Newspaper or magazine editor apprenticeships

Creative and media

Newspaper or magazine editor apprenticeships - where to start

You can get into this job through

a university course

working towards this role

training with a professional body

University

You'll usually start by doing a degree in English, journalism or media studies. You can do a postgraduate qualification in publishing or journalism if your first degree is not related to the industry. You're likely to need a degree or postgraduate qualification and a high level of specialist subject knowledge if you want to work for a specialist publication like a medical or scientific journal.

You'll usually need 5 GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C), or equivalent, including English and 2 to 3 A-Levels, or equivalent, for a degree. You'll need a degree in any subject for a postgraduate course.

Work

You can start as a reporter or journalist with a regional newspaper or magazine and work your way up. There's a lot of competition for jobs so you may have an advantage if you've got a relevant degree.

Volunteering

You'll need to get some experience before applying for your first job in publishing. To build up your experience you can:

volunteer for student and community newspapers
keep an online blog
have an online presence on sites such as Twitter
submit articles and reviews to local papers or websites

This is also a good way to develop contacts, as many jobs are not advertised.

Other Routes

You could take a proofreading or editing course, like the ones offered by the National Council for the Training of Journalists, the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading and The Publishing Training Centre.

Newspaper or magazine editor apprenticeships - what it takes

Skills and knowledge

You'll need:

knowledge of English language
knowledge of media production and communication
the ability to read English
excellent verbal communication skills
to be thorough and pay attention to detail
excellent written communication skills
the ability to work well with others
to be flexible and open to change
to be able to use a computer and the main software packages competently

Newspaper or magazine editor apprenticeships - what you'll do

Day-to-day tasks

Depending on the publication you work for as an editor, you could:

commission articles
choose which articles to publish
decide how they’ll be laid out for publishing
assess work sent from freelance journalists, photographers and illustrators

Working environment

You could work in an office.

Career path and progression - Newspaper or magazine editor apprenticeships

With experience as a local newspaper editor you could move on to regional and then national publications. You could become editor-in-chief of a group of newspapers, or magazine publishers.

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Considering an Apprenticeship?

There are lots of benefits to apprenticeships, here are our top 5:

Paid Training
Not only will your organisation (or the Government) pay for all of your training, but you’ll be paid to do it. That means you could actually get paid to get your degree and have no debt!
Range of career opportunities
There are over 625 different apprenticeships to choose from, in a range of industries. Whether you’re interested in law, marketing, construction or engineering, you’ll find something up your street!
Earn & learn
As an apprentice, the minimum you’ll earn is £6.20 an hour, but we’ve seen apprentices earn a starting salary of up to £30,000 a year! You could also get other employee benefits like gym memberships, paid holiday and sick pay.
Great career prospects
Employers think apprentices are 15% more employable than those with other qualifications. In fact, many large employers train their graduates and apprentices together!
Learn on the job
There’s only so much you can learn when you just do a qualification. As an apprentice, you’ll also get to learn on the job - whether that’s designing amazing graphics, chopping vegetables or building engines!

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