NCTJ course “has served me well in broadcasting” says ITV News at Ten presenter
Mark Austin, co-presenter of ITV’s News at Ten, has won numerous awards for his reporting of major foreign events spanning the last three decades.
Mark Austin, co-presenter of ITV’s News at Ten, has won numerous awards for his reporting of major foreign events spanning the last three decades.
He was one of the first British journalists to report on the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990, and has covered other major worldwide events including the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the war in Afghanistan.
During a distinguished career at ITV, Mark has worked as Asia correspondent in Hong Kong and African correspondent in Johannesburg. While there, he reported on the transition from apartheid to democracy, Nelson Mandela’s 1994 election victory and the genocide in Rwanda.
His coverage of the refugee crisis during the Kosovo war won ITV news a Gold Nymph at the 1999 Monte Carlo Television Festival. He repeated this feat in 2000 thanks to his reporting of the Mozambique floods, which also saw him capture an International Emmy award in the US.
Originally promoted to anchor ITV’s Evening News programme, Mark later replaced Sir Trevor McDonald on News at Ten after the veteran newsreader announced his decision to step down at the end of 2008.
Mark completed an NCTJ course at Highbury College and began his journalism career as a reporter for the Bournemouth Echo. He then worked as both a news and sports reporter for the BBC, before being offered a position as sports correspondent for ITN.
“The NCTJ newspaper training course at Highbury was the best possible grounding for my early career in local newspapers and has served me well in broadcasting ever since.
“It is difficult to imagine a course more relevant to what I went on to do and that surely is the ultimate test,” Mark said.
When speaking about his training he emphasised how the law training had saved him from potential legal embarrassment and that the public admin was still useful to this day.
He also stressed the importance of a good shorthand note: “The shorthand, a sort of Teeline/Austin hieroglyphics hybrid, proved a job saver on many a court or council meeting story. After all there are only so many times you phone a local paper rival for exact quotes!”
Mark, who opened the NCTJ’s offices in Newport, Essex in July 2006, is the latest journalist to feature on the NCTJ’s alumni page for October. He also writes a weekly column for the Daily Mirror.
