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 Canada, working for the news talk station CFRA in Ottawa. After five years in Ottawa, Sarah moved to Toronto, where she currently works on CBC’s national morning show as well as filling in as a writer on Entertainment Tonight Canada. 

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 and Dave Morton was appointed features editor of Men's Health magazine.

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, Deborah James became a freelance online copywriter and journalist, 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. Chloe McCloskey became publishing manager of culture and leisure magazine Le Cool, 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.

After working as a writer and sub-editor for Time Out, Fiona became a freelance reporter for The Times and in 2007 was approached by a new publishing house to launch a portfolio of magazines and websites with celebrity guest editors. In 2011 she moved to Sydney to sub, proof and write for the Masterchef magazine, and was later contracted by Universal magazines there to edit a portfolio of home and interiors magazines. After launching a food a lifestyle print magazine in 2012 she has continued to work in Sydney, managing the editorial, production and design of a new entrepeneurial magazine, The Collective. 
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. Tim went on to become the first non-Korean working as a producer in the Korean broadcast industry before moving on in 2012 to DesignHouse, where he is editor of Korean Air's in-flight magazine, Morning Calm.

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. Josh Jones went on to become UK music editor for Red Bull.

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.