LSJ CLASS OF 2011

Of those students completing their studies in 2011, Clive Rozario (3M Jan) finished an internship with the music trade magazine IQ before securing a bursary from the Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers to help him complete an MA in electronic publishing at City University. He continues to write reviews for sites like AAA Music and Gigwise, as well as his own musical blog, Musical CPR.

Hal Hodson (6M Sep 2010) had work published in The Guardian, Independent and the magazine Cosmos before securing a reporter's job with Information Age. Nia Charpentier has been working for Sublime magazine and acting as arts and culture co-ordinator for Shoreditch radio.

From the 6M January course, Gabriele Perrone (pictured above) returned to Milan and within two months had landed a job as a full-time writer for a new Italian website, www.lettera43.it. Sharp-eyed fellow students may have also spotted his byline on some sports stories in The Independent during his short internship in London.

Meanwhile Emily Overy from the 3M September course was appointed editor of Vine magazine in Sevenoaks and Angus McNeice from the 9M January course has been undertaking an internship with the Santiago Times in Chile and George Nelson was heading to America for an internship with the San Francisco Bay Guardian. From the same course Max Mueller won a place in the freelance writers' pool for an engineering trade publisher and Ann Morgan, a freelance sub-editor at The Guardian, was approached by a couple of literary agents interested in her Year of Reading the World blog, 

ayearofreadingtheworld.com. 

STUDENT UPDATES 2012

Any attempt to collate information about where past students have ended up is doomed to failure, if only because any inaccuracies or omissions are bound to cause offence.

PLEASE regard everything on this site as a first draft. Pulling together emails, gossip and Facebook comments is a haphazard process - so if for any reason you have been missed out or misrepresented, it's only an admin error.

Give me a shout via email or Facebook if we can update the blog - and see presscorps.blogspot.com too for details of former No Sweat students from 2004-2009, and media law students from Press Association (London) and City College, Brighton.

TRAINING FOR SCHOOL LEAVERS: see journalism4schools.com for free advice

LSJ COURSES: see lsj.org

ANGRY PEOPLE IN LOCAL NEWSPAPERS: a salutary warning for press photographers - see http://apiln.blogspot.com

LONDON COMMUNITY WEBSITES: See www.londonvoices.com in case there's a local community site you might be able to contribute to.

STUDENT BLOGS: (suggestions welcome)
thetravelrag.com (Chris Ord - distance learning)
jasonnparkinson.blogspot.com (distance learning)
nuggetoftruth.wordpress.com (Sarah Fisher, 6M Sep 07)
natashayoung.wordpress.com (Online PG, 2009)
dontstopthejourney.webs.com (Jillian Stevens, Online PG, 2009)
whenthegramophonerings.wordpress.com (Andrew Evans, 3M Sep 09)
galinka.co.uk (Galina Atchkassova-Portianoi, 6M Sep 07)
charliewalkerexplore.co.uk (Charlie Walker, 3M Sep 09)

casualravings.com (Chris Wilkins, Online PG, 2009)

annmorgan.me (Ann Morgan, 9M Jan 2011)

hilarymunro.com (Distance learning, 2011)

LSJ CLASS OF 2010

Perhaps the single most ambitious project undertaken by a student in 2010 was the 40,000-mile, four-year, round-the-world bike trek undertaken by Charlie Walker from the 3M Sep 2009 class. Charlie started working for the Daily Express travel desk before embarking on his epic journey in July 2010, since when he has continued to chronicle his exploits on charliewalkerexplore.co.uk.

Of the 3M January class, Robbie Blakeley departed for Brazil, where he contributed sports stories to the Rio Times, while Niamh Griffin became the latest in a long succession of LSJ students to head west to Bristol as a features writer for South West News and Sport.

Photographer Kate Shortt made a couple of trips to the Burma/China border on a sustainability project before undertaking another project in Mongolia, while Simon Willmore interned at Canary Wharf with the online travel magazine travelbite.co.uk.

Within a month of graduating he was embarking on his first press trip, a five-day jaunt to Tunisia, including a night in the desert with a Bedouin community. He later went on to become a freelance contributor for Absolute Publishing, the Sunday Times and Travel Daily Media, as well as being a senior online content editor for Groupon.

