The death of the industrial correspondent-but will they be returning soon?

I see that Kevin Maguire is bemoaning the death of the industrial correspondent.

Familiar to our screens and papers, during the 70's and 80's,the unfashionable science has made way for the rise of the environmental and showbiz correspondent.

However perhaps with the unions once again finding their teeth,the industry expert will return to the media

Maguire,hot foot from the TUC in Brighton says

So few newspapers and broadcasters these days employ Labour and Industrial Correspondents the Group which represented them - in their heyday a more influential pack than political writers in the lobby - is reduced an informal network

For him

the media no longer covers properly the reality of working life, the decline of specialist reporters in the field leaving large gaps. When I covered employment and industrial relations for the Daily Telegraph in the first half of the 1990s there must've been 30 or 40 hacks doing similar jobs across Fleet Street and the airwaves. Now I can only think of three specialists: Christine Buckley on the Times, the FT's Andrew Taylor and the superb Alan Jones on the Press Association news agency

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