With more than 90 per cent of university-educated journalists, the UK media needs to hire from beyond the pool of graduates if it wants to better understand and represent audience
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The latest Diversity in Journalism report from the NCTJ showed that the UK news industry continues to be dominated by university-educated journalists., bring in media lawyer to offer media law advise, most coverage goes through lawyers not usually exposed to the legal stuff, diverted only to McNaes each day, normal hours different sessions with different editors start the week with what makes the news with editor James Harding, setting a week-long assignment, write the top of the sensemaker 600w newsletter or script for sensemakrer daily podcast how to find a story with editor and how to pitch working on their assignment before going back into pitch meeting with james Harding course of the week work on stories, alonngside differehnt sessions (above) work on stories leading into general editorial meeting, bring ideas for weekend sensemaker, commissioning james bruton for potential inclusion quite full-on, first two and a half days time with design leads and photography editors to look at images and visuals to enhance podcasts and pieces not paid, but meals and accomodation provided within london and travel expenses we’re a small newsroom, we don’t have pots of money. one of the big blockers in journalism is access, we’re providing access to our newsroom and all the sustenance to the newsroom. no dayrate an inhibitor to social mobility expectancy for students to hit the ground running, but there is often a real process and proedcure to getting stories and successfully pitching them. prescriptiveness can be effective what is a tortoise a story? wants to diversify applicants, not from journalistic backgrounds. moving sideways people with different backgrounds can be refreshing no formal training required, just need to be over 18 end of the week, one more session at the end of the week (controversial topics), working with sources one of trickiest parts of investigative journalism and then the great feedback session a group discussion led by james harding alongside other editors providing feedback on the assignments, followed by graduation lunch (more like a debrief session) to celebrate a successful week not guaranteed position, running for a group over two weeks. open up ourselves to different voices and people, new pipeline 8/10 holding uni degrees some of the best journalists I’ve worked with down the years have been people who hacent come out of university with a journalism degree or any agree its so important in the work we do at tortoise to hear from different voices and different experiences, some of the most successful podcasts we’ve done and most hard hitting ones, have been done alongside organisations who help different people get into the media we want to encourage people who think the media is a closed shop to think its not, to come along and see for themselves that it’s not. and if it’s for you, then we hope you want to stay in the industry in an ideal, we want to see people who ahve sttores to tell, who have lived expeir4nces in a world where opportunities may not have come their way, who think the media or journalism don’t speak for them, and in a world where they think the media is a closed shop and only cares about London or Westminster. orgs that ahve worked with stories to encourage people from lesser advantages backgrounds sound delivery, jengbar (joint enterprise story), lean on its previous network the goal is to get stories the ideal outcome is to get someone through the door who has an amazing story with them or an idea of what they want to work on. To pitch that story, but i think thats where the curriculum comes in to provide the tools and necessary skills in order to develop it. an ideal outcome would be to create new types of journalism and new journalists out of it; people who haven’t worked in the industry before - people who come around to the idea of working in the media, confidence and motivation to pursue a career in journalism work experience and internships previously not formal formalising it solved a problem, ad hoc and messy set amount of people per week and dedicated focus)
A growing majority - 91 per cent of UK journalists - hold a university degree or a higher qualification (above RQF Level 4 or 5), up two percentage points from last year. This figure is only around half (52 per cent) across the general UK workforce.
While journalism is a specialised trade and does need formal training, hiring predominantly from the university graduate pool further limits newsroom representation. News organisations must think about alternative talent pipelines if they want to better engage with their audiences.
The Financial Times provides one template. This month, it launched new 18-month apprenticeship programme in partnership with Reach plc-owned local news title Manchester Evening News.
Applicants do not require a university degree to be eligible and will be paid a £21,749 p/a pro-rata salary whilst they work towards a full-funded NCTJ level 5 qualification.
They will split their time between both newsrooms, receiving free accommodation, 30 days annual leave, a dedicated FT senior mentor and access to FT Employee Networks - seven employee networks designed for community and connection (Proud FT, FT Embrace, FT Women, FT Families, FT Sustainability, FT Mental Health and FT Access).
The Financial Times and the Manchester Evening News will exchange regular updates on the progress of the apprentice, who by the end of the scheme will be skilled in both local news reporting and financial journalism.
Veronica Kan-Dapaah, *FT* assistant editor and head of newsroom diversity, said via email the first step to improving diversity is to provide physical access to the newsroom and its journalists. The *FT* does this by visiting schools and running a very popular graduate trainee scheme that has been going on for 38 years. But the challenge has now moved on to making opportunities more viable for young people.
"We want to build the confidence of young people from a whole range of backgrounds so that they can easily imagine themselves having a career in a newsroom, long before they are applying to university or for technical training," Kan-Dapaah says.
"Universities can provide a wonderful education but it's not the right fit for everybody. Mastering technical skills and learning through doing is different, not better and not of less value. We want a newsroom with a diversity of skills, experience and perspectives."
Successful apprentices will be encouraged to apply for staff positions that become available towards the end of the programme.
Not all candidates want, or can, to commit to a full 18-month scheme, however. Slow news startup Tortoise Media launched a week-long, crash course that shows aspiring journalists how to pitch, write and deliver professional news stories in its signature style.
The Tortoise Journalism School is running for two weeks from 3 July this year, and aims to host 15 people per week. Applications for this round of training have closed, but more schemes will follow in the future.
The school was primarily set up as a way to formalise requests for work experience and internships, which worked before on an ad hoc basis.
Now, it has a dedicated curriculum which starts with a session on "what makes the news" with editor and Tortoise co-founder James Harding. There, he will set a week-long assignment to write either a 600-word piece for the top of its Sensemaker newsletter or the script for its Sensemaker daily podcast. Both are critical products for the newsroom.
Applicants then receive sessions on how to find and pitch news stories, before formally pitching to Harding. The next few days will see participants work on their stories alongside other sessions, including how to specialise as a foreign reporter, how to cover controversial topics, interview technique masterclasses and a sitdown with in-house lawyer to offer media law advice and analysis.
As a pilot scheme, this will be tweaked upon over time. But it is hoped there will also be time for sessions with design leads and photography editors to look at how visuals can enhance podcasts and pieces.
This is all quite an intense week-long experience, but one that tries to show the breadth of what it is like to work at Tortoise and in journalism more generally. The ambition is that it will encourage young people or those from other industries to pursue a career in journalism. The only requirement to be eligible is to be over 18.
The caveat is that the school does not pay a day rate but applicants receive meals, travel expenses and accommodation in London. This could prevent some people from applying if they cannot afford to take time off from their day jobs or find childcare.
"We're a small newsroom, we don’t have large pots of money. One of the big blockers in journalism is access. We’re providing access to our newsroom and all the sustenance [and maintenance]," says Andrew Butler, head of social and PR of Tortoise Media, heavily involved in the Tortoise Journalism School, on the Journalism.co.uk podcast.
At the end of the week, James Harding leads a group feedback alongside other editors. That is followed by a graduation lunch to celebrate a successful week.
"In an ideal world, we want to see people who have stories to tell, who have lived experiences in a world where opportunities may not have come their way, who think the media or journalism doesn't speak for themselves, and who think the media is a closed shop and only cares about London or Westminster," Butler says about his vision for the future cohorts.
