Thetownend.com

Do they actually talk to Paul Sturrock?

Of the 5 stories on thisis currently, 4 of them seem to have been copied and pasted from his latest update, with a bit of pointless narration.

The other is what must have been a 2 minute conversation with the Peaconator

Nice work if you can get it Ritson and co. I'd have your job done in 10 minutes, then fuck off home for the day

The Adver is dreadful, poorly written, I've given up on reading it now.

I think Ritson's job would be my dream job... how do i get one like it?

http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/swindonnewsheadlines/display.var.1274784.0.on_the_trail_of_the_tags.php

Great campaign this, no wonder the police are right on the case of the criminal masterminds invloved.

I'm no graffiti lover, most of it is pointless shite and basically vandalism. but there are slightly more important things to crack down on in the town

I look forward to the vision of Swindon in the future where you can get mugged in marginally more pleasant surroundings and the mugger wont have paint on his hands. Fantastic

Become a rent boy for the board first.

There'll be an adver sports job soon I reckon - just get yourself a notebook and a pencil sharpener, and offer to be alfie the alligator on the weekend.

If youre serious this is the answer ....

Firstly a degree in English would be helpful (4 years) - this is the bit Ive got.
Then a Masters in Journalism (1 more year). Then you need to do the approved Journalists course for about another 6 months. After that you can then apply for jobs but you are unlikely to get any unless you get some work experience whilst you are doing all these courses.

Specifically for Sports Journalism you can do further MA on Sports Journalism - last time I checked there was one at Brighton or there is an interesting one sponsored by Eurosport and known as Eurosport Masters and is held in Madrid but this is hard to get on to.

I saw an advert the other week for football reporters wanted for the Guardian but they wanted 3 years experience -so its obviously a competitve field.

The other thing you can do is write your own match reports and send them to the advertiser - start your own superior website with these match reports on (ala Huddersfield's top webpage that has been mentioned in the past) - or just post these reports everywhere you can - such as here.

I was considering journalism but it was so cut throat I realised quite soon that it wasnt for me - hence I ended up in the easier world of IT and historical research.

Having said all this its hard to believe how lazy writers such as Ritson acutally are - Im sure like myself you would all put so much more effort into it if you were chief swindon town footy writer - Clive King was the best (god rest his soul) - even invented Lou Macari's Red and White Army with an article - Im sure Swindon were the first to sing it ..

Hmmmmm....I seem to remember Clive King (God rest his soul) was a bit crap as well.

You could well be right about the Lou Macari's red and white army chant though.

Its impressive he has (god rest his soul) as part of his name.

Did he change it before dying to make sure people paid their respects?  Its a good idea

Yep :nod:

Journalism generally also pays pretty poorly given a 3 year BA and 1 year MA are standard.  Then again it's a bit of a vocation.

This bit is true.



This bit is bollocks. It's a local rag ffs.

You can do a six week course specificaly for journalism, and a one day course to make sure you know the legalities of what you can/cannot publish without getting your arse sued.

A foot in the door via work experience is also the best (and often only) option these days.

I fucking hate it when I agree with Fatbury about something.

Well I agree the Masters ISNT a necessity but due to the competitiveness for posts on these papers most of the other candidates tend to have them these days.

The reason you are agreeing with me is because I occasionally dont talk shit ... very occasionally

my mate is Jon Ritson's equivalent at Cambridge Evening Post and spent years doing degree's and really poorly paid work on free rags etc, including having to attend Council meetings and other such boring activities.  It never seemed as glamorous knowing all this.

surely a campaign to rid our streets of the moronic tagging bastards is a positive move?
of course there are far worse crimes but i applaud the adver in this graffiti campaign.
its a start at least

Hmmmmm, seems like a lot of work.

I have been considering uni though. How old do you have to be to get 'paid' to go to uni as a mature student?

i'm on a sports journalism course at brighton uni...

the only one in the country with NCTJ accreditation (national council for the training of journalists)

we've had kevin mitchell (cheif sports writer at the observer) andy afford (ex england A spinner, now editor of some cricket mag that i've forgotten the name of) and others with hundreds of published articles and they all seem to put becoming a journalists down to a number of things...

this sort of professional training is a good start but will no means land me a job as a journo. first thing to realise is the pay is gash; only around 14k for a trainee. freelance work pays pittance and is unpredictable and where before shorthand was a journalist's key skill, now all you need is a tape recorder and a notepad if you can be bothered.

it's easy to slate ritson and the rest of the sports desk but the job is a hard one. generating stories to fill boring days (like we seem to have everyday) is quite a task.

I'd rather the local police and newspaper cracked down on drug addicts and the related crimewave they bring than a few scrotes putting bad graffiti up.

I agree that its not pretty or to be encouraged in any way, but does it actually make the steets of the town any safer?  Its purley an aesthtic move rather than actually doing anything positive. Just the type of work the local police love.

Thanks for confirming there is a course at Brighton!  :D

shut up you fat bitch.

Well, speaking as someone who's in the job - although not a sports journalist - hopefully I can add a bit of insight.

Yes, a degree is very helpful indeed, as is a post grad, but none of them at all will guarantee you a job in the business. Plenty of it is about being actually good at writing and finding out stories, being able to cultivate contacts, and also generate stories. Some of it is about being in the right place at the right time. Someone previously mentioned doing your own site and writing your own reports - this would certainly help if the reports were good and eye catching.

You're right to say that it is easy to slate Ritson, but believe me, it is a lot harder than it looks to fill column inches when there's fuck all going on. When you're sat there on a Sunday afternoon with a blank sheet and a deadline ...

The pay is bollocks for new starters but if you stick around it can rise to an acceptable level.

I'd also add that with the way newspapers are going these days, with more an more emphasis on the internet, web skills are becoming key. Also, if you can handle a video camera or know a little about editing, you'll be a shoe in for jobs.

Remember kids, the more skills you have, the more employable you will look to the editors!!!

I'd seriously look into doing some work experience at the Argus, along side your course, as something to add to your cv. It's something that gets people to the top of the pile when I'm sorting out who gets an interview.

I'm a cunt though  :D

I don't earn much more than £14k

Big deal if it gets you a career in the long run

speaking of graffiti, i was in bristol the other weekend and at the bottom of park street, on the side of [what i think is] a sexual health clinic i saw this little beauty

http://www.banksy.co.uk/outdoors/images/outdoors06/windowlover2.jpg

tis a banksy, and yeah it is a sexual health clinic

exactly, but we don't hear the end of it from people on other courses  :x