Fairfax Media Recruits 20 Trainee Journalists Across All Its Titles

Fairfax Media has today announced the recruitment of 20 trainee journalists to join the newsrooms of The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Canberra Times, The Australian Financial Review, Brisbane Times and WAtoday.

This represents one of Metro’s largest trainee intakes in years and underlines the commitment of the mastheads to fostering a new generation of journalism excellence.

The paid editorial trainee program will run for 12 months and offers candidates a supported learning environment in some of the best newsrooms in the country.

Trainees will be given formal and informal training throughout the year aimed at developing their reporting, editing and production skills across all platforms. They will work alongside some of the most experienced journalists in the country such as Walkley award-winning investigative reporter Kate McClymont who started her career as a trainee at the Herald.

Trainees will gain expertise in multi-platform reporting and creating original content on a diverse range of news and feature topic areas for their assigned masthead. They will also receive training in media law, shorthand and presentation skills. After completing the program, trainees will have the opportunity to move into permanent journalist roles.

Fairfax’s metropolitan mastheads engage with wide and diverse audiences of more than 11 million Australians a month across platforms and, as such, will be choosing trainees with different backgrounds and educational qualifications. An ability to meet key editorial objectives of breaking news and producing quality, agenda-setting journalism will be a key selection criteria.

Managing director of Australian Metro Publishing, Chris Janz, said: “This is a significant investment in our next-generation newsrooms. Recruiting trainees is a demonstration of our long-term commitment to producing quality, independent journalism and our strong desire to grow and to tell the stories that matter in the communities we serve.”

Group executive editor for Australian Metro Publishing, James Chessell, said: “This is a great opportunity for budding journalists wanting to work in Australia’s best newsrooms. We are serious about having world-class newsrooms and there are significant opportunities for mastheads focused on quality such as the Herald and The Age.

“We’re seeking people who are highly motivated, tertiary qualified and committed to a career in journalism. You must be a self-starter, well organised and capable of generating original ideas for reports across print and digital platforms, while meeting daily deadlines.”

Editor-in-Chief of The Australian Financial Review, Michael Stutchbury, said: “The Financial Review is delighted to be able to recruit the next generation of great journalists into our ranks. We are excited to be be expanding our newsroom in order to take up the new growth opportunities for Australia’s national business, financial and political daily publication.”

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