“Grow a pair” says Darren Parkin to suffering newspapers

Darren Parkin, editor of the Coventry Telegraph, attended Coventry University to speak about the future for newspapers in the current recession.

Newspapers in the UK have recently been suffering and have lost up to 50% of turnover since 2009.  This is mainly due to the rising cost of newsprint which has gone up by 20% causing newspapers to have to higher their prices.

The Coventry Telegraph is amongst these with its sales declining by 8.7% in 2010.  However, Parkin, very aware of the situation, still promises a future for newspapers. The Coventry Telegraph is still selling around 35,000 copies per day and he is expecting an improvement in 2011. Writes Kirsty Quigley…

As the youngest man to become an editor at the age of 24, Darren admitted that the internet is growing rapidly and is a huge threat to newspapers. However, he described the Coventry Telegraph website as “booming” being one the most successful news websites and stated that it is aiming for 2 million users in 2011. He spoke about his excitement at this change and urged other newspapers to stop panicking and just accept and “deal with the situation head on”.

Finally he gave some advice to students wanting to become journalists: “Get yourself noticed”.   Darren who worked his way up to becoming an editor seeks a passion for journalism and writing and declared that if you really want to be a journalist you will get noticed. When asked how to become the next Darren Parkin he humorously replied: “You have to be the jammiest bastard in the world!”