Editor’s note: The Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., is taking applications for its August workshop in entrepreneurial journalism. I attended this workshop last July. I learned a

Poynter's Bill Mitchell engages journalism entrepreneurs at the workshop in July 2010. (Photo courtesy of The Poynter Institute)

great deal about starting my own business and how to make the most of my skills and ideas in the digital news and information marketplace. I reworked and refined my strategy for a new venture I’m building to take Displaced Journalists to a new level. I’m still working on it. Some ventures roll out quickly; others take time. Some require little funding; others require major funding. If you attend, you’ll come away enlightened and invigorated, with new tools, resources, strategies, game plans and perspectives. The colleagues I met at this workshop continue to serve me well as a sounding board and support group. — Susan Older

Workshop dates: Aug 02, 2011 – Aug 05, 2011
Apply by:  Jun 15, 2011

If you’ve launched an online news and information venture, let Poynter teach you how to use the right tools to help you succeed.

We’ll work with you to refine your business model and share tips and resources that are helping entrepreneurs around the country who have attended this popular Poynter workshop.

Here’s your chance to refine your strategies for creating content, engaging an audience and finding revenue to support your enterprise.

This seminar is supported by a grant from the Ford Foundation. Tuition and hotel costs are free. Participants pay other travel expenses, including airfare.

We’ll ask you to do some pre-work before you come, thinking through the business basics behind the site you’ve launched and reviewing case studies of others’ ventures. Then, in four engaging and jam-packed days, you’ll work with experienced faculty, outside experts and your classmates to:

•    Identify the problem your business hopes to solve, pinpointing the fundamental pain you’ll ease at the heart of your venture;
•    Apply a smart business model to your idea, thinking through customer segments, your key partners and resources, your value proposition and more;
•    Learn tools for understanding your audience and engaging them;
•    See new ways that technology can help achieve your goals;
•    Refine your revenue model;
•    Learn a framework for handling ethical dilemmas that arise as an online publisher;
•    Improve your “pitch” for telling others about your business;
•    Hear techniques for managing change and working in an entrepreneurial environment.

You’ll receive one-on-one coaching from our faculty including our two Ford Fellows in Entrepreneurial Journalism Teaching, Mark Briggs and Jeremy Caplan. (Click on their photos to read their bios.) And you’ll leave with a new network of entrepreneurs who can share ideas, encouragement and inspiration long after the course has ended.

Who Will Benefit:

• Entrepreneurs who have launched or are beta testing their idea for a new venture.
• News organization executives hoping to encourage “intrapreneurial” ventures or to partner with niche ventures in their community.

The International Women’s Media Foundation is accepting applications for the 2011-12 Elizabeth Neuffer Fellowship, which is named for the 1998 IWMF Courage in Journalism Award winner and Boston Globe correspondent who was killed in Iraq in 2003. The program aims to advance

Elizabeth Neuffer

Neuffer’s life mission of promoting international understanding of human rights and social justice while creating an opportunity for women journalists to build their skills.

One woman journalist will be selected to spend an academic year in a tailored program with access to Boston-area universities as well as the Boston Globe and New York Times.

The flexible structure of the program will provide the fellow with opportunities to pursue academic research and hone her reporting skills covering topics related to human rights. The fellowship will run from September 2011 to March 2012.

The program is open to women journalists whose focus is human rights and social justice. Applicants must be dedicated to a career in journalism in print, broadcast, or online media and show a strong commitment to sharing knowledge and skills with colleagues upon the completion of the fellowship. Excellent written and spoken English skills  are required.

A stipend will be provided, and expenses, including airfare and housing, will be covered.
For complete program information and application materials, visit the IWMF website.

Photo by Lukáš Patkaň

Calling all aspiring ghosts.: Ellen Neuborne of Gotham Ghostwriters, says, “We hope you can join us for the free workshop we are co-hosting Tuesday night with the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) on how to get into the ghostwriting game.”

Participants in Manhattan will be meeting at the NYU Journalism Institute, 20 Cooper Square (at East 5th Street), on the 7th Floor.

The discussion will start at 6 p.m. and run until 7:30. Snacks and drinks will be served.

For those of you who would like to watch online, ASJA will be livestreaming the workshop on asja.org.

Here’s a reminder: Apply by April 15 at 11:59 PDT to receive a multimedia editing fellowship from the Maynard Institute at the Reynolds School of Journalism, University of Nevado-Reno.

