A place in the Sun: Marc Deanie

By Nicola Hamilton


AFTER one outstanding year on Cardonald College Glasgow’s NCTJ accredited journalism course, Marc
Deanie landed his dream job – as a feature writer on best-selling tabloid newspaper, the Scottish Sun.


Marc, 23, was voted Student Journalist of the Year 2009 at the prestigious Write Stuff awards in May 2009 and managed to secure himself the opportunity of a life-time, when he caught the attention of The Sun’s chief feature writer, Matt Bendoris.

Matt, who had previously met Marc on a visit to the college, was impressed by his enthusiasm and inquisitive personality and offered Marc a one-week work placement at the Sun. Having demonstrated obvious
journalistic potential, Marc was then offered full time shifts on the features desk at the tabloid title.

On working at the Sun, Marc said: “It’s very scary, the thing about it is that you could be sitting at 5 o’clock
and get a page lead story to do, and you just have to get it done and make sure you are being accurate at the same time.

“The people I work with are brilliant, they help me out, giving me tips on how to approach stories and get interviews. I’ve learned so much working on the job and a lot of things I learned at college I put to use every day.

“The course and the lecturers gave me a lot of confidence during my year at Cardonald.”

Already Marc has been mixing with famous faces such as singer songwriter Calvin Harris, and one of his own
heroes, Dragon’s Den tycoon Duncan Bannatyne.

However, Marc has his own ways of staying cool and collected: “ I tend not to go into interviews with any previous expectations, otherwise they could end up being a let down. I still get nervous before doing any interview but I find it’s best to be listening to what the person is saying rather than thinking too much about your next question. ”

Like a true professional, Marc realises how tough it can be for journalists trying to break into the industry and knows you have to learn to deal with heavy criticism.

He said: “If you’ve got an idea, be prepared for it to be chopped in half. I learned quickly not to take it personally. You could suggest 10 stories to the editor and only one will make it into the paper so you’ve got to keep coming up with new material on a daily basis.”

Although tabloid newspapers such as The Sun are always coming under criticism for being sensationalist, Marc believes they do their job to keep the public talking. He said: “You don’t tend to hear someone saying ‘Oh, did you read that story in the Guardian?’ It’s papers like The Sun and the News of the World that get remembered for what they print.”