Adam Leach (3M April 2010) secured an internship with Redactive publishing on Supply Management magazine which led to a three-month contract, while Sabine Klensch became an account manager for a PR agency, as well as freelancing for a German online business finance and recruitment publication.

Richard Silk works as a financial journalist specialising in private equity and renewable energy, Lorenzo Spoerry works for business and financial information specialists SNL Financial, and Judit Szilak returned to Hungary to finish her master's degree, where she has been contributing to the prestigious online news site index.hu.

Finishing at the same time were Luca Rosso and Claudia Suarez-Gonalez from the 9m Sep 2009 course, who both gained positions with Global Blue, Luca as an assistant digital production editor and Claudia as a project manager.

From the 9M Jan 2010 course, Simone Martufi returned Cape Town where she started writing for an online site coaching people about getting jobs on cruise liners. She has since been commissioned to write an e-book on the subject, as well as becoming online co-ordinator for a youth entertainment website and securing a Thursday slot on an online radio station dealing with youth issues.

Of the 3M Sep 2010 class, Steve Dew-Jones started work for a council-run paper before it closed, briefly working for a trio of B2B magazines in the healthcare industry before moving to Incisive Media, where he writes about finance technology. From the same class, Eleonora Corsini works in Florence, promoting the European Robert F Kennedy Journalism awards at the RFK Centre there.

LSJ CLASS OF 2009

With cutbacks and layoffs being announced across the industry, 2009 was a tough year for anyone trying to launch their media career.

From the 3M January students, Muriel Oatham gained a maternity cover position as staff writer for Fund Strategy magazine and Johanna McWeeney completed an extended work experience placement for International Live Music Magazine, as well as contributing freelance items to Music Teacher and Classical Music magazines.

Of the 3M April students, Laura Saunter followed up the course with internships in the fashion departments of thelondonpaper, Daily Express, Daily Rubbish (for London Fashion Week) and The Guardian, while Pippa Woodhead interned at Banipal, a magazine of modern Arabic literature and the Mail online, and Marta Karcz pursued her interest in food journalism with an internship at The Restaurant Magazine, a trade publication based in Crawley.

Sandra Capitano returned to her job in Italy as area manager for an Italian film company, where she now writes features and a column for the film website filmakersmagazine.it and Michelle Davies has written food reviews for the website foodepedia. Victor Burnett is a communications manager for a renewable energy company.

Of the September 3M students, Claire Robinson is working for a Manchester PR firm, Ryan Bratcher joined the financial publication Euroweek as a trainee reporter and Charlie Walker joined the travel desk of the Daily Express, following a successful internship, prior to embarking on his epic 40,000-mile bicycle adventure around the world, starting in July 2010. See www.charliewalkerexplore.co.uk).

9M September students Claudia Gonzalez and Luca Rosso both completed internships at Global Blue which led to full-time posts, Claudia as a project manager and Luca as an assistant digital production editor.

The picture shows some of the 6M January class, who completed the course in July.

LSJ CLASS OF 2008

The worsening economic climate during the year made it a tough time for job hunters, but that didn't prevent many of the January three-monthers from making it into the workplace in record time.

Lucy Miles worked as a freelance in London before returning to her native New Zealand and Melissa Mahtani resumed her corporate communications broadcasting job at the end of the course, later moving to France 24 in Paris as a news producer. Osian ap Garth picked up a reporting job for an IT magazine, Craig McGlashan landed a reporting job with Adfero, later becoming a desk head there, before moving on to 2i Media, a finance website and magazine and becoming deputy editor of Global Securities Lending, while Ian Dunt was appointed online editor at politics.co.uk.

Giovanni Legorano (above, bottom) started work for Global Pensions magazine, part of Incisive Media, before moving to Dow Jones, while Anna Brown joined Newsquest in south London as a sub-editor, working on a range of titles from the Cheam head office and later becoming a senior sub there.

The nine-monthers who started at the same time (above, top) didn't finish until October, but that didn't stop Ros Donald from rapidly starting work as a reporter for Global Competition Review and Laura Aylett being appointed a press officer for the Royal College of Nursing.

