Members of the first LEDE training program are off and running on their first project: an improvement targeting their newsroom, or their corner of the newsroom.
The class first met in early April for two days of training at News & Interactive offices in Downers Grove, Ill.
The seven-month-long Leadership, Education, Development and Enterprise program is designed to identify and train up-and-coming editors in GateHouse for future positions as top editors in the company.
In addition to formal training sessions, the program includes a Delivering the News component, where the 11 members of this first class spend time investigating each of the departments within their local or regional media operation, including the newsroom, advertising, human resources, production and circulation.
The LEDE members selected a great range of projects for the newsroom portion of Delivering the News.
Among the projects:
- Create the structure for more timely and regular Web updates
- Install a reader engagement strategy including callouts, blogs and polls
- Improve page flow and communication with the productio desk
- Improve story planning process, including photo, design and followup
- Put into place a more structured system to publish reader callouts and content
- Improve copy editing and reduce errors
The class gathered in a conference call last week to ask one another questions and share ideas. As the members implement these projects, they have already completed the second phase: spending part of the day in the field with a member of the local ad sales team and reporting back the top 10 things they learned during the day.
Class members found this phase very enlightening. We will share some of their comments here in a future GHnewsroom story, but here's a preview: "Selling is hard. There’s nothing guaranteed about a sales rep’s job. Their accounts may choose to go elsewhere, their compensation changes month-to-month, and if they have a bad run of luck, their job is not secure, either. With the advent of Web advertising, now reps must learn new language, how it will work for each of their 50-60 accounts and become teachers to their customers. ..."
We will keep you posted here at GHnewsroom.com as the class progresses.
The LEDE 2010 class:
Name: Molly Beck
Newspaper: The State Journal-Register (Springfield, Ill.)
Position: Voice editor
Name: Nate Birt
Newspaper: Boonville (Mo.) Daily News
Position: News and online editor
Name: DawnDee Bostwick
Newspaper: Rolla (Mo.) Daily News
Position: Editor
Members of the first LEDE training program are off and running on their first project: an improvement targeting their newsroom, or their corner of the newsroom.
The class first met in early April for two days of training at News & Interactive offices in Downers Grove, Ill.
The seven-month-long Leadership, Education, Development and Enterprise program is designed to identify and train up-and-coming editors in GateHouse for future positions as top editors in the company.
In addition to formal training sessions, the program includes a Delivering the News component, where the 11 members of this first class spend time investigating each of the departments within their local or regional media operation, including the newsroom, advertising, human resources, production and circulation.
The LEDE members selected a great range of projects for the newsroom portion of Delivering the News.
Among the projects:
- Create the structure for more timely and regular Web updates
- Install a reader engagement strategy including callouts, blogs and polls
- Improve page flow and communication with the productio desk
- Improve story planning process, including photo, design and followup
- Put into place a more structured system to publish reader callouts and content
- Improve copy editing and reduce errors
The class gathered in a conference call last week to ask one another questions and share ideas. As the members implement these projects, they have already completed the second phase: spending part of the day in the field with a member of the local ad sales team and reporting back the top 10 things they learned during the day.
Class members found this phase very enlightening. We will share some of their comments here in a future GHnewsroom story, but here's a preview: "Selling is hard. There’s nothing guaranteed about a sales rep’s job. Their accounts may choose to go elsewhere, their compensation changes month-to-month, and if they have a bad run of luck, their job is not secure, either. With the advent of Web advertising, now reps must learn new language, how it will work for each of their 50-60 accounts and become teachers to their customers. ..."
We will keep you posted here at GHnewsroom.com as the class progresses.
The LEDE 2010 class:
Name: Molly Beck
Newspaper: The State Journal-Register (Springfield, Ill.)
Position: Voice editor
Name: Nate Birt
Newspaper: Boonville (Mo.) Daily News
Position: News and online editor
Name: DawnDee Bostwick
Newspaper: Rolla (Mo.) Daily News
Position: Editor
Name: William P. "Bill" Cannon
Newspaper: Observer-Dispatch (Utica, N.Y.)
Position: Multimedia team leader
Name: Matthew Clark
Newspaper: The Morning Sun (Pittsburg, Kan.)
Position: Community Conversation Editor
Name: Bill Fonda
Newspaper: Marshfield (Mass.) Mariner and Scituate (Mass.) Mariner
Position: editor
Name: Carlene Peterson
Newspaper: Suburban Life Publications (Downers Grove, Ill.)
Position: Assistant managing editor for news
Name: Margaret Poe
Newspaper: Messenger Post Media (Canandaigua, N.Y.)
Position: Local editor
Name: Jonathan K. Schuler
Newspaper: Suburban Life Publications (GateHouse Chicago)
Position: Assistant managing editor for newsroom development
Name: Katie Stockstill
Newspaper: McPherson (Kan.) Sentinel
Position: Managing Editor
Name: Lesley Valadez
Newspaper: Stuttgart (Ark.) Daily Leader
Position: Managing Editor
