Applications Now Open For Leadership Academy for Diversity in Digital Media

Led by prominent leaders in the startup, tech, media and academic fields, faculty will include media strategist and startup adviser Ju-Don Marshall Roberts, formerly of the Center for Cooperative Media and The Washington Post; Mark Luckie, head of journalism and media for Reddit; Donna Byrd, publisher of The Root and vice president of digital for Univision; Rashida Jones, managing editor, dayside, for MSNBC; and Mizell Stewart III, vice president of news operations for the USA TODAY Network.

The inaugural Leadership Academy for Diversity in Digital Media, offered to 25 participants, will take place Dec. 4-9, 2016, at the Poynter campus in St. Petersburg, Florida. Tuition is free, thanks to the generous support of the program's naming sponsor, The New York Times, as well as additional funding from Facebook, Google, the Scripps Howard Foundation and the TEGNA Foundation.

Kinsey Wilson, executive vice president, product and technology and senior editor for innovation and strategy at The New York Times, said, "We are delighted to support this important and ground-breaking program. Diversity in the leadership ranks is not just critical to our journalism, but it's essential to our success as a global business. We're grateful to Poynter and to the NABJ for their leadership."

This intensive, tuition-free program will address the unique issues journalists of color face on the path to leadership in digital journalism and technology organizations. It combines the efforts of the global leader in journalism education, The Poynter Institute, and the largest organization for journalists of color in the nation, NABJ, to promote diversity in newsrooms and create cutting-edge opportunities for career development.

"NABJ is excited to partner with Poynter and to affect change in American newsrooms," said NABJ President Sarah Glover. "NABJ seeks to embolden NABJ members and the next generation of digital journalism leaders of color with this first-class training opportunity. NABJ-Poynter participants will walk away with the resources, network and skills to succeed and progress in their careers."

The Leadership Academy for Diversity in Digital Media will include guidance on navigating newsroom culture, leadership styles, the business of journalism and entrepreneurship, as well as networking and one-on-one coaching. Poynter and NABJ will collaborate closely to build an interactive, agile curriculum for the next generation of leaders.

"We're honored to work with NABJ on this much-needed initiative," said Poynter President Tim Franklin. "This partnership is a testament to the commitment of both organizations to ensure diversity at the leadership level, which ultimately means more diverse staffs, content and audiences."

The Poynter-NABJ program builds upon the dynamic ONA-Poynter Leadership Academy for Women, which has offered training to the best and the brightest women in digital media in the last two years.

The application deadline for the Leadership Academy for Diversity in Digital Media is 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on Monday, Aug. 15. Application information is available here (http://about.poynter.org/training/in-person/nabjlead-16).

Employers are encouraged to support participant travel. A limited number of travel stipends will be available.

Poynter and NABJ are seeking additional funding from media and technology companies, foundations and academic institutions to keep this transformative learning experience tuition-free.

For more information on providing financial support, please contact Elisa Jackson, executive director of the Poynter Foundation, at [email protected] or NABJ executive consultant Drew Berry at [email protected].

About The Poynter Institute
The Poynter Institute for Media Studies is a global leader in journalism education and a strategy center that stands for uncompromising excellence in journalism, media and 21st century public discourse. Poynter faculty teach seminars and workshops at the Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida, and at conferences and organizational sites around the world. Its e-learning division, News University, www.newsu.org, offers the world's largest online journalism curriculum in 7 languages, with more than 400 interactive courses and 330,000 registered users in more than 200 countries. The Institute's website, www.poynter.org, produces 24-hour coverage of news about media, ethics, technology, the business of news and the trends that currently define and redefine journalism news reporting. The world's top journalists and media innovators come to Poynter to learn and teach new generations of reporters, storytellers, media inventors, designers, visual journalists, documentarians and broadcast producers, and to build public awareness about journalism, media, the First Amendment and protected discourse that serves democracy and the public good.

About The National Association of Black Journalists
An advocacy group established in 1975 in Washington, D.C., NABJ is the largest organization for journalists of color in the nation, and provides career development as well as educational and other support to its members worldwide. For additional information, please visit www.nabj.org.

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