Published Tuesday, April 3, 2001
Poynter waives seminar fees through December
BY CHRISTINA DENARDO
ASNE Reporter
In an unprecedented move, The Poynter Institute for Media Studies says it will waive tuition and hotel expenses for journalists participating in training seminars from June through December.
Poynter officials hope waiving the fees, which range from $300 to $400, will give cost-conscious editors struggling with budget restraints one less excuse for not sending employees to out-of-town training seminars.
“Training is valuable and people are less likely to get it when they most need it,” said Poynter president James Naughton on Saturday. “That’s why we took this extraordinary step.”
News of belt tightening in the industry – layoffs, hiring freezes and section closures – sparked Poynter’s board of trustees late last week to approve the temporary waivers.
“When you are faced with a choice between decreasing news coverage or cutting the training budget, you cut the training budget,” said Mr. Naughton, who was managing editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer before joining Poynter. “We didn’t want journalists to be at the mercy of the economic downturn.”
Poynter has waived fees for certain seminars in the past, Mr. Naughton said. He estimated it will cost Poynter $163,000 to absorb training expenses for seven months.
About 1,200 journalists attend 50 to 60 Poynter seminars annually, 400 of them between June and December.
By subsidizing the training, Poynter hopes to maintain a steady level of applicants.
“If they need training in good times, they really need training in bad times because there are usually fewer people doing the work,” said Mr. Naughton, who noted news organizations may still be asked to cover some travel and meal expenses.
In addition to the fee waivers, journalists also will be able to access more handouts and tip sheets on the Poynter Web site – www.poynter.org – and faculty will hit the road more often, training at more meetings of professional organizations.
Janet Marshall, projects reporter for The Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va., has participated in two Poynter seminars. The most recent one, a weeklong session also sponsored by the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting, (Nicar) was especially useful as she reports on the results of the U.S. Census Report.
“I have been doing things as a journalists in the last six months that I would not have been able to do had it not been for the seminar,” said Ms. Marshall, who was sent by her paper to Poynter.
Some editors applauded the timing of Poynter’s decision.
“A tight budget year is no time for newspapers to cut back on training,” Christopher Peck, editor of The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash., wrote in an e-mail to the ASNE Reporter.
“In fact, tough times create tough challenges that Poynter can help address,” he said. “Their foresight in reducing the costs for their training will help our industry this year.”
Throughout the country, editors said, newspapers are downsizing and economizing as newsprint prices rise and advertising revenue declines.
Industry-wide advertising revenue has fallen 10 percent to 40 percent.
Gilbert Bailon, executive editor at The Dallas Morning News, said newsprint prices have jumped by $81 a ton.
The Morning News has responded by cutting back on traveling and not filling vacant positions. However, the paper has managed to avoid cutting its $25,000 training budget, some of which is used to send 15 to 20 journalists to out-of-town seminars, Mr. Bailon said.
Poynter has received calls from journalists saying they may not be able to attend seminars because of budget cuts at their media outlets.
And The Sarasota Herald-Tribune, which is a 40-minute drive from Poynter’s St. Petersburg, Fla., location, is cutting some training programs to stay on budget, said Diane H. McFarlin, the newspaper’s publisher and ASNE secretary.
Concern over the economy has prompted the Herald-Tribune to go into “expense control mode,” Ms. McFarlin said, so she welcomed Poynter’s financial assistance.
“It’s a magnanimous gift to the industry,” she said.
