PRINT Idol finalist Patrick Smith is bidding for a job in Fleet Street.

The 23-year-old trainee journalist from Manchester has made it to the last 10 of a competition run by the weekly trade title Press Gazette.

Mr Smith, a student on the MA/Postgraduate Diploma in Print Journalism course at Leeds Trinity & All Saints Centre for Journalism, will be given a task to complete in London every week by a panel of editors and senior journalists.

Two candidates will be `voted' off each week until just two are left. Their prize is a trainee job in Press Gazette's Fleet Street newsroom and an é18,000 salary.

Mr Smith has just taken his final exams on the year-long diploma course and is hoping the competition will give his career a flying start.

He said: "It's amazing to get down to the last ten. A few of the people who didn't win last year got good jobs out of it so hopefully that can be me this year."