On an unseasonably warm March afternoon NNI held a well-attended seminar at DIT Aungier Street. The theme of the event was ‘Between the Lines – Newspapers in Print and Online’.

Our key speakers were Noirin Hegarty, Editor, independent.ie and Viv Maher, Online Sales Manager, The Irish Times.

Noirin spoke about the key attributes required of journalists. She compared the skills that journalists employed when she left college with those required of journalists today and assured the students that although the format in which their work will appear may have changed, the core requirements have not.

She painted a picture of the modern journalist as a media multi-tasker who can adapt to produce work for print and online, often in both written and video form. She said that although changes to the news media industry have ensured that journalists must do more varied work and often produce more work in a shorter time-frame, there are great opportunities for young people in newspaper journalism.

Viv discussed newspaper advertising, in print and online. She encouraged students to be aware of future trends but to focus their energies on what they could do for clients in the here and now. Viv used examples of multi-media campaigns that The Irish Times has created for clients to illustrate how creativity can increase effectiveness.

Following our main speakers, Enda Buckley and Anna Clarke, both from NNI, shared some key data about newspaper readership and told the students about some of the initiatives and programmes with which NNI is involved, including Newspapers in Education (NiE) and the NNI Press Ad of the Year and NNI Journalism Awards programmes.

The feedback from this event was extremely positive and we hope to run further student seminars later this year.

Would you like to learn more about the newspaper industry? If you would like us to arrange a seminar for your organisation please email Anna Clarke: aclarke@cullencommunications.ie