Journalism jobs and news from Holdthefrontpage.co.uk

Regional press news - this story published 10 November 2006

Regional dailies remain big draw for career move: Survey results

by Patrick Astill

Only 13 per cent of readers surveyed by Holdthefrontpage said they were likely to leave the journalism industry in the next five years.

More than 56 per cent said they would be staying in the industry - that's 322 people of the 568 who voluntarily filled in a survey on this website. The rest ticked "don’t know".

We also asked if readers had a career plan, with 238 (41.9 per cent) saying they did, and 58 per cent (330) saying "no".

Almost a quarter of respondents see their next job in regional daily newspapers.

Fourteen per cent, the next highest group, would prefer their next job to be in PR/Communications.

Where do you see your next job being?

Daily.regional PR/communications Freelance Magazine Nationals Weekly.newspaper Broadcast Internet Press/picture.agency No.reply

136 79 64 57 46 43 26 24 12 81

23.9% 13.9% 11.3% 10% 8.1% 7.6% 4.6% 4.2% 2.1% 14.3%

Other ideas on the next job in journalism included:

Would like to write features as a freelance but am planning to leave the industry to become a counsellor.

Don't really know. The industry is still in the dark ages regarding p/t opportunities for women.

National press or on a publication outside of the UK.

Ideally working on an English language newspaper or magazine abroad.

Those who expressed an opinion on what they planned next if they expected to leave journalism included becoming a press officer, teaching journalism or running own business were among the popular answers.

Actor, probation officer and farmer were also cited.

More offbeat replies from people who appear truly fed up with the industry included:

I don't know! Anything that pays me more for fewer hours, does not expect me to work bank holidays and then get aggressive about taking the time back, does not shaft me generally at every turn.

Anything but this.

Anything that doesn't require me to start early, finish late for no overtime, a low rate of pay.

Would like to stay in journalism but the future is bleak. Confused and worried like everyone else.

Tennis coaching from home and travelling to surrounding area, maybe if things are slow I may freelance.

Something interesting where I am expected to use my experience, and get paid for it, and where I am not treated like an idiot.

We found that 69.4 per cent of readers who took part were NCTJ qualified, with the highest level of education varying between O-level/GCSE/NVQ2 at 28 people (4.9 per cent) up to the ten per cent who have a masters degree. Twenty-two per cent of those did a media degree.

O.level/GCSE/NVQ2 A.Level/NVQ3 HND/HNC/NVQ4 Degree/NVQ5 Masters No.reply

28 99 46 315 59 21

4.9% 17.4% 8.1% 55.5% 10.4% 3.7%

And 58.3 per cent had some journalism training before entering the industry. 41.7 per cent did not.

Yet only around 17 per cent think a degree or masters is important in journalism.

As for specialised journalism training, we found that 331 people – almost 60 per cent – said that they had some journalism training before entering the industry. The flip-side of this question is one on whether people in newsrooms would be happy to give people their first break, by having them on work experience without any previous experience. A massive 84 per cent - 477 people – said they would.

And 67.6 per cent say they had received formal training at work.

Our survey, which was running on this website for two weeks in October and was voluntary to fill in, attracted 568 respondents.

Weekly newspaper staff accounted for 191 responses (33.6 per cent), while 197 said they worked at regional dailies (34.7 per cent)

The rest comprised mainly freelances (12 per cent), magazine journalists (7.9 per cent) and the nationals (4.8 per cent).

Although the results won’t be a scientific study, the sheer number of completed forms – 568 – has given us a big enough sample for a credible and reliable guide to what readers are thinking.

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