In Praise of Stack Magazines.

Last week during my business of magazine class, we discussed as a group what magazines will be like in the future. The discussions ranged from looking at the effect the iPad will have the experience of reading magazines as a whole, uses of augmented reality or whether magazines will continue to exist in print form at all.

A majority of the class remained hopeful that the magazines will still continue to exist in print form for the next ten years with the ‘learn back’ experience crucial to magazines popularity while at the same time being aware of the various ways in which magazines are evolving through the use of technology.

After the lesson I went home, caught a train and made sure I took a magazine with me for the journey. I decided on the free music publication ‘Sup Magazine which was sent to me by the subscription service Stack Magazines.

Stack Magazines is a subscription service that collects the best independent magazines from around the world and delivers them to your door. I found it interesting that on a day I was thinking about the future of the magazine industry, here I was not only enjoying a magazine in its most basic form, but doing it because of a service that sorely seeks to promote the passion and talent that is required to publish quality independent magazines.

While the idea of what type of journalist I may one day become has changed over the past few years, I am pleased that something like Stack still exists to remind me why I wanted to be one in the first place.

Without it I don’t think I would have discovered magazines such as music magazines Shook and the sadly now disbanded Plan B (which you can now download as PDF files) the wonderful children’s magazine Anorak or the slightly disturbing and melancholy Finnish magazine Kasino A4.
While some magazines are more enjoyable to read than others, as it happens ‘Sup Magazine is one of my least favourite and I found it hard to get excited over anything in Ride Journal, the fact that there are still people who are willing to publish magazines independently for nothing more than the passion of doing it is something that should respected.

So while magazines are worried about what their magazine will look like as an iPhone app or thinking whether people pay attention to advertisements in digital magazines or not, it is pleasing to know that people out there are still people out there with the ambition and drive to create something independently. I for one hope this is not something that will slowly start to die out in the future.

Review- NCTJ Student Council Meeting

On Friday the 12th of February I was one of 43 students who were lucky enough to take part in the NCTJ student council meeting, which this year was held at the Guardian HQ in North London.

The meeting was a chance to let student representatives from accredited courses share their opinions and ask questions directly to the people behind the NCTJ and what they would change about the industry recognised qualifications.

Firstly here are some things you may not want to hear if you are a student journalist on a NCTJ accredited course. The costs to take each exam will stay the same, you still won’t get feedback on any exam you have failed and yes, shorthand is the most valuable skill to obtain if you want to be a journalist.

Now here are some of the main changes that have been made since last year’s meeting: There will be a new, better designed NCTJ website which will launch at the end of this month.

The shorthand test will now include a vital quote in which 100% accuracy is needed to pass, this will test listening skills as well as speed and accuracy and may begin in September 2010.

Also in what I see as the biggest change, there will be a new multimedia NCTJ qualification launched, a great step in showing how the NCTJ is actually willing to evolve. How this will be assessed, however, was not fully discussed.

After an introduction the meeting kicked off with an open Q and A from the students to the panel. The panel was made up of Joanne Butcher, Chief Executive of the NCTJ, Joanne Aitchison, Examinations Manager, Kim Fletcher, Chairman, Lyn Jones, Head of Qualifications, Glen Oldershaw, Head of Communications and Michelle Patient, Head of Accreditation.

Areas of discussion included whether you should need to take both an internal and external media law exam. The explanation given that the internal exams you take whilst at university do not follow the NCTJ criteria- A statement which confused some as some people complained they answered identical questions on each exam.

There were also suggestions the law exam should be more practical, a court report was one suggestion, and not just ‘regurgitating facts’ or a ‘memory test’ as one student described it.

There was also lots of debate about the dreaded news and online writing exam, with the number of people who had passed it first time appearing to be a minority. The main criticism being that how can one person mark what is ‘good writing’ and even university lecturers aren’t too sure how to pass this exam.

The NCTJ reassured everybody that the exams are in fact open and they’re more than one answer, especially when it comes to choosing the right angle to a story. I actually managed to pass this exam first time, but of course I cannot tell you how as I did not receive any feedback. The chance for exam feedback also being another key topic of discussion which unfortunately doesn’t look like will be changing anytime soon.

