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How much do you get paid, pupils ask reporter

A weekly newspaper reporter admitted he “had to laugh” after being asked how much he was paid in a Q&A with schoolkids.

Littlehampton Gazette chief reporter Tom Cotterill spoke to pupils at St Mary’s CE Primary School in Climping about his job and what it entails.

Said Tom: “As a journalist a key skill you need is the ability to ask good questions. And the young pupils at St Mary’s did just that. They asked some really great questions that certainly kept me on my toes.

“One cheeky youngster even asked me how much I get paid – which I had to have a giggle about,” he added.

The visit was part of a project by the school to create its own newspaper reports.

6 comments

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  • July 2, 2014 at 9:52 am
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    Was the answer, “Like most journalists, nowhere near enough”?

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  • July 2, 2014 at 10:00 am
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    Why giggle? Unless Tom Cotterill is the exception to the rule I imagine his pay is no laughing matter. I bet he didn’t answer the question!

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  • July 2, 2014 at 3:09 pm
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    Voice of Reason, you’re right… I didn’t answer the question. I just brushed it off.

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  • July 2, 2014 at 4:07 pm
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    Why not though? I imagine the aim of the visit was so the children could learn what being a reporter is like and if they would like to be one eventually – the salary is a key part of that. Better to disillusion them now than after they’ve been on an NCTJ course.

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  • July 3, 2014 at 12:28 pm
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    Tom should indeed have answered the question. The more people that know how poorly local journalists are paid, the better the change of pressure being brought bear for them to get pay rises. I have been asked this question by pupils and I told them honestly. Virtually retired, I now do village news at 10p a line. I started doing linage on the day I left school prior to going to colleage, earning 2d a line. I have been a journalist 50 years, latterly working for Trinity Mirror until I was made redundant almost 2½ years ago, but I never quite broke the £20,000 pa barrier. Journalism is a great profession to be in but, locally at least, the pay has never been great. Times are a’changin’ and papers aren’t what they used to be, neither, sadly, is journalistic accuracy.

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  • July 4, 2014 at 8:53 pm
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    Kids these days always ask this questionn. Instead of taking the easy, glib way out (sorry young Tom) and making a joke of it, you should have taken a serious question seriously and come up with some facts, figures and opinions. Otherwise what are the young people going to think when a fact gatherer can’t give the facts?

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