Celebrating 20 years of News Associates panel at JournoFest 2026

News Associates managing editor with our Celebrating 20 years of News Associates panelists

Five fabulous News Associates alumni to spoke at our 11th annual JournoFest conference at The Exchange in Twickenham to celebrate 20 years of our journalism training.

Every year we host a journalism conference packed with notable journalists from national newspapers and broadcasters and emerging digital platforms. JournoFest brings together trainees and alumni from all our courses including our BA (Hons) Multimedia Journalism degree and prospective members of #TeamNA.

Here journalism outreach coordinator Grace Crowley shares what she learnt.

News Associates alumni are all over the place. They are live on TV, interviewing MPs, hosting radio shows, travelling across the world to follow the biggest sports events and so much more.

But on this Saturday in March, they were sat in front of more than 200 trainees – ready to share their stories with us.

Under the lights (and disco ball) in Twickenham’s Exchange sat BBC Newsbeat senior journalist reporter Eleanor Shearwood, ITV News head of content Ed Saunt, FourFourTwo editor James Andrew, ITV on-screen journalist Sally Patterson and The Sun home affairs correspondent Julia Atherley.

Every early-career journalist fears making mistakes in the newsroom – myself included! So hearing about the mistakes of journalists who aren’t just in the industry, but are in senior roles, felt very reassuring.

Newsbeat is BBC’s radio news programme broadcast on Radio 1, 1Xtra and Asian Network. When Shearwood was two weeks into her job at Newsbeat, she was sent to Manchester to get some vox-pops for a politically divisive story.

She struggled to balance the opinions she was receiving and instead of communicating the issues she was having to her editor and changing her approach, she left it until the deadline – when it was too late.

Her editor used a different story instead and Shearwood was upset and felt like she had failed.

She laughed saying: “I remember sitting in a Wetherspoons in Manchester in front of my laptop thinking that this was the end.”

In the end everything was okay, and helped Shearwood understand how important open communication is in a journalism job.

As head of content at ITV News, Ed Saunt has edited a lot of special programming, including the US Presidential Election 2020 and the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

He said there have been a lot of stand-out moments in his career but most notably, his experience covering the UK General Election in 2019.

Saunt said: “The coolest thing in my job is getting the exit poll before everyone else so you know what’s going to happen about half an hour before everyone else does.

“No matter what the result is, it’s just such a thrill, partly because we’re all nosy and journalists, but also because we’re preparing for this eight-hour programme.”

During the 2019 election, journalists had to think quick when it came to putting together progammes because it was a snap election and an unexpected Tory landslide.

Saunt said: “Suddenly we had 20 minutes to crystallise and figure out ‘What is the story? What are the next eight hours?’”

Julia Atherley spoke about how her senior role at The Sun comes with the expectation to know a little bit about everything – even though she is a home affairs reporter.

Atherley said: “It’s fun being in charge, especially when I work on The Sun on Sunday across a while range of stories.

“I’ve suddenly had to know about what’s going on on The Apprentice and Strictly Come Dancing.”

One of the most important habits to get into as an early-career journalist is making sure to know a little bit about everything, even if it isn’t directly relevant to what you want to write about regularly.

Doing this has helped Atherley move up from a trainee journalist to a home affairs correspondent, breaking exclusive stories for a national publication.

James Andrew was on the very first News Associates NCTJ-accredited journalism course and is now the editor of football brand FourFourTwo, leading the magazine, website, video channels and social media teams.

Although now a very experienced sports journalist who has interviewed some of the biggest names in football such as Mo Salah and Harry Kane, he wasn’t always as specialised as he is now.

He began his career as a news reporter at The Windsor and Slough Observer and made time to cover sports alongside creating a diverse portfolio.

He said that at the start of your career, you should keep your options open and try a little bit of everything.

James said: “Don’t obsess!

“Any experience is invaluable experience in journalism.”

Sally Patterson’s job as an on-screen journalist at ITV sounded fascinating.

She has been a US correspondent based in New York, a breaking news reporter in London and now, a broadcast journalist in Jersey.

This means she is an expert at finding stories, even in unfamiliar patches.

She said: “There’s a story everywhere, so you’ve just got to find it.

“Make sure you’re looking for those voices that aren’t always heard, because they’re there – you just need to find them and give them a platform.”

See our highlights from previous JournoFest events here.