Monday 16 March 2009

Regional Press Crisis: A teacher's view

While the regional newspaper industry is struggling journalism courses are booming. My former editor at Press Gazette Ian Reeves, who is now head of learning and teaching at the Centre for Journalism at the University of Kent, said: "No sane person involved in journalism education can feel anything but uneasy about preparing students for an industry where so many senior jobs are disappearing and so few entry level positions are becoming available
"The paradox of course is that while there's never been a worse time to find a job, there's never been a better time to learn about the dazzling array of new techniques that are now at the journalist's disposal. With so many new tools emerging for research, dissemination and storytelling, this really should be a Golden Age for online reporting.
"It'll be two years until the first graduates emerge from the new Centre for Journalism at the University of Kent, so with any luck some kind of stability will have re-emerged. Maybe by then some genius will have found a new business model that will allow them to put the innovative skills they're learning to the best possible use - breaking big stories, informing the wider public, and holding power to account."

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