Of the April three-monthers, Alexandra Bridgwater now works in beauty PR and Jaimie Kaffash was appointed deputy chief sub-editor of Public Finance magazine, while Anna Kuk is a reporter for the BBC Russian Service in Moscow. Jamie later moved to Accountancy Age as a reporter. Emanuele Norsa returned to London from Italy in 2010 to become a business reporter for Steel Business Briefing, covering Spain, Portugal and Greece.

Of the January six-monthers, Colombe Verges followed in the footsteps of Osian ap Garth (above) and went to work for the Uxbridge-based trade publication IT Europa, while David Cardenas returned to Vienna to take up an internship with the International Atomic Energy Agency. Colombe moved from IT Europa in 2010 to work for a specialist publishing house in India, working on luxury arts and culture books, but said of her time at the fortnightly IT business publication: "The job is a journalist job, that involves writing news stories, interviews and features. It involves a lot of travel as well - in the last two years, I have been to Boston, San Francisco, New Orleans, Copenhagen, Milan, Brussels, Paris, Berlin, Prague and Stockholm.

"It is a great job for someone who wants to start in journalism, as it is a small editorial team (we're three journalists, including our editor), and so the job covers all the basic work of a journalist, from finding interesting ideas for stories, dealing with the PR side, building and maintaining good relationships with them and the people interviewed, interviewing plenty of main characters in the IT world, updating the website, laying out the pages on the written publication using In-Design." She has since moved to Brazil, where she is pursuing a freelance career in Sao Paulo.

The September three-monthers hit the jobs market just as the credit crunch began to bite in earnest, but Kayley Edwards got a job as a marketing writer with a data management company in Guildford and Samantha Leese turned an internship with Time Out in Hong Kong into a staff job, while Fred Palley interned with IPC media and worked as a freelance for sport.co.uk and mirrorfootball.co.uk before becoming deputy editor at The Exchange, UK editor for GX magazine and UK content and promotions manager for Sportingbet.

LSJ CLASS OF 2007

Contacts from past courses can be helpful in landing full-time jobs as well as work experience placements - and often former students will contact the school when they become aware of vacancies or move on to new careers themselves.

That may be one of the reasons why there are pockets of LSJ students scattered around the country on different magazines, agencies and trade publications, or why those finishing the course follow in the footsteps of former students. A contributing factor, of course, is that editors impressed with past recruits are likely to contact the school when a future vacancy occurs.

Whatever the reasons, a number of 2007 students ended up working alongside familiar faces from past LSJ courses. Jenny Southan from the three-month April course (above) went as a sub-editor to Business Traveller, where Mark Caswell is online editor (see Class of 2005), Kim Willis went to South West News as a features writer, following in the footsteps of Nicola Skinner (2005) and Rupert Smith (2002) and Paul Goatman, from the September three-monthers, after work experience placements at the Derby Evening Post and Birmingham Post and Mail, joined the growing LSJ team at the Adfero newswire agency, working out of the Leeds office.

Kim and Nicola branched out to launch their own agency in Bristol in 2008, Phoenix Features. From the same course, Cheryl Gallagher moved as a Spanish-speaker researcher and writer to Foresight News and Claudia Giampietri worked for AsiaNews in Rome before getting married and moving to Uganda, where she works as a freelance for the monthly magazine African Woman and has been commissioned to write a biography.

Nataliya Vasilyeva continued to freelance for the Moscow Times before landing a business reporting role with the Moscow bureau of AP, while Tom Marchbanks has worked for the BBC at Panorama, BBC News, Crimewatch, Question Time and Watchdog. Robyn Ashman and Adam English both work for the Launch Group PR agency in Soho.

From Jenny's course, Kwok Wan became assistant editor of Industrial Minerals, based in the City, before joining Reuters as an energy correspondent, while Natasha von Geldern has been editor of travelbite.co.uk for a number of years.

Of the January nine-monthers, Jonathan Harvey became a researcher/producer with the Today programme on Radio 4, Nova Maxwell worked for Adfero before becoming an online sub-editor for the National Archives at Kew and Rachel Bull joined the National Magazine Company. Sonam Mishra had her first book, 9 to 5 Food, published in 2010.

From the January six-monthers, Salvatore Landolina is a football journalist covering the Italian leagues for the football website goal.com while freelancing for Setanta Sports News. He was appointed news manager of goal.com in 2009. From the three-monthers starting at the same time, Sarah Charlton gained an internship with CNN before landing a job with ITV Local, the regional online web video service.

