Journalism students celebrate at Magazine Academy

The university claimed all three awards at the event, which took place at Vinopolis on October 17 and is supported by Dovetail Services, Polestar and UPM.

Magazine Academy invites students on the UK’s 19 PTC-accredited journalism and publishing higher education courses to compete in three categories: New Magazine Concept, New Digital Product Concept and New Student Magazine.

The University of Sheffield’s winning entry in the New Student Magazine category, Inside Out, has the additional honour of being printed by Polestar on paper supplied by UPM and will be distributed throughout the industry by the PPA.

The University of Sheffield won the New Magazine Concept category for Amateur Chef, and the judges also highly commended Deep End from Southampton Solent University and Slant from Cardiff University in the same category.

New Digital Product Concept went to the University of Sheffield for Digital Citizen and Cardiff University was highly commended in this category for its concept, UpStart.

Gill Hudson, Editor-in-Chief of Reader’s Digest and Chair of the PTC Editorial Training Consultants Committee (ETCC), said: “Magazine Academy is a fantastic event that highlights the PTC’s crucial role in connecting today’s employers with the next generation of talent coming into our industry.

“Congratulations to everyone who took part in this year’s competition and particularly to the University of Sheffield for an outstanding achievement.”

As well as the Magazine Academy competition prize-giving, the event also recognised students involved with MagNet, the industry’s first ever co-ordinated diversity mentoring scheme, developed by the PTC in conjunction with Joanna Abeyie of Shine Media. The project matches students from under-represented groups studying on PTC-accredited courses with volunteer mentors already employed in the industry.

The evening also marked the graduation ceremony for those working in publishing who completed a PPA Professional Qualification.

Nicholas Brett, Managing Director of Magazines at BBC Worldwide, and Chair of the PTC Board, said: “The PTC works alongside publishers to drive up standards in training and development to make sure we have the skills in abundance to drive our industry forward.

“Our commitment to ensuring there is a steady stream of future stars is evident in the rigour of our accreditation process, which ensures those courses that we accredit deliver the skills and training we need.”

About PTC

The PPA says: “The Periodicals Training Council (PTC) is the lead body for best practice in training and development and people management for the magazine and business media industry.”