Essential Journalism: The NCTJ Guide for Trainee Journalists

Jonathan Baker is an award-winning journalist and journalism teacher. His first foray into journalism was during a gap year spent on the Ashbourne News Telegraph in Derbyshire. He joined the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo as a graduate trainee and passed his NCTJ Proficiency Test there before joining BBC Radio in London. He held senior positions in BBC radio, television and multimedia newsgathering. He was variously Executive Editor of the Radio Newsroom, Executive Editor of Radio 5 Live News Programmes, Editor BBC of the One o’Clock and Six o’Clock Television News, Editor of the BBC Ten o’Clock News, and World News Editor. For four years he was Head of the College of Journalism, responsible for the training of the BBC’s 8,000 journalists. His last role at the BBC was Head of Newsgathering. He was appointed Founding Professor of Journalism at the University of Essex, where he devised and delivered an NCTJ-accredited undergraduate course in multimedia journalism. He is a winner of the NCTJ Chairman’s Award for outstanding contribution to high standards of journalism training.