Who are the lovely (ex and current) journalist posters? Advice please!

[Piggywaspushed]

My DS is en route to pursuing a journalism career. He is set on this pathway (and is genuinely very talented) so I am not after all the off putting stuff. I know about the shrinking career/AI/ precarity etc!

I know there are some really helpful journalism experienced posters here and can't PM these days.

He has secured a place on the News Associates postgrad training course (sports journalism) which I think is pretty competitive (feel free to disabuse me!). There is no loan for this route (although it's cheaper than a Master's and would involve a lengthy daily commute 4 days a week, plus sourcing and commuting to a placement). The fee does include NCTJ exams and they have an excellent success rate. I'd love to know if anyone has any insights about this route.

He has also applied for MAs at Cardiff and Sheffield (he didn't get picked up by the BBC, Telegraph or Mail for their grad schemes) . Both of these are highly regarded (not sports specific though) and are NCTJ accredited. He'd get a loan and accommodation would be reasonable, especially in Cardiff where he could live with gran if necessary. Does anyone have a view on which routes are better?

I know jobs aren't guaranteed but he ought to at least try.
There were back up plans if he didn't succeed in getting on to these courses but he has and ought to be proud.

But I'd really welcome any genuine insights and advice.

I was (am?) a journalist – I was on newspapers and magazines (and now I am not). So if I can help – tho my intel is a bit out of date.

Well done to DS anyway, sounds like he has really got lots to be proud about. Did he do history at Brum or am I getting muddled?

I would think the sports-related postgrad sounds better if that is the field he is keen on. Are the more complex logistics of it workable? What sort of placement does he need to find and for how long?

Do you say "success rate" as in rate of journalists finding jobs? There are journalism jobs for sure; writers are needed as are social media boffins. A friend's DS is carving out a career in sports journalism along those lines but it's hard work and tho his salary looks good, he has to live in London at vast expense.

What sort of destinations do graduates of Cardiff and Sheffield go to? What kind of percentage are working in journalism (say) three years later?

He should give it a go and see where he gets to. Where would be he based on the News Assoc course? Would it be London? It's really all about getting out there and doing any work he can, both to boost his CV and get experience at what it's like and does he enjoy it. Best of luck to him.

If his passion is sports he should do that one. Maybe stay closer in a shared house etc.

He can also apply again later on to grad schemes maybe boost his experience etc

The news associate postgraduate is excellent and shorter than a masters, very practically focused. Do the masters teach shorthand?

Thanks all - yes, I wasn't sure about the shorthand - it's an add on at NA which extends his hours but he won't mind.

Clary, well remembered! It is history indeed.

Glad to hear your sibling did so well benji - I guess the Cambridge degree helped but , to clarify, my DS is not doing a journalism degree. Thsi is a well know postgrad route to journalism with an NCTJ. He already has some experience and NA commented on ow excellent his articles were.

I think he wanted to avoid house shares (mega expensive around London and NA is in Twickenham!) partly because he hasn't enjoyed that aspect of uni life. But he'll have to weigh it all up.

The placement is weekly and last for the whole course with a 3 week full time slot .

Definitely the former. I’m a journalist and so is my DH (a sports one) and he agrees. Apologies am currently unwell so a bit short post but feel free to DM

Get better soon! I'd love to PM but I think MN has suspended DMs at present.

DH is a sports journalist so this is coming from him rather than me!

Agree with @Localres , the NA course is a specialist one and hard to get onto so it's the better option. That said, the Cardiff post-grad course is renown too and has been for many years so if he massively prefers that option, it won't hold him back in any way. He absolutely should be proud of all his options.

FWIW DH says he never uses shorthand these days (although he does know how), just records everything on his phone. At press conferences they all just stick their phones on the table in front of the speaker(s) and then collect them at the end.

Just looking further ahead, does he have particular sport(s) he wants to cover? There are ways to cover lots of sports, but as a general rule he is more likely to be covering only a few, and sometimes even just one. People may be able to offer more tailored advice if we know what his passion is.

Thanks thing - most of his journalism so far has been on domestic football (he has an encyclopaedic brain on football stats and every match he has ever watched!) and international cricket.

He is actually really keen on editing but knows he would work up to this.

Hmmm editing in what way tho? Sadly it’s true (doom alert) that there are few sub editors left. It is all about writing/originating clickable posts now. But that’s a role and one he might well enjoy. Seems a consensus on the first offer.

I think he just likes proofreading and checking work and controlling content.

Ahahaha! SAME he is me 40 years ago. That’s what I do now (not sport tho) and I do love so much about my role. Very best of luck to him, he sounds great.

He is ,bless him. You know young people. He has unusually good grammar and punctuation!

The big advantage with football is that the big clubs have their own X feeds, club magazines, podcasts and other social media outlets. Plus matchday programmes of course. They may not pay brilliantly but they are always looking for knowledgeable contributors. DH was editor of a club magazine back in the day, which meant watching training then grabbing a couple of the players for a chat afterwards. He tried to claim it was work... 😀

@clary is right to say the traditional sub's role has largely disappeared, but there are still plenty of opportunities for editing. Other people's writing for one - either in-house writers or commissioned freelancers, agencies that have commissioned a writer but need someone to edit the work (some journalists can do both, but plenty can't). DH found a nice little sideline in editing sports books - mainstream publishers tend not to be replete with sports enthusiasts so they are often looking for people who are.

Oh, now that he would like! He toyed with doing a publishing master's but it was all about creative writing and fiction really.

The big papers tend to call their grad schemes 'editorial' nowadays.

Totally agree re shorthand. As a journalist I’ve never had it nor used it, while DH did have it but hasn’t used it for years. You just record and then transcribe (which the likes of Otter.ai now makes very easy).

it’s also a very good point that there are probably far more opportunities and jobs on the content creation side of things, working for clubs/ brands in sport etc. Football definitely above all else as it does utterly dominate sport in this country at least. And by content creation I don’t mean videos/ socials btw - obviously there is that but it sounds like he loves the written word (hooray for him!) so writing for those types of outlets too.

I still use my shorthand #oldhack

But agree that most likely phones and transcription are used. Back in the day when we recorded interviews, the transcription was a real ballache.

I only wish that copyeditors were more widely used (well done @thing47's DH) – I am so so fed up with reading books that needed an editor’s red pen to excise the dross or even just corrections to spellings or errors of continuity (such as a character’s name changing midway through the novel, arrrgh). But yes, there is still a role for editing if you look in the right place.

I did a print journalism post-grad in the late 90s after a degree in law&politics, so my knowledge is out of date, but it helped open doors for me to work in print, broadcast and public/private/charity sector comms over the years. 25 years later, I'm still researching, writing and proofing, but my role now is also about digital content creation (web; social).
I still regularly use the shorthand I learnt on the post-grad, it's been invaluable over the course of my career and was essential for court reporting where recording devices weren't permitted (less of an issue with sports reporting, granted!) Wishing your son good luck!