First year achieves front page glory

By UKJournalism

Heís only been here for a few months, but first year journalism student Mark Hughes has already had a story on the front page of an evening newspaper.

Mark wrote a piece on binge drinking with another reporter for Carlisleís News & Star on his first day of work experience there in December, but nobody was more shocked than him when it popped up on the front page the next night.

"My mum rang me and asked me if I knew that it was the main story but I had no idea," he said. "They cut down a lot of the copy for it though, and most of the work I did appeared on page 2 - mostly quotes."

The BA (Hons) Journalism student sent an email to the editor of his local paper the News & Star in November, just weeks after starting his course, asking if they would take him on for some work experience during the Christmas break. And they did.

Confidence

After that front page story on his first day, Markís confidence grew. He continued writing news for the next week or so before moving over to the sports desk. "I mentioned to the sports editor that a friend of mine who is a youth player at Newcastle was football playing for England under 18ís, and that it might make a good story," he said.

"The sports editor asked me to do the story so I spoke to my friend, and his team manager and I did a piece for the paper. After that the sports editor asked me to do some more stories, mainly about snooker."

With the recent floods in Carlisle dominating the regional and national news, Mark was in the perfect place to gain reporting experience. While most of the big stories were left to the chief reporters, Mark did a couple of human interest pieces.

Carry on working

And although he returned to Preston in January at the end of the Christmas break, the News and Star deputy editor Nick Turner asked him to carry on working there on his days off.

Nick said: "Mark has acquitted himself very well since he joined us in December. He is a local lad so he knows the area and he has come up with some excellent story ideas."

Mark reckons that doing the journalism course here has helped him settle in quickly at the News and Star: "When I first started other reporters told me that my interviews were spot on. He said. They could tell Iíd had some training.

"I really enjoy the experience at the News and Star," said Mark. "Iím doing a lot more sport than news at the moment, and I get paid, which is great."

Mark also writes for the Cumbrian weekly paper the Cumberland News, and monthly music magazine The Fly.

More info:
BA (Hons) Journalism >

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See also:
News & Star website >
The Fly Magazine website >

Extra and related information

Our print and broadcast courses are accredited by the The Broadcast Journalism Training Council and the National Council for the Training of Journalists. Our MA Magazine Journalism is accredited by the Periodicals Training Council.