PAST PROGRAMS
NewsTrain/Cedar Rapids
May 4, 5, 2005
APME NewsTrain presents a national training program emphasizing the development of editing and management skills in frontline editors. Sponsored by the Associated Press Managing Editors, the program receives substantial funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
The local partners for NewsTrain/Cedar Rapids are The Gazette; the Des Moines Register; Iowa Associated Press; Burlington Hawk Eye; Iowa City Press-Citizen, and Quad-City Times.
Workshop location: Crowne Plaza Hotel
350 1st Ave., NE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
350 1st Ave., NE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Special thanks to conference planners Mark Bowden and Dan Geiser of The Gazette; Frank Fisher of The AP; Jan Touney of the Quad-City Times; Dale Alison of the Burlington Hawk Eye; Dennis Magee of the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, and Judy Krieger and Jeff Hutton of the Ottumwa Courier.
Program note: We randomly divide the group into two teams, Green and Blue, to reduce class size. Each editing and management segment is offered twice so it’s possible to attend each of these segments.
| Wednesday, May 4: | |
| 10:30 a.m. | Registration Location: Crowne Plaza Ballroom 6, Level 2 (Lobby level) |
| 11 a.m. | Welcome and introductions Location: Crowne Plaza Ballroom 6, Level 2 |
| 11:30 a.m. | Motivating your staff Learn what the research says will move people to do their best work and what will chill their creativity. See how to stay motivated yourself in a Newsroom environment, and help others keep striving, too. |
| Presenter: | Edward Miller, managing director, Newsroom Leadership Group Location: Crowne Plaza Ballroom 6, Level 2 |
| 12:30 p.m. | Lunch Location: Commerce Club, 16th Floor |
| 1:30 p.m. | Building credibility and trust The public is deeply suspicious of why journalists do what they do, how they go about it and whether the outcome is good or bad. The trust gap seems to be undermining everything from support for FOI to readership. Learn key strategies and touchstones for building reader trust. Presented in cooperation with the National Credibility Roundtables Project. |
| Presenter: | Carol Nunnelley, director, National Credibility Roundtables Project Location: Crowne Plaza Ballroom 6, Level 2 |
| 2:30 p.m. | Coffee Break Location: Crowne Plaza Ballroom 6, Level 2 |
| 2:45 p.m. | Coaching Your Writers (Green Team) The best editing occurs before a single word is written. Editors need to get involved early, talk about ideas, discuss the likely paths the story could take, the diverse sources that could be contacted. Learn how to ask the right questions; how to have difficult conversations about stories; and how to get writers to be better editors of their own work. Includes a discussion of how editors can make every word count. |
| Presenter: | Jacqui Banaszynski, Knight Chair, Missouri School of Journalism and associate managing editor, Seattle Times Location: Commerce Club, 16th Floor |
| -OR- | |
| 2:45 p.m. | Situational Leadership (Blue Team) Learn how to “read” a situation and a person and apply the right Management approach to get the best results. This sessions teaches four management styles and the value and downsides of each. |
| Presenter: | Edward Miller Location: Crowne Plaza Ballroom 6, Level 2 |
| 4:00 p.m. | Coffee Break Location: Auditorium, second floor |
| 4:15 p.m. | Coaching Your Writers (Blue Team) The best editing occurs before a single word is written. Editors need to get involved early, talk about ideas, discuss the likely paths the story could take, the diverse sources that could be contacted. Learn how to ask the right questions; how to have difficult conversations about stories; and how to get writers to be better editors of their own work. Includes a discussion of how editors can make every word count. |
| Presenter: | Jacqui Banaszynski, Knight Chair, Missouri School of Journalism and associate managing editor, Seattle Times Location: Commerce Club, 16th Floor |
| -OR- | |
| 4:15 p.m. | Situational Leadership (Green Team) Learn how to “read” a situation and a person and apply the right Management approach to get the best results. This sessions teaches four management styles and the value and downsides of each. |
| Presenter: | Edward Miller Location: Crowne Plaza Ballroom 6, Level 2 |
| 5:30 p.m. | End of First Day Location: Auditorium, second floor |
| Baseball and beer! Join us in a trip to a Cedar Rapids Kernels minor league baseball game. A shuttle bus will leave from the hotel at 5:50 p.m. | |
| Thursday, May 5: | |
| Barbara King, former training director for The AP, will meet by appointment with a limited number of editors or editor-reporter teams throughout the day to critique stories and discuss good editing techniques. Fourth Floor Board Room. | |
