Welcome from Richard Sambrook

Dear alumni,

I'm delighted to be writing to you from the School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies in Cardiff, where I recently took over from Professor Richard Tait as the Director of the Centre for Journalism. I'm thankful to Richard for the great work he did over so many years, and I'm sure you will be pleased to know that he is staying on part-time with us.

It's a real privilege to be leading the oldest, and in my view best, Journalism Centre in the UK. I wanted to reach out to you personally to introduce myself, to tell you how much we value your connection with Cardiff and how we plan to strengthen the Centre, the School and the alumni network too.

These are difficult days for journalism in general. Whether you work in the industry or not, you've probably noticed the changes: redundancies, challenges from digital media, the Leveson inquiry and another crisis at the BBC - all of these cast something of a shadow over the business of news. However I believe the role of a Journalism School is to strengthen standards and prepare the next generation of journalists and leaders to take on the challenges the industry faces. So there's a great deal happening at the School at the moment. If you scroll down to the bottom of this email, you can see our new and innovative courses, speaker programmes, and support for local journalism. We will keep playing our part in strengthening the value of journalism in the UK and across the world.

We are in a strong position in Cardiff, and one of the reasons is that we offer singular excellence in both vocational training and academic research - there is no other Journalism or Media School in the UK which can offer both with such high quality. Our graduates are in high demand, and we place most into relevant career paths. I spent over thirty years as a journalist with the BBC, and have seen the difference which good training makes to successful careers and high-quality journalism. I especially see it when I look at our graduates.

You are the real reason we can speak of 'success', and you are the best ambassadors we have. I'm grateful that so many of you are prepared to return to Cardiff and share your experiences and expertise with our staff and students. I hope to get to know more and more of you, and to offer the network and advantages which only a School like ours can give, including the latest research, connections, events, and more. A strong alumni network will benefit us all.

I really hope you will enjoy hearing from us with these occasional emails. The plan is to send them out about twice a year, and if you have other JOMEC friends who might not have received this, please pass it on and ask them to get in touch too.

I look forward to hearing from you: alumni@cardiff.ac.uk.

Very best wishes
Richard

Professor Richard Sambrook
Director of the Centre for Journalism

Welcome: Professor Richard Sambrook joined JOMEC earlier this year

Academics discuss The Savile Situation (Oct 26th)

In conversation with Chris Hamilton from BBC News

In conversation with Joanna Geary from The Guardian

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