Rob Bailey's blog

The revision session for Reporting and Writing I will need to be pushed back a little on Tuesday, as there's a meeting in the morning I need to go to. Can we get together at 11am in the main newsroom?

Thanks

Rob

The Kent Messenger's pages were stuffed with stories by Centre for Journalism students during April and May - including bylines on the front and back pages. Here's 10 of the best of them. 

Placements are available to every student at the end of their first year, giving them two weeks of reporting experience on a major regional newspaper.

The storm surrounding the Mail on Sunday’s scoop about the country’s first Youth Police and Crime Commissioner began during a live interview on BBC Breakfast.

Second years were set the challenge of producing three news paper supplements for their final district challenge of the year - and the results are hugely impressive.

The three publications - an Easter events pull-out edited by Lydia Hamilton, a style guide edited by Kirsten Ringelmann and a preview of the Medway Festival of Sport edited by Josh Morl - are available here in an interactive magazine format.

Social media could be the antidote to "churnalism", allowing time-constrained journalists to juggle multiple contacts and interviews without leaving their desks, according to the editor of the North Wales Daily Post.

Alison Gow has written a blog post challenging the concept of churnalism as defined by Nick Davies in his 2008 book Flat Earth News.

She will also talk on the subject at the free Polis journalism conference being held at the LSE on Friday, April 5 - which will be well worth checking out for any students who have cleared their end of term deadlines a day early.

A wave of recruitment is continuing at the Kent Messenger, which is advertising reporting jobs in Maidstone and Whitstable.

The jobs would include producing stories for print, online and radio. The deadline for applications is April 1. As you have come to expect, NCTJ prelim exams and a driving licence are both required.

It would be a perfect first job for anyone about to graduate with a BA or MA. Applications by email (a cover letter and CV) to kdunstall@thekmgroup.co.uk

And, in the spirit of objectivity, I should mention that other jobs are available. Anyone about to graduate should by now be a regular visitor to Gorkana, Press Gazette, Hold The Front Page, and The Guardian.

There's a brilliant feature on The Guardian's website today about Brentford FC: apparently the owners of the only football ground in the country to have a pub on each corner.

Today's Medway Messenger features an impressive investigation into illegal drag racing, written by second year student Matt Charles.

His story delves deep into Medway's underworld, exposing how 300 young petrolheads regularly meet on the Medway City Estate to compete in drag and drift races, including interviews with people who have taken part.

Here are the teams for the District Challenge - I'm looking for five pages of strong, original local news from your towns. The stories you find can be used in your assessed portfolios, which are due at the end of the year.

The deadline for the challenge is noon on Tuesday, March 12.

Any students who are Times subscribers (print or digital) should take advantage of the latest Times+ book offer - a free download of a collection of Marie Colvin's journalism. The offer is available now from The Times website, www.thetimes.co.uk