Case studies: Trainee sub-editor: Lawrence Smith

Lawrence Smith is a trainee sub-editor and secured the post after a degree in English and further training in Brighton.

I've always been interested in writing and went to the University of Sussex to read English. The degree was useful because it taught me how to construct an argument and appreciate how language can be used effectively to convey meaning.

After graduating in 2008, I looked on the Prospects website, saw what a sub-editor did and thought it sounded like my kind of job. Then I saw an advert in the local newspaper advertising a sub-editing course at The Journalist Works in Brighton. I passed the aptitude test, passed the interview and was offered a place. It was a three-month intensive short course, followed by exams. We had to plan our own work experience, although some was found for us. I was lucky to find my present job while I was doing my work experience.

I'm now part of a sub-editing hub in Horsham, mainly subbing for the Sussex Express, a local weekly. The job lives up to my expectations. At present, it's more design-based and creative. I work with a content editor who selects the stories - I don't choose them. I use QuarkXPress and I enjoy being able to create the pages, especially picture spreads. I like the fact that it's a newspaper job and that I'm part of a publication which by, the end of the week, I've helped produce. It's challenging and hard work, the hours are long and you have to be committed. I work a 37-hour week in total: 10-hour days on a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and a seven-and-a-half hour day on a Thursday, which means I get a three-day weekend.

If you want to become a sub-editor, I think it's best to do a National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ)  course of some kind, and preferably one that specialises in sub-editing. Certainly if you want a job in journalism it seems best to have an NCTJ qualification. I rang a lot of places to find out about work experience opportunities, but they didn't really seem interested unless I had been on an NCTJ-accredited course first. You can take an NCTJ course without having an English degree - the degree was something I wanted to do just for me.

The newspaper industry is the place I want to be at the moment. I could transfer my skills to a magazine, but I'm enjoying where I am. I'm happy staying with a local newspaper and, at present, I'm not too interested in going to the nationals. I prefer the pace of a weekly local newspaper. I'm not sure if I'm ready for the pace of a daily paper yet but, in a year or two, I think I might be. I've heard the mutterings that the role of the sub-editor is over and that, in some newspapers, reporters are expected to sub their own copy. I don't think the sub-editor will die out, though. I don't see how a newspaper could credibly survive without them, because if you're a journalist subbing what you've written, you're bound to miss something.