Guardian News and Media is set to diversify into journalism training.
The newspaper group, which made losses before tax of £33m last year, is understood to be set to launch a course offering training in digital journalism at a cost of £9,000 a head in 2013 at the earliest.
GNM is understood to have looked into becoming a stand-alone journalism school but ruled this out for the present, working instead with a partner university.
Richard Lindsay, interim head of PR and internal communications at Guardian News and Media, told XCity – the alumni magazine of City University journalism department – that the newspaper had been speaking to ‘a range of schools across the country about contributing to the courses they run”.
He said the partnership would be up and running in ‘reasonable time’and that it hoped to enrol students for the next academic year.
A meeting was held between representatives from City University in London and The Guardian in February to establish a partnership but the conversations ended without an agreement.
The Guardian has declined to reveal which university it is currently in talks with about the new course.
Lindsay said: ‘The Guardian aims to promote open, courageous and professional journalism that can take advantage of the new information systems rather than being threatened by them. That is the primary aim.
‘Often to get the input of people in the industry on a regular basis is difficult but we think we can bring something to these courses. It’s as simple as that – we’ve got something to contribute.”
- To contact the Press Gazette newsdesk call 020 7936 6433 or email pged@pressgazette.co.uk
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog