Ian Whittell has been confirmed as a judge for the 2024 future journalist awards. Ian has lots of experience in the sports journalism industry covering Manchester City, Manchester United, Sunderland and Newcastle United football clubs.

Alongside being a freelance journalist and owner of Whittell & Winrow, Ian also lectures on the BA and MA sports journalism course at Staffordshire University. 

Commenting on being part of the judging panel for this year’s awards Ian said:

“The future journalist awards is something I’m really pleased and proud to because I believe in helping to develop future journalists, the quality of the work is so high I enjoy seeing the work that the pupils produce there is a tremendous amount of talent, I really look forward to seeing what they produce.”

“My advice to anyone entering the competition would be choose something your most interested in, make sure that your work is fair, accurate and balanced, communicate with people to get the newest news out of a story to ensure the accuracy of your work. If you’re writing a story, be creative use your imagination paint the picture to the reader.”

“Look at examples of work in industry to get an idea of what you want your work to look like whether that be a newspaper, radio, or TV coverage.”  

The closing date for entries in this year’s competition is Friday, March 1, 2024. If you have any questions about how to enter the FJA’s please email futurejournalist@staffs.ac.uk. 

Keep a look out for further judges’ announcements coming soon via the Future Journalist Awards blog https://blogs.staffs.ac.uk/futurejournalist/enter/blog/ and our social media channels on X,  TikTok and LinkedIn.