On the NCTJ’s website is a page of “career advice” that poses the question: What do newspaper editors look for? It then lists the qualities would-be journalists must demonstrate to convince an editor they are worth appointing. Top of the list is “an interest in current affairs at all levels“.
But is that still the case? What are school-leavers to make of this lead item in a recent column by The Daily Mirror’s Polly Hudson: “I’m not exactly up on current affairs. I never watch the news because it’s far too depressing and the clothes are awful.”
Does this mean Trinity Mirror is now more interested in finding the next Polly than the next Pilger?
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