Sage advice for City College’s budding journalists

Journalism students at City College Brighton and Hove recently benefitted from the wisdom of one of the country’s leading media commentators, Roy Greenslade, who gave a talk at the College’s City College East campus about the current state of the media industry. Mr. Greenslade has been a journalist for 41 years and has worked for most of Britain’s national newspapers. He was Editor of The Daily Mirror (1990-91), Managing Editor (news) at The Sunday Times (1987-90) and Assistant Editor of The Sun (1981-86). He is currently Professor of Journalism at London’s City University and has been a media commentator since 1992, most notably for The Guardian.

Mr. Greenslade says:

“Journalism is all about youth, newness and people inventing new ways of doing things and the future is in our universities and colleges. These students are digital natives who are going to take journalism to a new stage. Doing talks like this keeps me young and I also think it’s good for the profession that we get new entrants into the business. All the students’ questions were intelligent and their input widened the knowledge of the whole group. That aspect was great; it was like being at a mini press conference!”

Student Polly Cook says:

“The talk gave us a real insight into the state of journalism and gave us some good ideas about how to get ourselves established during a difficult time in the industry.”

Student Olivia Delamere says:

“I found it interesting to hear how journalism is moving forward in the age of the internet and it was important to face up to the bad news about how tough the industry currently is  but at the same time, I think I’ve learnt that if you’ve got the passion and believe in yourself, you can still succeed.”

City College’s Newspaper and Magazine NCTJ Journalism courses are currently recruiting for the February 2009 intake.

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Notes to Editors: City College Brighton and Hove provides training for the internationally-recognised NCTJ Journalism (Magazine and News) and the course has produced top journalists such as Claire Truscott (BBC South East, Channel 4 News, Guardian, Mail on Sunday), Olivia Laing (Guardian, Observer, Times Literary Supplement) and current NCTJ News Journalist of the Year, Naomi Loomes. City College has been awarded the status of Centre of Vocational Excellence (CoVE) to reflect the exceptional high standards of training for these courses. Courses are exclusively fast-track and start throughout the year.

Further notes on Roy Greenslade: Mr. Greenslade is a columnist for the London Evening Standard, a board member of the British Journalism Review and a trustee of the media ethics charity, MediaWise. He is also the author of three books, including a biography of the late press tycoon, Robert Maxwell. His most recent book is a history of British newspapers entitled Press Gang: How Newspapers Make Profits from Propaganda. He lives between Brighton and County Donegal in Ireland, and is married to Noreen Taylor, the former Daily Mirror journalist and mother of actress Natascha McElhone.

About City College Brighton and Hove: Founded over 100 years ago, City College Brighton and Hove has become an international centre of excellence. Every year, around 9,000 students, including many international and European students, choose City College as their education provider. Over 500 14 to 16 year olds from local schools also attend the College. City College provides training to over 2,000 businesses and has a ‘City Business Skills’ department which focuses on employers’ needs. Offering hundreds of courses from basic level to pre-University level, City College is working with its partners to develop the workforce of the future.