Possibly the most popular idea that came from this open forum was from the one photojournalist in the room whose name unfortunately escapes me. He suggested that the photojournalist should also take a shorthand exam as there have been many time when he had to “bail out a journalist” by providing the important details of a story.

There was then an editors meeting which gave the students a chance to ask questions to some of the countries’ top editors. The panel was chaired by Bob Satchwell, Executive Director of the Society of Editors. Also on the panel were Jeroen Bergmans, editor of Easyjet Magazine, Dominic Ponsford, editor of Press Gazette, Brien Beharrell editorial director of Newbury Weekly News Group, Graham Dudman, Managing Editor of The Sun and Dave King, Editor of the Swindon Advertiser.

Here are some advice they gave to students seeking employment.

“Shorthand is number one, you wont get a look in without it.”

Dave King, editor, Swindon Advertiser.

“Fantastic enthusiasm is what impresses me most”

Dominic Ponsford,editor, Press Gazette

“Submit a CV that’s no more than two pages long.You might think you’re the most important person in the world, but you’re not.”

Graham Dudman, Managing Editor, The Sun

“I used to reject letters that said ‘dear sir’…it shows they haven’t bothered to find out who the editor is.”

Bob Satchwell, executive director, Society of Editors. A view which was shared by the only female on the panel Brien Beharrell, editorial director of Newbury Weekly News Group.

Finally my favourite quote of the meeting comes from Dominic Ponsford form the Press Gazette. He said

“This isn’t the worst time in history to be a journalist- That was last year. This is the second worst time.”

Then came the chance for the student representatives to tell the people behind the NCTJ directly what they would change about it in groups. Apart from the obvious suggestions such as cheaper exam prices or the chance to get exam papers returned there were also some other suggestions which I hope will be implemented.

The main one that was suggested more than once that the NCTJ should seem more personal and open. This could be done via newsletters or personal appearances to universities. There were even suggestions that they should visit colleges and high schools to show the importance of these qualifications to potential journalists as soon as possible.

Personally there wasn’t too much of what was said at the meeting that I wasn’t already expecting. I was most pleased with the news of a multimedia qualification and there was a genuine sense that the NCTJ were willing to make some changes based on our suggestions. We will have to wait and see to see if this does occur.

Are journalism students still far too unaware of the importance of multimedia?

This is my first post on my brand new blog and I’m afraid it’s not only a bit of a rant, but also comes with a back story.

Last year during my second year off study a fellow University of Sunderland student Josh Halliday asked me if I would write a guest post on his blog about journalism education. Without wanting to repeat myself- you can read the full post here- I basically was a bit disillusioned that there wasn’t any modules on my journalism course that was teaching these apparently ‘vital’ skills.

Then I discovered that there was going to be a brand new module to the university- Multimedia journalism. The module gave students the chance to learn camera work, audio and web writing, help to find your voice when blogging and has the overall aim to help students find the best media format for communicating traditional journalism stories beyond print.

The module also included the chance for whatever you produced to be featured on an up and coming website called Keep Your Eyes Open. If what you produced wasn’t good enough, it wouldn’t be used. A decent incentive to learn and a great way to show your skills to any potential employees.

There was one catch- It was a second year module but since the teacher of the module Alex Lockwood understood that third year students would jump at the chance to take part, he opened it up to them too and sent out an email about this opportunity to third year students.

Despite the fact we are entering the last semester of our last year of university, at least five- myself included- volunteered to take part.

But today came the news that the module was cancelled due to the lack of students who signed up to the module. If everybody turned up, there would have been more volunteer third year students than second years who registered as part of their course.

Not only is this a disappointment to me as I am unable to take part in a module I was excited to be a part, but also the work of the people behind setting up the module has been in vain.

And for what reason? It appears there are still too many students who do not understand the importance at least having basic knowledge of multimedia skills and still believe they will walk straight into a job at a newspaper.

Luckily it seems there have been plans put in place for the select few wanted to be part of the module to still work for the website and be taught the skills they felt they needed to learn. I hope to follow-up this post eventually with how this is coming along.

This apparently isn’t a one-off occasion as I’ve heard similar modules have been dropped from various universities for exactly the same reason- Lack of interest from students.

Ultimately his shows a depressing trend that students are still almost dangerously unaware of the importance of these skills to their futures and more needs to be done to drill this home to them.