Ever thought about being a journalist?

CERI GOULD, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, OF THE SOUTH EAST AND CAMBRIDGE REGION, WANTS OUR NEWSROOMS TO BETTER REPRESENT OUR READERS. WITH CHANGED WORKING DAYS, IMPROVED PAY AND A NEW CULTURE, SHE’S LOOKING TO FILL KEY ROLES WITH THOSE WHO PERHAPS NEVER THOUGHT THEY

I’M a 46-year-old mother-of-two. What’s that got to do with being a journalist? Everything. In my region, dubbed SEACAM, because it’s quicker than saying South East and Cambridge, we are determined to open up our newsrooms to more 40-plus mothers of two, and 50-plus dads of four and school-leavers, those wanting a second (third) career, young parents, twenty-somethings from deprived backgrounds, people from ethnic minorities or other under-represented groups. You get the picture.

I believe that being more representative of the areas we cover will ensure we do a better job.

SEACAM, which boasts first-class websites such as CambridgeshireLive, KentLive, SurreyLive and EssexLive, is an exciting place to work, covering the newsiest, most diverse patches in the UK. We’ve got exciting plans to make more of our popular London sites, CroydonAdvertiser.co.uk and GetWestLondon and make the capital our own. We also produce the award-winning daily CambridgeNews and the flagship weekly newspapers, Essex Chronicle, Surrey Advertiser, Surrey Mirror and the Kent and Sussex Courier and a host of smaller weeklies.

It’s my responsibility to recruit the best talent to SEACAM and in a bid to attract a stronger, more diverse workforce, I’ve made significant changes.

I realise that it’s difficult squeezing life, children’s sports days, boiler repairs, unwell relatives etc into full-time working hours. Our journalists work full-time hours in four long days and have three days off. We’ve also improved the salary of trainees and support them as they work towards our industry-leading Certificate of Journalism qualification. We are building our region as a centre of excellence for trainees and encourage quick promotion through the ranks to the content desk as we want our best talent to stay with us.

There is scope to move between the sites and also when you qualify, our sister nationals, The Mirror and The Express are very keen on recruiting from us. It’s one of the many advantages of being part of a bigger company, ReachPlc.

The culture is one of lots of feedback and continued learning whether you’re a newbie or someone who’s been in journalism for 30-plus years. There are always new things to learn and new ways to tell stories.

Why journalism then? I began my reporting life on my local paper in the South Wales valleys. Nothing teaches you the value of accuracy or how what you write really matters better than that. There’s nothing quite like walking into the local court to see a former school mate in the dock and knowing that your credibility is on the line if you don’t ensure that the report of their appearance is published.

Being a journalist is a privilege. Being there for your finest and, sometimes your most harrowing times, is a responsibility which we take very seriously. We want to fight for you and stand up to authority and take it to task when we need to do so.

It is a challenging, wonderful job and no journalist is more trusted than those who work on the local brands. We write about the areas we love and we care about in the same way we would write about our family.

We don’t get everything right and we always want to get better and one way we can do that is by strengthening our recruitment.

Take a look at the jobs we have on offer and I’m sure you’ll be surprised at what’s there. Among our ranks we have a former contractor and a former barrister. We have Oxbridge graduates and those from the school of life.

You can join as a community content curator as a school-leaver, or a return-towork(er), or as someone who just wants to try something else and perhaps take our Diploma of Journalism course which starts in October. Success in this would mean you could then work with us to join our trainee reporter plan.

There is also the opportunity for those with some journalism training and qualifications to start as a trainee with us and work towards our industry-respected Certificate of Journalism. You may be an experienced journalist who wants to work in a positive culture where trying new things isn’t frowned on and failing can be fine, as long as we learn something from it.

Above all else, ask yourself, do you love finding and telling stories?

Perhaps you could come and tell your stories … to us and with us.