workies drifting around the nationals who will never get hired. Then slog away at the trade mags/local newspaper route, which is how I got in.

He won't be poor, but the going rate for new reporters is not high - trade mags about £19k. I would say if you are after riches, forget about journalism - with a very few notable exceptions, of course.

.

Thanks so much for all the information everyone. Sorry, I've only just come back to this thread. I will pass on all the advice to him. He has applied to Cardiff University and also Kingston Poly as was (not sure what it's called now!!). I'll tell him about City and the Lancashire one. Trouble with City is that we will have to finance him for a year in London which will be very expensive.

His main passion is golf :) so I am hoping a young person obsessively interested in it might be a good 'selling' point.

Ok, while everyone' being so damn honest on here - what are typical pay rates for a national staffer? (tis a long time since I was a staffer, and that's on a small circulation consumer magazine, so probably not relevant)

I did the Post Grad Print course at Preston too, it was great. Of my former chums several are now sports journos, all got in through the Press Association - one is in fact one of PAs main golf writers :)

While he MUST have relevant experience, being encyclopedic about his sports knowledge is also essential.

Hi
I don't post here often, but here's my two penn'orth. I'm a specialist journalist (not sport) on one of the national broadsheets (as I suppose they are still called).
While I'm Oxbridge (though comp. educated, so definitely not what you'd expect) I never did a postgrad, and the majority of successful younger journos at our place went to either Cardiff or City, which has proved far more relevant to them than whether Russell Group or Oxbridge. They are great courses.
Wish I could give you a detailed idea of what the salary is for a typical staffer - suspect you get more as a specialist than as a newsdesk reporter (have done both), but it certainly doesn't compare with law, medicine or similar professions.
That said, I'm our main earner, and work four days a week and we live comfortably in an unsalubrious area of london. There's often the chance to do extra freelance too, which can top up what you earn once you make a name for yourself.
If he wants it, he should go for it, and certainly don't assume that Oxbridge essential - I've never found that is the case in our office (and certainly with some editors I have had it has been prudent to play it down). Whoever suggested trade mags is making a good suggestion - that's how I got in. I'm sure there are some golfing industry magazines he could think about.

Thanks sleepingbunny.

Very helpful info again. He's applied to Cardiff and has done some work experience at national golfing mags, and they have given him references, so fingers crossed he gets on the course.