Friday 7 January 2011

Mail looking for trainee subs and reporters

The Daily Mail begins recruiting for both its subbing and reporting training schemes next week. Adverts will appear in The Guardian on Monday, inviting applications from talented would-be reporters and subs.
Through Press Association Training, I have helped run the sub-editing course  since it began in 2003. At the time the concept of taking young people, often directly from journalism college, and turning them into national newspaper subs was pretty radical. But it works ... which is why the scheme has continued to grow. There have been more than 50 people through the training, many of them holding senior positions at Derry Street. 
The training involves four to five intensive weeks at the Press Association's Manor House in Howden, East Yorkshire, where the trainees are taught all aspects of the subbing craft. Tight-editing, accuracy, headlines, captions, typography, layout, software, editing online and Mail style are among the modules. The trainees then gain six months hands-on subbing experience at a big regional daily before returning to the Mail. 
I also run the reporting scheme, with the Mail's consultant editor Sue Ryan, which is now in its fourth year. As the successful applicants will probably have been on a post-graduate journalism course, the formal training is shorter. There are two intensive weeks in the Mail's London offices, covering the skills needed to work for a national newspaper and the Mail in particular. The trainees then work for a large regional paper for several months and, if they make the grade, are given positions jobs at Northcliffe House. 
The details for both courses are above and will be in The Guardian on Monday. Anyone applying might find these tips useful. They were written after the interviews last year. Good luck.

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