One of my favorite moments in any Poynter teaching is when conversation about the craft starts flowing. This can be in the palm tree courtyard at Poynter, in the chat during a webinar, or, now in your earbuds as you listen to a podcast. 

Lane DeGregory and Maria Carrillo — the writing and editing duo behind some of the Tampa Bay Times’ most compelling, award-winning reporting — are bringing WriteLane back to Poynter.

The episodes are informal conversations between DeGregory and Carrillo about journalism. According to DeGregory, some "include guests: award-winning writers, editors, photographers, teachers and judges of journalism contests. Others are deep dives into stories, dissecting how writers got access, chose details, found a voice, and decided on frame and structure." 

Check out a selected archive on poynter.org, and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Scroll on for more opportunities to connect.

-Andrew DeLong, director of teaching operations

Local jails are the gateway to the U.S. justice system, but they are overloaded, overused and under-covered by resource-strapped journalists.

While local jails were intended to house people who were deemed to be a societal danger or flight risk before trial, they have become warehouses — often for people who have not been convicted of a crime and cannot afford to bail themselves out. In many cities, jails are increasingly filled with women, juveniles, immigrants and people who suffer from addictions and mental illness.

• What the future workplace dynamic — hybrid or otherwise — demands of senior leaders
• Protecting and caring for your staff as you move forward together
• Retaining and continuing to challenge your best people
• Processing feedback about your communication style from your inner circle to become a more effective leader
• Understanding how you respond to crisis so you can improve your conflict management skills
• Strategies for building a successful newsroom that is influential with new audiences

Online group seminar, Sept. 20-Oct. 16, 2021

Making stories work involves more than just teases and live shots. This eight-session, four-week online seminar will help you expand your expertise as a TV producer with new writing, storytelling, coaching and ethical decision-making skills.

This program can truly accelerate your career. Graduates of Poynter's training for producers include Adrienne Roark, who was promoted to president of CBS Stations in July, and Rashida Jones, who took the helm of MSNBC as president in February.

The Poynter Producer Project is long on practicality and low on theory. This September, Poynter senior faculty Al Tompkins and a five-star lineup of visiting professionals will stretch your leadership muscles and increase your value to your newsroom.

Online group seminar, Nov. 1-22, 2021

This course — returning this fall by popular demand! — will give journalism educators an opportunity to make a real impact on the future diversity, inclusion and equity efforts of American newsrooms when they model those values in the classroom.

You will learn how to modify your current teaching to include more diverse classroom examples, readings, videos and speakers. You will understand where, how and why to examine materials for diverse voices. You will develop the instinct to audit the makeup of the topics, sources and authors you introduce into your teaching, and how to pivot to ensure diverse voices are represented.

Your lead faculty is Dr. Earnest Perry, associate dean of graduate studies at the University of Missouri, a researcher, educator and consultant who specializes in issues related to diversity and inclusion. Barbara Allen, Poynter’s director of college programming, will facilitate.

The 2022 Media Transformation Challenge (MTC) Program: A Poynter Institute Executive Fellowship
Online and in-person, Jan. 10, 2022– Jan. 9, 2023
This yearlong program, formerly operated as the Punch Sulzberger Program at Columbia, is designed for executive editors, presidents, publishers, founders and other top-level media leaders. Deliver real results for your enterprise with help from MTC’s world-class tools, concepts, coaches, peer group, and alumni network. Apply by Dec. 3, 2021.

Choose from two intensive training opportunities for experienced editors: Select only the online group seminar taking place Nov. 2-23, 2021, or enroll in the full certificate program, which includes the live online seminar and Poynter ACES course pack. Cost: $449-$600. Enroll now. Members of ACES get a discount when they enroll.

Students can use a bursar account to pay for Poynter resources
Schools that have Follett campus bookstores can now assign Poynter materials (just like textbooks), and students can use their financial aid to pay for them via a bursar or student charge account. Here’s a list of courses that we think are priced right and valuable enough to serve as required “textbooks”: