WHEN WINNIE HU SET OUT to write a story for the American Journalism Review about the state of training at newspapers last year, the outlook seemed optimistic.
A reporter for The New York Times, Hu spoke with training editors at various newspapers who told her of programs that had been developed and the great plans in store for training at their papers.
But when she relayed her findings to reporters, photographers, and copy editors at training conferences, most responded with skepticism. Hu said she came to realize there was a great dichotomy between upper management and newsroom staffers in their perceptions of training.
“There’s a lot of cynicism out on the frontlines, and I think that there is a lot of pushing in this industry right now to make training available to everyone,” Hu said. “But I also think that there needs to be more of an outreach and a fundamental shift in how people in the lower ranks see training.”
Hu, who spoke at the “Journalism Training: Are We Meeting the Needs?” conference hosted by The Poynter Institute, spent about seven months researching and writing “The Training Track,” which appeared in the October 1999 issue of AJR as part of a series of articles devoted to the critical examination of the American newspaper industry. Hu’s audience at Poynter included training and development editors, news managers, college professors, Poynter faculty, and program directors from the Freedom Forum, American Press Institute, the Maynard Institute, and the National Association of Black Journalists.
Almost every journalist wants to be better at what they do; many just don’t know how, Hu said.
“There is a ferocious hunger there for training in any form — whether that means writers’ workshops, computer-assisted training classes, or seminars on specialty topics like genetics or economics or even sports reporting — and it is a hunger that by and large remains unsatisfied,” she said.
Although many newspaper companies have stepped up training efforts dramatically in the past decade, Hu said, the reality is that many journalists still do not receive any regular training and most never will without a commitment at the corporate level.
“The need for training journalists has never been greater,” Hu said. “As the world becomes increasingly complex, so does the news that we must cover. Journalists today must have a daunting array of knowledge and technical skills at their fingertips to produce even routine stories.”
Without adequate support, Hu predicts that many talented young people will leave their jobs and the news business.
One of the biggest challenges in the argument for training is that its impact is difficult to measure, Hu said. Because companies do not have a tangible way of measuring their investment, training programs are most often the first to get cut.
Hu said she thinks a possible alternative is to try to create a culture in which training is so accepted that it doesn’t need justification, that it is assumed that training is something a company values as a logical investment in its product.
“It’s a leap of faith,” Hu said. “It may not always lead to prizes or a better product right away, but how can it hurt? Whereas if you don’t train at all, then that’s a different story because people are going to get behind, people are going to get demoralized. Your product is not going to improve, there’s no investment in it.”
