Best and brightest cadets join the ranks at News Corp

At a time when newsrooms are shrinking, News Corp is swimming against the tide by hiring 30 new cadets to strengthen the company’s commitment to quality journalism.

News Corp cadets (from left) Joanne Tran, Madeleine Bower, Sam King, Amaani Siddeek and Tamaryn McGregor. Picture: John Feder

At a time when newsrooms across the country are shrinking, News Corp is swimming against the tide by hiring 30 new cadets to strengthen the company’s commitment to quality journalism.

The fresh crop of young reporters will undertake a two-year cadetship, and over that period they will rotate to a different News Corp newsroom every six months, which will include some regional placements, and attachments to specialist projects.

Of the 30 cadets, 10 hail from NSW, eight are from Victoria, eight are in Queensland, and four call South Australia home.

News Corp Australasia executive chairman Michael Miller heralded the appointments as an exciting opportunity for the media company and the cadets alike.

“The 30 new cadets we are welcoming today represent a significant investment in our central purpose – to deliver news and information and tell the stories that matter most to the local communities and regions we serve,” he said.

“This investment in training the best and brightest from the ranks of the next generation of journalists reaffirms our commitment to professional journalism and will help position Australian journalism for long-term success.

“Our cadets will receive training in both the traditional news skills we’ve learnt from decades of our history combined with the contemporary digital skills needed to effectively report today’s world with a focus on data, audio and video. Cadet training will combine on-the-job experience in our newsrooms across the country combined with formal tuition. They will form part of the inaugural intake to our Digital News Academy we are establishing with Google, which will be a world-leading education program equipping 250 journalists annually for the next three years with the digital skills needed to empower their storytelling.

“Announcing our cadets today is fresh confirmation that the strategy to transition to digital journalism, outlined over many years by our co-executive chairmen Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch along with chief executive Robert Thomson, is now gaining significant momentum.”

In addition to the 30 chosen from more than 400 applicants, another 13 will be offered roles as newsroom assistants.

Each cadet will be assigned a newsroom mentor. The new appointments will begin their cadetships in early 2022.