“Training” Items

Future of Journalists in 21st Century ( via 1994)

In 1994, the American Society of News Editors (ASNE) in partnership with the Freedom Forum  provided a report on journalism’s evolution into the 21st century. The document contains insights regarding the anticipated transformations within the industry, particularly in response to technological advancements and shifting audience behaviors. However, some projections were either only partially realized or did not materialize as expected.

Key Insights the Report
  1. Digital Transformation & the Internet
    The report correctly foresaw the growing importance of digital platforms, predicting that online news consumption would reshape journalism. It acknowledged the potential of the internet to expand access to news and create new journalistic formats.
  2. Ethical Challenges & Credibility Concerns
    There was a strong emphasis on maintaining journalistic integrity in an increasingly fragmented media landscape. Concerns about misinformation, the speed of news dissemination, and editorial responsibility were highlighted—issues that have become even more pronounced in today’s digital age.
  3. Changing Audience Expectations
    The report predicted a shift in audience engagement, recognizing that readers would demand more interactivity, customization, and multimedia elements in their news consumption.
  4. Corporate Ownership & Commercial Pressures
    There was an awareness of the growing consolidation of media ownership and the risks of editorial independence being compromised due to commercial interests.
Assumptions That Did Not Materialize

Just as interesting as to the insights, were the assumptions that did not come to pass.

  1. Sustained Dominance of Print Media
    While the report acknowledged the rise of digital media, it underestimated the rapid decline of traditional print journalism. It assumed newspapers would remain a primary news source, supplemented by digital rather than largely replaced by it.
  2. Public Willingness to Pay for Quality Journalism
    The expectation that consumers would sustain journalism through paid subscriptions proved only partially correct. While paywalls and digital subscriptions exist, the widespread reliance on free content and advertising-based models was not fully anticipated.
  3. Journalists as Gatekeepers of Information
    The document maintained the assumption that professional journalists would retain their role as the primary arbiters of truth. However, the rise of citizen journalism, social media influencers, and decentralized news distribution has significantly altered the landscape.
  4. The Role of Traditional News Organizations in Shaping Public Discourse
    While legacy media outlets were expected to remain central to public discourse, they now compete with a vast array of alternative news sources, many of which operate outside traditional journalistic norms.

The summary was produced using ChatGPT and reviewed by a human [Howard Finberg].

Teaching College Students, Poynter 1984

In spring of 1984, Mario Garcia invited me to teach at the College Seniors/graduate Students Newspaper Design Seminar August 12-18.  Twelve students were selected for this Poynter fellowships in Newspaper Design.  Here’s what Garcia wrote  about the seminar in his invitation letter:

Obviously, the scope of this seminar is very different from that of the professional seminars you have taught for us in the past. These are students whose experience is limited to work on their campus newspapers, plus whatever time they have spent in newspaper internships. In fact, a majority are currently interning.

Therefore, our objective is to accomplish the following:

1) To train students beyond the basics of layout and design.
2) To introduce them to the role of the newspaper designer in today’s newspapers.
3) To showcase their talents to members of the industry who may be interested in young, capable (but inexperienced) newspaper designers.
4) To create a pool of young designers who will be way above the level of their peers entering the newspaper field.

I taught a couple of sessions:

Thursday, August 16
9 – 10:15 a.m.           Informational graphics as design tools
10:15 a.m. – noon   Informational graphics, continued. Exercise : Putting the facts together through the creation of an informational graphic
LUNCH
1:30 – 3 p.m.             Session continues
REST OF AFTERNOON FREE

Constant Training: New Normal or Missed Opportunity

As part of the grant to The Poynter Institute for the creation and running of News University, an online training program, the Knight Foundation asked that we conduct studies as to how effective training was and better understand the training needs of journalists. One study was called “Constant Training” and it was based on a survey of newsrooms and journalists.  Here’s what I wrote in the introduction:

These results are from an anonymous survey of staff members from 31 newsrooms around the country conducted by The Poynter Institute on behalf of the Knight Foundation.

The survey was conducted in newsrooms that ranged in size from 20 to 150 staff members. More than 1,650 staff members were possible participants for the survey, which achieved a 72.5 percent response rate. The survey was conducted online in June-July 2014.

Is the glass two-thirds full? Or, more important to ask, is it one-third empty?

A third of the journalists in the survey [34 percent] said they received no training in the past 12 months. But the numbers varied widely in different newsrooms. While in some newsrooms, nearly everyone had gotten training, in one newsroom, only 17 percent reported receiving training. In six of the newsrooms, less than half of the staff members had received training. Considering the abundance of free or low-cost training available, those numbers seem strikingly high.

One of the key findings was the hunger journalists had for training.  However, then, as in now, time or the lack of time, was a key factor as whether journalists got the training they needed or wanted.

This raises the point that everyone, especially journalists, lives in a world of constant learning. Each new technology creates new opportunities and new challenges. Which create new openings for training. To be successful in the digital world, a journalist needs to embrace the idea of “constant training” to meet the changing demands of the workplace.