| 8:30 a.m. | Continental breakfast available, newspapers courtesy of The Gazette Location: Crowne Plaza Ballroom 6, Level 2 |
| 9 a.m. | Editing Lab: Creative storytelling (BlueTeam) “Journalism and the art of possibility” An editor's guide to disciplined creativity. Explores ways to think of any idea, event or assignment as the seed of several creative enterprise stories. Look at ways to tell the same story in several different forms. Offers tips on identifying a reporter’s primary skills, then helping them (safely) to take reasonable risks with their writing. |
| Presenter: | Jacqui Banaszynski Location: Commerce Club, 16th Floor |
| -OR- | |
| 9 a.m. | Using FOIA requests to dig for secrets (Green Team) Because it’s key to watchdog reporting Investigative Reporters & Editors offers tips and strategies for effectively using the FOI Act for daily and long-term projects. You’ll see examples of how newsrooms elsewhere have used open records laws to report high-impact stories. Checklists on the types of documents and databases to seek. Learn to create a calendar of requests that should be made routinely, and keep track of the responses. |
| Presenter: | David Donald, training director, IRE Location: Crowne Plaza Ballroom 6, Level 2 |
| 10 a.m. | The art of brainstorming words and visuals (Green Team) Because photographers are good storytellers, too A panel discussion. Secrets of brainstorming for higher-impact story packages. See what happens when photographers are involved early in the story process. Tips on teaching “word” people to think visually. Presented in cooperation with the AP Photo Managers |
| Moderator: | Paul Jensen, photo director, The Gazette Location: Crowne Plaza Ballroom 6, Level 2 |
| 11 a.m. | Coffee Break Location: Crowne Plaza Ballroom 6, Level 2 |
| 11:15 a.m. | Why training matters Because newspapers are a business, too A discussion of why some news organizations are putting more emphasis on professional development of their staffers. Resources you can use to get valuable training for yourself and push for more training for those you lead. |
| Presenter: | Lillian Swanson, NewsTrain, project director Location: Crowne Plaza Ballroom 6, Level 2 |
| 11:45 a.m. | More than a horse race: How to make election coverage relevant to your readers |
| Why: | Because Iowa plays a special role in electing presidents Three experts on the 2004 presidential race in Iowa take a hard look at the coverage and suggest ways it could be improved the next time around. |
| Moderated By: | Moderator Jan Touney, managing editor, Quad-City Times; and panelists Mark Ridolfi, editorial page editor of the Quad-City Times; Eric Woolson, President/CEO of The Concept Works, Inc., and Dr. Dianne Bystrom, director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics at Iowa State University. Location: Crowne Plaza Ballroom 6, Level 2 |
| 12:45 p.m. | Lunch Location: Commerce Club, 16th Floor |
| 1:45 p.m. | Editing Lab: Creative storytelling (Green Team) “Journalism and the art of possibility” An editor's guide to disciplined creativity. Explores ways to think of any idea, event or assignment as the seed of several creative enterprise stories. Look at ways to tell the same story in several different forms. Offers tips on identifying a reporter’s primary skills, then helping them (safely) to take reasonable risks with their writing. |
| Presenter: | Jacqui Banaszynski Location: Commerce Club, 16th Floor |
| -OR- | |
| 1:45 p.m. | Using FOIA requests to dig for secrets (Blue Team) |
| Why: | Because it’s key to watchdog reporting Investigative Reporters & Editors offers tips and strategies for effectively using the FOI Act for daily and long-term projects. You’ll see examples of how newsrooms elsewhere have used open records laws to report high-impact stories. Checklists on the types of documents and databases to seek. Learn to create a calendar of requests that should be made routinely, and keep track of the responses. |
| Presenter: | David Donald Location: Crowne Plaza Ballroom 6, Level 2 |
| 2:45 p.m. | The art of brainstorming words and visuals (Blue Team) Because photographers are good storytellers, too A panel discussion. Secrets of brainstorming for higher-impact story packages. See what happens when photographers are involved early in the story process. Tips on teaching “word” people to think visually. Presented in cooperation with the AP Photo Managers |
| Moderator: | Paul Jensen Location: Crowne Plaza Ballroom 6, Level 2 |
| 3:45 p.m. | NewsTrain Caboose/Taking the lessons home |
| Presenter: | Lillian Swanson Location: Crowne Plaza Ballroom 6, Level 2 |
| 4:00 p.m.. | End of Workshop |