Journalism at City from day one

A new blog Earliest Days has been launched by Tom Welsh, first director of journalism at City University, to record the setting up of the journalism courses there in 1976 and the people involved.

Tom, known to most journalists as for many years the co-editor of Essential Law for Journalists, says any contributions from former students or others involved would be welcomed.

Pic shows Tom (right) and students Jacky Law and Sarah Bayliss meeting the then Sunday Times editor Harold Evans at the start of the first year of the course.

According to a report in Press Gazette at the time "Evans urged young journalists to understand that the reporting of court cases, council meetings and parliamentary debates was just as important as writing wordy articles on subjects which a journalist assumed his public would find more interesting and entertaining."

Tom has been helped set up the blog by his son John Welsh, the digital director of UBM Live, who has his own blog on new media These Digital Times.

There were 13 journalists on the first course. . .including me.