Other results from our training survey are more troubling.

Actually doing the training presents a significant problem. Lack of time was cited by 62 percent of the participants as the number-one factor that prevented them from getting the training they needed or wanted. That’s twice as many responses as lack of funds, the second-place factor, which was selected by 34 percent.

One final point involved the focus of newsrooms in 2014:

The survey also provides an unsettling insight into the focus of the newsrooms surveyed. The journalists surveyed still see their newsrooms as print-centric or straddling the fence. Only one in 10 said that their newsrooms are thoroughly
“digital-first.”

Eric Newton wrote the introduction to the report.

Presentation to Straits Times, Singapore

In July 1993, I was invited to give a series of workshops to the visual journalists at the Straits Times in Singapore. [Straits Times company also owned the Business Times, a tabloid call New Paper and two native language papers: Berita Harian and Zaohao.]

The workshop was for three days. Among the topics covered:

  • Readership
  • Typography and Readability
  • Ethics
  • Color [although we spelled it Colour]
  • Graphics
  • The Future [Year 2000 design, based on the work done at the American Press Institute seminar on the topic].

SND European Workshop

One of the most unusual and fun workshops that I have participated in was a tour of four European cities on behalf of the Society of Newspaper Design in 1993. Between May 7 and 15, six designers and editors gave workshops on design, photography, infographics and more to 300 participants from almost 20 different countries. Among the cities visited  by Andrew Chapin, Juan Antonio Giner, Bill Ostendorf, Norvall Skreien, Deborah Withey and myself were Stockholm, Hamburg, Zurich and La Coruna [Spain].  Here’s what Bill wrote for an SND publication:

The EFS, patterned after SND’s suc­cessful Quick Course programs in North America, drew warm and enthusiastic responses from audiences dominated by top editors. Most attendees had never heard of SND before attending one of the workshops, but afterwards many wanted to join, help establish chapters and spon­sor more SND events in their countries.

…

“Everyone was very interested in what SND has to offer. And they were very pleased with our decision to bring our biggest workshop to Europe in 1995,” said Howard Finberg.

He added that now is the ideal time to foster better design in Europe. ”While there are pockets of very good design in Europe, there are also a lot of areas that are just on the verge of the kind of design revolution that swept the U.S. in the ’70s and ’80s. While we were in Germany, you could feel that same sense of excitement when you talked to editors who saw the need for attracting new readers.”

The full article is here.

 

“You May Need to Rethink Your Whole Organization”

I wrote an article the American Society of News Editors [ASNE] in October 1996 about how organizations need to rethink their structures and workflows when the introduce new technologies, such as pagination. Here’s my lead:

Pagination is an “old” technology. More importantly, pagination will not help a newspaper in the “new media” landscape of today. What’s really important are the opportunities of a publication database system. We can develop all the online, fax, and other new media products in the world, but unless we are lucky enough to be hiring dozens of new employees over the next ten years, we need to figure out better ways of using our existing resources of staff and equipment.

The article was based on a speech I gave at a Seybold Conference earlier in 1996.

Training Needs of Journalists: Poynter NewsU Survey

As we geared up development of Poynter’s e-learning project, the lack of information about journalists and online training was very evident.  While there were many studies about what journalists said they wanted in terms of training, there was scant evidence about how an online training program would be received.  I pushed hard to do a training needs assessment and by early 2004 we published the “Training: It Matters More Than Ever” report.

Many of the conclusions aren’t surprising, even 10 years later.

What stands between journalist and more training?

* Time
* Money
* Accessibility

What was surprising was the acceptance of e-learning as a potential for journalism training.  While only 18 percent of survey respondents had any experience with online training, more than 70 percent were interested in participating in e-learning.

“It validates our belief in e-learning,” Finberg says [in the report]. “It’s the research evidence that the concept we came up with is valid.  The real challenge will be in the execution…”

Bob Andelman wrote the report. He also wrote a story for Poynter Online.

Training that Changes Your Life: API Seminar

In early 1991 John Oppedahl, The Arizona Republic’s managing editor, nominated me to attend the American Press Institute seminar for Managing Editors [newspapers over 77,000 circulation] in Reston, VA.   That seminar did two things: 1. Strengthened some of my leadership skills and confidence and 2. Created some life-long friends.

Like most API [and Poynter] seminars there was lots of “homework” and instructions ranging from accommodations to laundry.  From the acceptance letter:

So your nominee may arrive thoroughly prepared, and for your newspaper to derive maximum benefit for the outlay of training dollars, may I respectfully suggest a day be set aside from regular duties so homework assignments can be completed.

Before members return home, I urge them to sift through the many materials collected while at Reston, with a view to conducting a mini-seminar for fellow staffers so the entire department many benefit from their API experience. I hope you’ll consider giving the process a try, assuming you don’t already have it in place.

Of course, I don’t remember getting too much time off from regular duties but it didn’t really matter.  It was fun and always best to be prepared.