This is fascinating, Annie. I follow British journalism fairly closely and didn't know it.

The best thing you said was that the NUJ was involved in training. At the pubs I've worked for, the Newspaper Guild wasn't involved in that at all, only in issues like pay, discrimination, and workplace safety.

American newspapers used to provide informal on-the-job training instead, and with the collapse of thousands of them, a lot of that is gone now, too. I'm afraid it shows in the quality of what you read.