Fleet Street veteran visits department

By Megan Jorsh

Sunday Times veteran Maurice Chittenden came to UCLan to share some of his hard-earned wisdom with newspaper journalism students.

The Fleet Street reporter had cast a critical eye over the postgraduates' competing newspapers, The Courant and The Wasp. Maurice picked the latter as his star buy for readability, content and price. “If I only had 50p and was running for the train I’d grab The Wasp and I’d be left with enough change for a Cadbury’s Freddo bar.”

Worthy of the nationals

The newsman discussed his findings with the class, highlighting favourite pages. He thought two headlines were worthy of the nationals: a Courant crime story headlined “Tequila Thug In The Slammer” and a Wasp piece on DJ recruitment piece, “DLT With Extra Mayo.”

Wasp editor Steven Thompson, 28, was delighted with the feedback. “He’s on one of the top papers in the country, so to have him judge ours is great,” he said. “It was good to hear that some members of The Sunday Times back bench team have seen our newspapers too.”

Starting out in local newspapers, Chittenden described sending dozens of applications before being called for his first job interview. Having worked his way up the ranks, he gave insider’s advice on work experience, stressing the importance of the office coffee round.

Courant editor Nia Williams, 24, said: “It was interesting to meet someone with such a breadth of experience. It was nice that he took us seriously.”

Maurice who has worked for the Sunday for more than two decades said: "I was impressed by the hard work and diligence the students had put into producing their newspapers, from getting the stories, writing the headlines and putting them into print. Both The Courant and The Wasp could easily have been on sale on the newstands of Preston."

More info
PgDip Newspaper Journalism
The Sunday Times

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