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Students produce edition of London weekly

A group of college students helped produce an edition of a London weekly direct from their campus.

Nine students from the Barking and Dagenham College took over their local paper, the Barking and Dagenham Post, as part of a joint editorial and commercial project by publisher Archant.

The project, called Create Your Future, saw the Post’s news team relocate to the college for a ‘student takeover’ week.

It followed months of work mentoring the students in every aspect of business including editorial, commercial, videography and digital sessions.

All team members wrote their own stories, with the student editor Emillie Rix getting a splash about the danger of home tattooists and an interview with friends of a 15-year-old girl who had died suddenly.

Since the special edition hit the shops earlier this month, Archant has announced the winners of two paid internships at the paper, with an additional four-month role for a student columnist also revealed.

Emilie won the editorial internship while Michael Morar was awarded a commercial internship.

In addition Rheanna Stiles, who suffers from dyslexia, was given the  opportunity to write a paid monthly column for four months.

Post editor Michael Adkins said: “The project has been a massive task for all involved most notably because we had to relocate to the college.

“But when it came to producing the paper, some of the stories that members of the group were tackling would have been difficult even for a fully-fledged journalist, let alone a student.

“It was quite inspiring to see all the student members make new friends, support each other in getting the best out of the experience and choose the subjects they wanted to tackle.

“They were very committed, with many working weekends, and even attending the local election count the week before and late into the night.”