FINAL YEAR journalism students in DIT Aungier Street launched their new newspaper. Headline, last week.

It marks another phase in the renewed growth of the long established DIT School of Journalism.

"The idea of naming this one Headline is because they are going in much more for hard news," says David Rice, head of the school. He praises the "dynamism" of the students for taking the initiative in the production of the paper, the first school publication to be produced entirely with the Quark Xpress desktop publishing software.

The free four page tabloid, to be published twice monthly and distributed in the city centre, replaces Metro, the occasional features based newspaper which had been a fixture of the school for almost two decades.

"We're hoping to expand it," says Michael McMullan, editor of Headline. "We've been producing papers for years here and they've always been four pages. We want to break the mould and make it bigger in the future."

The arrival of Headline means that the DIT's School of Journalism is now producing three titles, which must make them potential rivals of Independent Newspapers.

The school also produces French language and Irish language newspapers.

The School of Journalism itself is also changing considerably. The two year diploma in journalism is being replaced by a four year degree programme and the first group of degree students entered the college last year.

The college also has a one year postgraduate journalism programme in place and students have the use of a new, PC based newsroom.

"What you have now is a demand from the market for a more educated journalist," says DIT Aungier Street's acting director. Dr Ellen Hazelkorn, who points out that the degree programme will also bring the college in line with other European schools of journalism, facilitating a planned series of European work placements for students.

"We're sending out the message that if you want to get good journalists to take on, then this is the place to get them." McMullan says.