Work experience application accepted. Check. Transport booked. Check. Accommodation booked. Check.
Frankly, I couldn't wait to help out for a week at the Press Gazette offices in London in the middle of May.
It would, after all, be the first time that I had been back in a newsroom since the NCTJ course ended, barring any miracles happening before then.
Being unemployed, I knew a week in London would not come cheap and I would have to plan my trip carefully with a view of doing it as cheaply as possible.
That meant travelling on a Megabus to London on the Sunday, returning on the Friday night by leaving London Victoria at 11.15pm and getting into Newcastle at 5.40am.
And it meant staying in a hostel with no-one I knew for five nights.
But it was an opportunity I could not turn down - the perfect fillip for my CV.
So imagine my disappointment when I did just a regular check-up on the Press Gazette website today.
The top story was a statement by Wilmington Group Plc, stating: "Unfortunately Press Gazette, along with much of the profession, has suffered from a declining market during these years and its losses have increased.
"We have therefore been forced to conclude that the market required to sustain a commercially viable Press Gazette magazine no longer exists.
"The last hard copy edition of Press Gazette will therefore be the May edition which will be published in April."
The statement goes on to say that the website will continue but Roy Greenslade in his blog on The Guardian website says: "Don't be fooled by the wording of Wilmington's announcement about online continuation.
"It will not carry any news because its journalists are being required to depart."
Press Gazette had shut down previously - in November 2006 - before the Wilmington Group Plc bought it out of administration.
But it would seem it was only a stay of execution.
I sent an email expressing my condolences to the staff - there are already 23 similarly depressing comments on their own website - and received a swift reply.
Editor Dominic Ponsford confirmed: "I am afraid this means work experience is out the window - unless there is a miracle."
It has been another sad day for British journalism.
R.I.P. Press Gazette (1965-2009)
If you've still got your week in London booked, consider trying The Camden New Journal for experience. Don't know if local papers are your thing, but they have workies there regularly (I have been on), nice people and you'll get to write and get out and about. Plus it's got a very good reputation.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the heads up. I'll give them a call tomorrow as I have been out this afternoon as I still have my arrangements booked and would be more than happy to do some shifts for the CNJ. I'll let you know how I get on.
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