The Poynter Institute and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation announced today that they will develop News University, an online training portal for journalists.

NewsU will create interactive lessons in journalism skills and ethics, drawing on the teaching of Poynter faculty, and will serve as a conduit to the best journalism-school offerings on the Web, including those with Knight chairs and mid-career programs.

"We want to extend our mission of teaching craft and leadership skills to professionals and students who can not attend seminars here," said Karen Dunlap, dean of the Poynter faculty and president-designate of the St. Petersburg, Florida, school.

"Poynter’s popular website has proven it can reach journalists," said Eric Newton, Knight Foundation director of journalism initiatives. "We want to help the school use it as well as it can to teach journalists."

Knight Foundation’s five-year, $2.8 million grant will launch and develop News University, which, in addition to its own online courses, will work with other organizations to help them offer e-learning.

Howard Finberg, former vice president for Internet strategies and technology of Central Newspapers Inc., will direct NewsU. "Training opportunities for journalists are more important than ever. While executives recognize this fact, they are also struggling to make effective use of newsroom budgets. At the same time, journalists are struggling to find the time within their own busy schedules. Poynter’s e-learning program hopes to meet these needs," Finberg said.

The collaborative project emerged from two coincidental developments in journalism training:

• The growth in audience for Poynter’s website, www.poynter.org, after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, when Poynter faculty provided ideas for coverage and personal development.
  
• A study funded by Knight for the Council of Presidents of National Journalism Organizations determined that journalists ranked training as their number one need.

Poynter’s NewsU lessons will be self-taught, at whatever pace an individual chooses.Poynter’s approach to distance learning will be markedly different from earlier efforts of distance learning. Rather than have groups of trainees enroll and complete a course simultaneously, Poynter’s NewsU lessons will be self-taught, at whatever pace an individual chooses. On completion of a course, the individual will be certified by Poynter.

"Our hope is that this approach will connect with those many journalists who don’t have time for formalized training at an instructor’s pace," said James M. Naughton, Poynter’s president. "We hope it will whet the appetite of journalists for training at places like the Maynard Institute, the American Press Institute, and Poynter."

Also on the News University portal will be links to training and education content at the nation’s best journalism schools, including those hosting Knight mid-career programs and Knight Chairs in Journalism, as well as schools involved in their own e-learning experiments. News University will be found at www.newsu.org.

"Professionals need easy ways to find the most useful content from top schools," Newton said. "Great educators need easy ways to reach out beyond the classroom. News University will help put them together."

Since 1990, Knight Foundation has funded 17 Knight Chairs in Journalism at major U.S. universities, an investment of $25.5 million. Chairholders include noted journalists William Raspberry, Haynes Johnson, Sylvia Nasar, Melinda McAdams, and Michael Pollan. Some of the campuses involved include Northwestern, Columbia, Missouri, Maryland, North Carolina, Kansas, Florida, Florida A&M, Duke, California-Berkeley, USC, and Michigan State.

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation promotes journalism of excellence worldwide and invests in the vitality of 26 U.S. communities. Since its first journalism grant in 1954, the foundation has given nearly $200 million to advance the education of journalists and freedom of the press.

This is part of Knight Foundation's $10 million Newsroom Training Initiative, which aims to boost training for journalists and help the news media increase its own investment in mid-career education and professional development.

The Poynter Institute is a school for journalists, future journalists, and teachers of journalism. Poynter conducts more than 50 seminars annually in the areas of leadership and management, reporting and writing, broadcast, ethics and diversity, and visual journalism. The school owns the Times Publishing Co., the parent company of the St. Petersburg Times, Congressional Quarterly, and other publications.

Contacts:

Knight Foundation:
Larry Meyer, (305) 908-2610, meyer@knightfdn.org

The Poynter Institute:
Ola Seifert, (727) 821-9494, oseifert@poynter.org