February 29, 2016

The Cohort is Poynter’s bi-monthly newsletter about women kicking ass in digital media. This is the introductory post.

Hello! The Cohort is officially here. This is a newsletter, and a community, for you — rad women working and kicking ass in digital media (fans of those women are welcome here, too).

I’m Katie, one of the organizers behind the ONA-Poynter Leadership Academy for Women in Digital Media. Part of the program’s magic is that it brings together a relatively small group of women to forge lasting connections and share successes and challenges in their careers. But the size of the academy is a downside, too. We know from the number of talented applicants that there’s a hunger and need for more training, resources and support for rising women leaders.

So here we are. This newsletter is one way to address that need. Every other week, I’ll share thoughts, articles and resources related to women in leadership. This is also an opportunity to showcase the great work you all are producing. And as this newsletter gets going, I’d love to bring in guest curators to share their views of the world.

Let’s get started, shall we?

xoxo
KHG


The newest class of digital women leaders is here! Meet the members of the 2016 ONA-Poynter Leadership Academy for Women in Digital Media. They’re a group of 28 impressive women making their mark at news organizations and startups. I suspect you’ll love them as much as we do.

Poynter’s Butch Ward invited the inaugural class to share lessons — good and bad — that they’ve learned from bosses over the years. This year’s academy will take place May 1-6.

Things worth reading
From Fast Company: Being connected 24/7 at work may take a greater toll on women than men, especially when it comes to moving into leadership roles. The Upshot looked at the rise of marriage among workforce equals (and its effect on class). This delightful read is courtesy of Quartz: Advice to girls from NASA’s top female engineers. The New Yorker (you know this article is long, but worth it) explores our obsession with leadership. And I adore Christina Xu’s suggestion that we quit worrying so much about imposter syndrome and put an end to blowhard syndrome instead.

Meet Jasmine
Each newsletter I’ll introduce a woman — or group of women — who’s kicking ass in the world of digital media.

I’m pretty sure we’re all going to be working for Jasmine C. Lee someday and I’m really excited about that. Jasmine is a graphics intern at The New York Times who’s already making big waves. She built the super-smart Quality Comment Tracker, a Google Chrome extension designed to help track meaningful conversation around news, while she was a graduate student at NYU.

Jasmine recently co-published this extensive interactive list of Donald Trump’s Twitter insults for The New York Times. “I love creating interesting and useful projects with code,” she shared with me. “I get excited making both interactive/graphic stories that help readers better understand the news, and newsroom products that make everyone’s jobs — from reporting to engaging — easier.” I can’t wait to see what she creates next.

If you have a project to share, email me at katie@poynter.org or brag on Twitter with #digitalwomenleaders.


The Cohort is part of the ONA-Poynter Leadership Academy for Women in Digital Media. Props to the lovely Kristen Hare for her newsletter edits and insight.

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Katie Hawkins-Gaar was Poynter's digital innovation faculty member. She ran the Leadership Academy for Women in Digital Media and was one half of the duo…
Katie Hawkins-Gaar

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