A GROUP of wannabe journalists studying at St Mary's RC 6th Form College in Blackburn escaped from the classroom and in place of a lecture, received first hand experience of life at the Lancashire Evening Telegraph.

The students, all aged between 16 and 17, discovered that reporting is not the only way to become involved with newspaper production when they took a tour of the Lancashire Evening Telegraph head office. As well as a peek into the highly synchronized mechanism of the editorial department, the group also met people working in photography, graphic design, accountancy and advertising departments.

The tour proved not only to be an interesting alternative to working in college but also a real eye-opened for most of the journalism students.

"I had no idea that putting together a newspaper involved so much pressure - I couldn't believe it when they told us there are four editions of the Lancashire Evening Telegraph every day!" remarked one student!

The tour was an excellent introduction to the world of tight schedules and imminent deadlines and the college hopes to organise similar trips in the future.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.