Teaching journalists
Gerry Kreibich looks back at the early days
Pioneering
times
in Sheffield . . .
. . . when Richmond College was one of only SIX journalism colleges in England!
Thanks for visiting. Whether you are interested in journalism generally or more specifically in the training of journalists, you should find this stuff entertaining - and possibly even useful! Enjoy the read . . . and I'd be delighted if you dropped me a line.
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Jeremy has given
us a mention . . .
So successful has he been as a columnist, a TV celebrity and even a farmer, Jeremy Clarkson remains one of Richmond College's most
talked about ex-students. And on his 'Millionaire' TV show in August 2025
he gave the college a mention. Hearing that a contestant had studied
at Sheffield University, he replied: 'Really? I was at Richmond College, doing journalism'.
Some years ago, looking back on his college days, he said: 'I can hardly forget that it was there that I was introduced to the concept of motoring
journalism. One of the students had a different brand-new car every week and all he did in exchange for this privilege was write a small monthly review. I liked that idea very much.'
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And here are a few more who have multi-tasked . . .
Neil Benson. After editing two evening titles, followed by a 16-year stint as Reach plc’s regionals editorial director, Neil became an editorial consultant specialising in newsroom leadership. He has also written a memoir entitled You Can’t Libel the Dead.
Mark Hodkinson wrote for The Times for more than 20 years and has produced and presented documentaries for BBC Radio 4. He has written books on sport, music and history, his most recent being 'Opening the Gates of Hell, the untold story of Herbert Kenny, the man who discovered Belsen'. Mark is currently working on a memoir about his love of music
Michael Davies abandoned a 20-year newspaper career to write fiction. He has won playwriting awards, written for top-rated Netflix shows and launches a 'cosy crime' series of novels in 2026 under the umbrella title 'Murder They Read'', published by HarperCollins.
Paul Mace, an enthusiastic football fan since he was a youngster, has written ‘One Flew Over the Magpies Nest,’ – a hefty history of his beloved Notts County.
Alan Biggs has written on sport in just about all the national dailies, as well as working for BBC radio and television, TalkSport and Sky. His ‘Confessions of a Football Reporter’ is packed with hilarious tales.
Ian Bevitt slid seamlessly from newspapers into TV directing, and his name still pops up on the screen.
Mat Dyson, well-armed with useful journalistic skills, skipped newspapers altogether and joined the Home Office and then the Foreign Office.. He is still visible on TV in old screenings of his role as a senior immigration officer, and he is now with UK Border Force at Heathrow, as Assistant Director and Head of Future Operations.
Jo Overty has the best job title! After 19 years with Isle of Man news publications she now works for the Isle of Man Government and is (wait for it!) UNESCO Biosphere Isle of Man Project Officer.
Paul Linford worked on four newspapers before joining HoldTheFrontPage – the must-see news website for Britain’s provincial newspapers. Then ,a few years ago, he bought it, and he is now HTFP’s owner/publisher.
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Who is this chap anyway?
Gerry Kreibich was one of five journalism lecturers at Richmond College, Sheffield, throughout the 1970s and 1980s. (For a bit more background, see the 'classroom scene' page.)
In those pioneering days the simple aim of the National Council for the Training of Journalists was to impart editorial skills that would enable students to join provincial newspapers and immediately be useful. What happened to those students after that was up to them . . . and many are now prominent people in newspapers, magazines, radio and television
(and quite a few have retired!)
The work was often experimental - methods that worked well were constantly improved, bright ideas that failed were abandoned. Thus were laid the foundations of much that happens today in colleges and
universities all over Britain.
Grim memories of the
Yorkshire Ripper . . .
News of the death in hospital of the ‘Yorkshire Ripper’ brought back vivid college memories. Female students, frightened to make their way home alone after lectures, used to congregate in the entrance hall and make sure that they left the building in groups of three or four.
Once, on one of our visits to Sheffield’s police
headquarters, the copper who was showing us round casually pointed to another officer and said ‘There’s the chap who arrested the Ripper’. Wow! All the girls could happily have hugged him!
Meet Susan, the expert
on luxury hotels . . .
Susan D'Arcy has been a travel writer on the Sunday Times
for 30-odd years, being pampered at some of the plushest
and most expensive hotels in the world. Here she recalls
how life worked out for her after she left college in the 1970s.
Richmond College provided the perfect foundation in the nitty-gritty who-what-when-where-why-hows of journalism, which I put to good use during my first celebrity interview, arranged by my college lecturers. It was with comedian Marti Caine.
Richmond was instrumental in securing me my first job on the Bristol Evening Post. I stayed there three happy years, covering everything from Crown Courts to village fetes, and then I took the big leap and moved to London, working first at Media Week and then various women’s magazines.
After doing some freelance subbing shifts at The Sunday Times, I was invited to join the newspaper's Travel desk -- and, just like that, I found my tribe. Most of the team were men whose idea of travel writing was to hike across the Gobi Desert with a stone in their shoe and nothing but a thimbleful of water for company. In other words, they were into rock-hard and worthy exploration. I wasn't quite as intrepid so by default I became the paper's luxury hotel and spa expert. What’s not to like?
I’ve now worked for The Times and Sunday Times for more than three decades and in my many years at NewsUK I've been rubbed, scrubbed, wrapped and slapped countless times and done everything from eating gold in Abu Dhabi to being an art installation at New York's Guggenheim Museum (long story). I've yet to make it to the Gobi Desert but I’m very glad I made it to Sheffield!
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