Of Sarah's coursemates, David Mitchell is a sub-editor on Shooting Times and Country magazine, Peter Salisbury worked for ICIS, the global chemical industry news feed, before moving to the Middle East Economic Digest in Dubai, Neil Sheppard works for a pharmaceuticals B2B based in Hammersmith and Laura Stavro-Beauchamp joined Mortgage Strategy magazine before moving to dealReporter, one of the FT's news services.

Among the September nine-monthers, Andre Paino works for the Brazilian broadcaster SBT and Vanessa Stevens is press officer for the European Council on Foreign Relations.
From the September six-monthers, Sarah Fisher got a job with the Pepperdine University PR team back home in the States (and has a web presence on nuggetoftruth at wordpress.com).

LSJ CLASS OF 2006

Some career paths into journalism are more unusual than others, and none more so than that of Sarah Grant (above), who trained as an optician before enrolling on the LSJ course - and emerged as a radio journalist. Her story is one of the case studies highlighted on the school's main website, although having launched her career at Stray FM in Yorkshire, working as duty editor, reporter and presenter for the local radio station, she became deputy news editor for 14 months before moving to Ottawa, where she now broadcasts for the news talk station CFRA.

Of Sarah's colleagues on the January three-month course, Gillian Ferguson went to Heat magazine, Natalia Gameson writes and property and interior design for a number of property publications and James Nye joined the internet news agency Adfero.

Claire McGreal completed an internship with the BBC and work experience at RTE before embarking on a master's degree in journalism in Dublin, and went on to become a news anchor and reporter for Dublin's Q102 radio station, while Leo Oldfield had a spell at Conde Nast before moving to Entertainment News. Rita di Antonia edits a data compliance website in London.

Of the nine-monthers starting at the same time, Hal Brown became a staff journalist on Canal Boat magazine, Rachel Clode landed an internship at The Ecologist, Melissa Davis became a press officer for The Law Society and Zita Stockbridge pursued a career in PR and freelance writing.

From the January six-monthers, Danny Brogan became reviews editor of the consumer magazine Mobile Choice, Julia Crosfield went to Wellington in New Zealand as a communications adviser for the Ministry for the Environment and Sohini Gogel completed an internship in New York with the French newspaper France-Amerique before returning to Paris to work for an arts website and freelance for different French and English magazines.

Claire Henderson worked on a music magazine in London before moving to Scotland as a sub-editor for The Sunday Post, Angelo Pecci moved to an advertising and marketing company in Italy, Fiona Shield started freelancing full-time for Time Out in London and Anaita Vazifdar is a sub-editor for a contract publishing house in Mumbai.

From the May three-month course, Isabel Andrews started work with an arts magazine, Apollo, while Suemay Oram has been working on TV documentaries, mainly for the Discovery Channel.

September three-monthers headed to a range of exotic destinations, with Tim Alper moving to Korea to work for a soccer website in Seoul, where he became editor of the IT Times in 2008 and Adam Dawson bound for Dubai, where he became assistant editor of a couple of trade magazines.

Suzanne Fenton landed a job as news anchor for Press TV, a new satellite TV channel based in Iran, before moving to Dubai as business reporter for the Gulf News and senior editor/features writer for a Time Out-style magazine called fyi Dubai. In 2012 she started working for mergermarket.com as a freelance journalist, still based in Dubai.

Sevil Kucukkosum returned to Turkey as diplomatic correspondent for the Aksam daily paper, while closer to home James Masters moved to Radio London and Clementine Wallop works for the Waterloo-based specialist trade publication Metal Bulletin.

Of the September nine-month class, Will Hurrell joined Broadcast Monthly and Janis Lee won a place on the fast-track news sub-editing course run by the Daily Mail, training with the Press Association and Oxford Mail before getting a job on the Mail's news subbing desk. Gemma Padley has contributed music reviews to the BBC music website, among others, and worked as a features writer for Amateur Photographer magazine, where she was later appointed features editor.

Meanwhile from the six-monthers starting at the same time, Patricia Flanagan gained a journalism traineeship with the BBC World Service and Florence Viala works as a news co-ordinator for CNBC Europe in Paris.