Grant to Poynter from McCormick Foundation funds free reporting workshops

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., Sept. 8, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- To encourage quality local journalism, the Robert R. McCormick Foundation has renewed its longstanding commitment to free workshops for journalists through a $500,000 grant to The Poynter Institute.

Two workshops, called McCormick Specialized Reporting Institutes, are accepting applications starting today:

Covering the Gap: The Impact of Income Inequality will equip reporters to better explain complex social issues -- racism, low-performing schools, housing discrimination, tensions between police and the community -- in their coverage and provide frameworks for discussing solutions. This workshop, led by Poynter senior faculty Butch Ward, will be Oct. 11-13 in Chicago. Details and an application can be found by clicking here. 

Building an Engaging Newsroom will help journalists find, tell and share compelling stories that their communities truly want and need. Led by Tom Huang, Poynter adjunct faculty and Sunday & Enterprise Editor at The Dallas Morning News, faculty will also include Jennifer Brandel, CEO of Hearken, who will present strategies on creating an environment in which community members have an outlet to ask questions and get trustworthy answers. This workshop will be Nov. 10-12 in Chicago. Details and an application are available by clicking here.

"These workshops address key issues that newsrooms simply must address to succeed -- covering the social issues and inequalities that divide their communities and rethinking the ways they engage with their audiences," Poynter President Tim Franklin said. "Poynter appreciates the McCormick Foundation for its generosity and commitment to professional development for journalists."

Poynter received the grant in February. In addition to four McCormick Specialized Reporting Institutes each year for two years, funds also sponsor a convening each year. The 2016 convening, The 10UP Summit: Ten Years of User Participation, took place Aug. 29 at the Hearst Tower in New York City.

"We are pleased to continue our partnership with the Poynter Institute in providing high quality training and engagement opportunities for journalists," said John Sirek, director of the Democracy Program at the Robert R. McCormick Foundation. "We appreciate that, despite the time and financial pressures newsrooms currently face, reporters continue to prioritize opportunities to enhance their skills and knowledge. This, in turn, makes them better able to report on the critical issues facing our communities."

Since 2006, McCormick has funded 53 Specialized Reporting Institutes, requiring that workshop organizers offer the teaching, travel, lodging and workshop meals to participants at no cost. The program's goal is to promote quality reporting on timely topics, primarily to small and medium-sized news organizations that could otherwise not afford the training. Poynter began administering the program through a McCormick grant in 2011.

Poynter held its first 2016 McCormick workshop in August on the topic of using and understanding data about police and their work, including data about fatal shootings. Poynter plans a webinar this fall to share some of the teaching from that workshop. If you are interested in learning more about this training, please click here to be added to a communications list.

Plans are still taking shape for the remaining work on this grant, which continues through 2017.

About the Robert R. McCormick Foundation

The Robert R. McCormick Foundation's mission is fostering communities of educated, informed, and engaged citizens. Through philanthropic grant-making and Cantigny Park, the Foundation works to make life better in Chicagoland. The McCormick Foundation, among the nation's largest foundations with more than $1.5 billion in assets, was established in 1955 upon the death of Col. Robert R. McCormick, the longtime editor and publisher of the Chicago Tribune. Find out more at www.mccormickfoundation.org, follow us on Twitter (@McCormick_Fdn) and like us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/mccormickfoundation)

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, Fla., 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.

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