Mission StatementThe Poynter Institute is a school dedicated to teaching and inspiring journalists and media leaders. It promotes excellence and integrity in the practice of craft and in the practical leadership of successful businesses. It stands for a journalism that informs citizens and enlightens public discourse. It carries forward Nelson Poynter’s belief in the value of independent journalism in the public interest.
What We Do- Poynter teaches professional journalists, aspiring journalists and media leaders. It is the premier training center in its fields of specialization — the crafts of reporting, writing, editing, photojournalism and design as well as ethics, diversity and newsroom leadership.
- Poynter offers the hundreds of journalists who come here each year not just learning but an opportunity for self-knowledge and self-renewal.
- Poynter provides a strong, independent, nonprofit voice for journalistic quality, nationally and internationally.
- With the support of the Knight Foundation we launched NewsU, an online venture in interactive learning for news practitioners.
- With Poynter Online we have become the leading website for news about news and have expanded the daily reach of our instruction.
- We serve future journalists with a summer program for outstanding college graduates and several seminars a year for journalism educators.
- In the local community, Poynter offers summer and year-round programs for high school journalists and a summer Writers Camp for fourth- through eighth-graders.
- And that’s not all. Poynter faculty are on call to give journalists real-time help when difficult issues arise. Poynter hosts many meetings of journalism organizations, and Poynter faculty regularly lead workshops at journalism conventions. Poynter faculty also accept consulting assignments at leading American newspapers, television stations and online news organizations.
How the Parts Fit TogetherNo other school matches Poynter’s continuous contact with working journalists and their concerns. This leverages Poynter’s relatively small full-time faculty (supplemented by distinguished visiting faculty) into a national and international force.
Why It MattersJournalism faces unprecedented pressure from many directions — outdated business models, fast-changing technology, shifts in lifestyles and consumer preferences, shrill partisanship, celebrity trivia.
Poynter helps today’s working journalists maintain quality under all these difficult circumstances. And we engage media leaders in the search for new practices and business models. We never lose sight of journalism’s essential role in a democracy.
