Celebrating 10 years of supporting the Journalism Diversity Fund
Encouraging people from a wide variety of backgrounds to become journalists is vital if the media is to have a voice that is as diverse as the issues it reports on.
By David Pugh
Encouraging people from a wide variety of backgrounds to become journalists is vital if the media is to have a voice that is as diverse as the issues it reports on. The challenge is easy to recognise, but finding practical steps to support progress can be tricky. That’s where the Journalism Diversity Fund (JDF) comes in. As an industry funded initiative, the JDF is a vital stepping stone to give everyone a chance to catch their first big break in journalism.
Since we started supporting the fund over 10 years ago, the organisation’s support for journalism has continued to grow and develop. It has delivered targeted support and study bursaries where they are most needed. The JDF internship scheme, available to recipients who have achieved the NCTJ gold standard but have not yet secured full-time employment, is a great initiative that can help aspiring journalists build experience and industry contacts in the difficult period between training and employment. Most recently, we saw the JDF expand its support still further, launching the new Thomas Read bursary to help aspiring journalists with a disability.
In 2015 the NLA’s backing for the JDF hit an important milestone, reaching the £1m mark contributed by our national newspaper owners. We’re proud to work alongside other sponsors like Thomson Reuters, Sky, Daily Mail and the Press Association to support the JDF team, who have achieved very tangible results. Over 200 journalists have received JDF support to go on and work across the industry, from the BBC to Sky News.
Over the past 10 years we have seen first-hand the hard work and dedication of the team at the JDF in supporting aspiring journalists forge their careers. We look forward to continuing to support their work in the future.
David Pugh, Managing Director, NLA media access
About NLA media access
NLA media access represents the intellectual property rights of major publishing brands in the UK media monitoring market. These include 2,800 newspaper and magazine publications and over 2,000 web titles.
NLA media access gives permission for organisations to copy from an extensive range of newspapers, magazines and websites and provides database services to both media monitoring agencies and publishers. Through licensing the NLA enables businesses to access the news content they need in the most effective and copyright compliant way, and ensures that publishers are rewarded for their investment in journalism.
In 2014/15 84 per cent of the company’s revenues are returned to the publishers to be invested back into the industry. In 2014 NLA media access revenues equated to the salaries of 1,300 journalists.
