Journalism students deliver political news and comment to 50,000 homes

NCTJ students from Staffordshire University have produced a newspaper which will be delivered direct to 50,000 homes throughout Stoke-on-Trent next week.

The 16-page publication is a unique edition to publicise the political news and comment website Pits n Pots and includes community and political news, features, and profiles of community champions.

The students who volunteered for the project had just three weeks to organise a team, draw up a news list, commission and research articles, carry out interviews, write stories, organise photographs and design and edit the paper.

Editor of the paper, Andrew Bettridge, who was also the 2012 NCTJ Student Council representative from Staffordshire University, said:  “It was a brilliant effort by the whole team to get the paper produced in such a short space of time. It was a lot of hard work but we all had great fun working on it and we are all very proud of the finished result. I hope the people of Stoke-on Trent enjoy reading it. 

“The skills we have picked up from the teaching staff at Staffordshire University have helped us to put together a slick and professional newspaper.”

Jackie Gregory, senior lecturer in journalism, said: “Around a dozen students, who all have a busy university workload, gave up many hours of their own time to produce this paper. They worked under pressure with great dedication and humour. It was a learning curve but they can be proud of the result.”