PA Group to take over operation of Trinity Mirror training centre

01/10/06, PA Group and Trinity Mirror have announced a ground-breaking deal on the training of journalists.

PA is to take over the operation of the journalism training centre owned by Trinity Mirror in Newcastle, with Trinity Mirror becoming a major long-term customer.

The deal underlines PA’s ambitions to become the leading provider of media training. In 2004 PA acquired a 50 per cent stake in the training and consultancy company, The Editorial Centre, based in Hastings and has established training centres in London and Howden, East Yorkshire.

Trinity Mirror’s 16-week foundation course in journalism will be merged with The Editorial Centre foundation course. The courses are widely recognised as the leading in-company training schemes in the UK.

Trinity Mirror has signed a long-term contract for the provision of editorial training services from PA and will take up a significant allocation of places on each foundation course, as well as having access to other PA/Editorial Centre services.

Under the terms of the deal, the training centre will remain in the offices of the Newcastle Chronicle, Journal and Sunday Sun. The training centre staff will become employees of PA.

This follows the move of Trinity Mirror’s former head of editorial staff development, Tony Johnston, to PA in the summer. He became PA’s head of editorial training in August, leading the company’s expansion of multimedia training services.

Peter Sands, Director of The Editorial Centre, said: “This is another big step in establishing PA as the leading media training provider in the country.

“The foundation courses in Hastings and Newcastle are almost mirror images of each other and it makes enormous sense to pool our resources to provide the best possible training for our customers.

“The deal not only gives us the services of some first-class journalism trainers but also means we now have four fully-equipped training centres, two in the North and two in the South.”

Neil Benson, Trinity Mirror’s Editorial Director, Regionals, said: "We have taken great pride in developing the industry’s leading training centre over the years. This move will provide a platform for further growth, and will also guarantee Trinity Mirror a consistent flow of high-quality trainees.

“PA is a well-respected and trusted operation, and this agreement underlines our ongoing commitment to invest in training for our journalists.”

Tony Johnston said: “I am delighted that we have been able to strike this deal. The Newcastle training centre is a fantastic resource and we are delighted to be able to provide Trinity Mirror with the best journalism training available.

“The foundation course offers new entrants a unique opportunity to train in a real newsroom environment producing content for three of the largest regional newspapers. We are confident we can build on its success in the coming years.”

Contact Information

Elizabeth Castle

External Communications Manager

The Press Association

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