Trainee journalists would earn a minimum £20,000 if the National Union of Journalists’ demands are met.

The union’s annual delegate meeting called for the new minimum wage – with a £25,000 starting rate for seniors – which would considerably boost the majority of trainee reporter salaries across the country.

The move would also see minimum standards for freelance rates and rights over copyright.

The meeting was told that the £25,000 was as figure to aspire to and that incremental rises towards that would be campaigned for. A minimum rate of £20,000 has already been negotiated at some local newspaper titles.

The delegates backed the campaign after hearing how freelance rates had not increased in the past ten years in many cases.

Union chapels and journalists already involved in pay campaigning were congratulated on their success, and the National Executive Council drew attention to efforts at the Coventry Evening Telegraph and South London Guardian chapels to get employers to recognise the extent of low pay in the industry.

General secretary Jeremy Dear told the conference that pay was a key isuue, with the biggest regional newspasper groups making cuts, calling redundancies, losing editions and keeping wages down, while contiuing to make record profits.

He said: “Local newspapers are not in crisis as far as profitability is concerned. Media companies continue to make profit margins that are the envy of every other industry – yet shareholders demand more.”