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The Independent has recruited Mark Hughes as its new North of England correspondent, handing the 21-year-old wunderkind a dream job at the very start of his newspaper career.
Glasgow born Hughes swept the board at this year’s Press Gazette Student Journalism Awards – taking home the student news writer, scoop of the year and overall student journalist gongs. As a result of this Ed Caesar, one of the judges and the 2006 British Press young journalist of the year, recommended his talents to the Independent editor Simon Kelner. And the rest, as they say, is history. Speaking to Hughes after a night out to celebrate his new position, he seems a little shell-shocked - and not just thanks to the inevitable celebratory pints. “It was pretty unexpected,” he told How-Do. “As soon as I spoke to them I thought that they might keep me in mind for a while, but I certainly didn’t expect things to develop so quickly.” The affable (even with a hangover) Hughes has now left his job at the Carlisle News and Star, where he landed a position at the age of 18 after a day’s work experience, and will join The Indie on 10 December. He takes over from Ian Herbert, who has now moved on to the role of Northern football correspondent. In the meantime, he says, he is “unemployed”, but is using the time gainfully to find new accommodation in a new city. In his opinion “Manchester seems like a decent place to live and work”, so he isn’t daunted by the move further down south. Having worked at the CN Group for the past three years, while also studying at UCLan, Hughes is sad to leave the paper, but felt he really had little choice.“It’s a massive opportunity to be working for a national newspaper at such a young age and I simply had to take it. I’ll definitely miss the News and Star – the place, the people and the paper itself – but this was something I’d have been stupid not to go for. “To be fair, the folk at the News and Star appreciated that and have been excellent. I’ve got a lot to thank them for.” He continued: “I knew I was doing things well there, but a lot of that, my progress, was down to them as they really let me run with things. That made it even more of a wrench to leave, as I loved the job… but this is The Independent.” In his new role Hughes will be working remotely and covering any news story, on any subject, throughout the North of England. For a 21 year old with only three years of work experience, most of that between studying, you’d think that might be an intimidating proposition. But not for Hughes. “I’m looking forward to it,” he concluded happily, “it’s a dream job.” http://www.independent.co.uk/ Something to add? Then leave a comment below or email us now.
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