Francis: internship approach
The Financial Times has joined The Creative Collective’s newspaper internship programme, which aims to give newspaper experience to students from ethnic minorities.
This is the second year of the scheme, which allows journalism students from African, Asian and Caribbean backgrounds to spend three to six months working in newspaper and magazine newsrooms.
The FT joins last year’s participants The Times, the Manchester Evening News, the Bradford Telegraph & Argus, the Nottingham Evening Post, and The Big Issue – all of whom have signed up for a second year. Edinburgh-based magazine Worldwoman has also joined the scheme this year.
The Creative Collective is now looking for applications from eligible students, who must be currently studying – or have completed within the past 12 months – a journalism-related course at any level. Business and economics students with an interest in journalism are also eligible.
The seven successful students will be paid a bursary from The Creative Collective and a salary for the duration of their internship from the publication in question.
Figures on the number of ethnic minority print journalists are scarce, but it is believed that they make up less than 2 per cent of the profession.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that there are fewer ethnic minorities applying for print journalism courses, while the broadcast media has seen an increase.
Hugh Carnegy, deputy managing editor of the Financial Times, said: "We are committed to increasing the diversity of backgrounds among our journalists to match the growing diversity of our readers both in the UK and overseas."
Joy Francis, managing director of The Creative Collective, said: "We were inspired to pursue this internship approach because of the work being done in the US where facts and figures on what is and isn’t happening for black and Asian journalists are more transparent. In the wake of the Macpherson Report and Greg Dyke’s "hideously white" comment, we know that this programme isn’t a panacea, but a much-needed start amid ad hoc activity on diversity in the print media."
The deadline for applications is 29 March. For further details e-mail interns@thecreativecollective.com
By Ian Reeves
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