A journalism student landed the splash on a leading regional daily within two days of coming in on work placement.

Emma Lidiard, 23, a trainee on a postgraduate diploma in print journalism course at Leeds Trinity University College, joined the Yorkshire Post newsroom as part of her ten-month course.

On her second day there, she spotted a story about a Rotherham schoolgirl stopped from sharing her birthday cake with classmates because of health regulations.

After doing a ring-round of 60 schools in the region and finding the practice was in fact more widespread than had been thought, she came up with a page one story that branded some schools ‘health food zealots.’

Said Emma: “Phoning 60 schools was pretty tiring – and I then had to get comments from councillors and children’s groups,” she said.

“But the next day made it all worthwhile as it was the front page lead and so exciting to see my name at the top of the Yorkshire Post.”

Emma said she hadn’t thought she would be given much to do as a trainee on a large regional morning.

“It just goes to show you don’t know what’s going to happen on your work placements,” she added.

YP news editor Hannah Start said it was “highly unusual” for a student on work experience to get a front page lead

“Emma saw the original story about a child being banned from taking a cake into school and wondered if this sort of thing happened anywhere else,” she said.

“I suggested she ring round a few schools to see, but I never expected her to contact so many and come up with such a good story.

“She did an excellent job on a ring round that many experienced journalists would find incredibly difficult – and hard work.”

Susan Pape, course leader in print journalism at Leeds Trinity, said she was delighted for Emma.

“We send our trainees out on work placement confident they can make themselves useful in a newsroom – and do the job. But it’s still fantastic when a trainee like Emma makes such an impact,” she said.

Comments

bob the builder (30/10/2009 11:01:12)
“Emma said she hadn’t thought she would be given much to do as a trainee on a large regional morning.
“It just goes to show you don’t know what’s going to happen on your work placements,” she added.”
It just goes to show staffing levels have hit an incredible low and bosses are happy to run papers with unpaid workers.

Charles (30/10/2009 11:57:14)
Well done Emma – that’s the kind of work that will get you noticed in the industry. Great to see trainees are being encouraged to be so pro-active, not just being dumped with re-writes of press releases.
Bob the Builder – so would it be better if nobody was ever allowed to have anything printed unless they’re a paid employee? Work experience is a vital part of a student’s training. It’s nothing new. Does every story constitute an opportunity to point out how dire things are, or could we just be impressed by Emma’s good work?

Cynic Al (30/10/2009 14:14:44)
Erm…hang on. She “spotted the story”? What does that actually mean? She saw it in in another paper? She then did a ring round on the orders of the equally-desperate news ed, who was probably just looking for something to keep the work exp girl occupied and never thought it would come to anything. I’m not sure I see the achievement here. Is splashing on a follow-up of someone else’s tale really that much to shout about?

biter (30/10/2009 15:13:57)
Why did she bother phoning 60 schools?

Joe Bones (30/10/2009 16:00:09)
I’m guessing the sniffy comments above come from bitter hacks how can’t remember their last splash. Ignore them. Good on you, Emma!

Rob, Yorkshire Post (02/11/2009 13:42:48)
Emma, your hard work was rewarded. Well done. Ignore the cynics.

Jarvis Robbins (02/11/2009 13:53:12)
The negative comments about this article are a disgrace.
How weak to use this as example of newsroom understaffing. All this story shows to me is that newspapers are still attracting capable young journalists . . to go with the older jaded ones it seems.

Kol kurtz (02/11/2009 16:59:44)
Bob the Builder and Cynic Al are clearly down table subs with zero future or passion for the job.
Nice work Emma.

Lavender (02/11/2009 17:14:15)
I got a splash on my first week of work experience and it gave me a huge boost in my studies. It made me feel as though journalism wasn’t just a pipe dream and that I could be useful in a news room.
Well done Emma, it’s not everybody who can spot a story and turn it into something big.
Opportunities are out there for talented journalists, you just have to wade through people’s negativity.