Be part of an immersion program that will teach you the range of multimedia skills: video, audio, blogging, slideshows, tagging, databases, maps, HTML, producing stories using mobile, Web strategy, social networking and content management systems, and how they all connect.

At the Maynard Institute’s Multimedia Editing Program, classes are in-depth and hands-on and taught by leading practitioners.

Tuition for this month-long program is $6,000 and includes all sessions, housing and some meals.

If you are a journalist who works for a U.S.-based newspaper with a circulation of 50,000 or below, you are eligible to apply for one of 12 fellowships to attend the program. The fellowships are funded by a grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation. Independent journalists are also encouraged to apply.

If you do not qualify for the fellowship you are welcome to apply for regular admission to the program and must cover your own tuition.

For four decades the Maynard Institute has trained journalists of color to:

• Become savvy editors, in print and now online
• Improve copy editing & headline writing skills
• Become effective supervisors

This program has produced effective newsroom leaders of all races who promote team work, introduce & manage change, and improve the quality of journalism.

Maynard equips participants to help their news organizations build a robust online presence and strengthen the print product.

Like all Maynard programs, the Multimedia Editing Program is open to people of all races.

The program runs from June 1 to 30, 2011 @ the Reynolds School of Journalism – University of Nevada, Reno.

Participants will have time for practice, critique and improvement, giving them a working knowledge that can be applied immediately.

Apply today and upgrade your career.

Contact Evelyn Hsu, program director, at Ehsu@maynardije.org. Or Elisabeth Pinio, manager for outreach, at 510-891-9202 or epinio@maynardije.org.

Call for Applications!

All-Expenses-Paid Mini Fellowship at USC Annenberg with $2,000-$10,000 Reporting Grant

When: July 24-29, 2011

Where: Los Angeles

Deadline to Apply: May 2, 2011

In this era of tight newsroom budgets and declining freelance fees, it’s often hard to find the resources to undertake an ambitious reporting project. The California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowships offer reporting grants of $2,000 to $10,000 to help you execute that big project that you’ve been carrying around on your “To Do” list.

Based at USC’s Annenberg School of Journalism, The National Health Journalism Fellowships and the Dennis A. Hunt Fund for Health Journalism are open to print, broadcast, and online journalists from around the country. Both newsroom staffers and freelancers may apply. Students are ineligible.

Both National Fellows and Hunt grantees spend a week in Los Angeles exploring the intersection between community health, health policy, and the nation’s growing ethnic diversity, as well as the role that factors such as race, ethnicity, pollution, violence, and transportation, land-use, and food policy play in prospects for good health.

You’ll come away from the experience with a multitude of story ideas and sources, new insights into what community influences contribute to personal health, and funds to pursue a substantive health-related reporting project. National Fellows receive meals, travel, and lodging plus a $2,000 stipend upon publication or broadcast of a major fellowship project on a domestic health issue. Dennis Hunt Fund grantees receive reporting grants of $2,500 to $10,000 (instead of the $2,000 stipend) upon publication or broadcast of a substantive project on a domestic community health issue. The Hunt Fund will support projects that examine the effects of a specific factor or confluence of factors on a community’s health, such as poverty, health disparities, pollution, violence, land use, urban development, access to health care, and access to healthy food. Click here to help you decide which option is right for you.

The stipends and grants can be used to defray reporting and publishing-related costs such as travel, website development, database acquisition and analysis, translation services, and a journalist’s otherwise uncompensated time.

To encourage collaboration between mainstream and ethnic media, preference will be given to applicants who propose a joint project for use by both media outlets. Applicants must join ReportingonHealth.org.

For more information, email Martha Shirk at Cahealth@usc.edu. (To improve your prospects for success, we strongly recommend that you discuss your project idea with us in advance.)

Editor’s note: We have plenty of members of the Displaced Journalists community who work at news operations (online or print) and  fear they won’t keep their jobs unless they  boost their digital and multimedia skills. This Maynard Institute month-long fellowship is  a great opportunity to get that training. — Susan Older

Multimedia Editing Fellowships Available

Who should apply
:

This program is ideal for editors and reporters who want to sharpen their multimedia skills, journalists who work on Web sites and design and graphic editors who want editing training.

Program Cost
:

$6,000, which includes tuition and housing and some meals.

Fellowships

Twelve fellowships to attend the Maynard Institute’s Multimedia Editing Program are made possible by a three-year grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation.

To be eligible for the Reynolds Fellowship, you must work at a U.S.-based newspaper with a circulation of 50,000 or below. Journalists who work for online operations of such newspapers are also eligible to apply.

The fellowship covers tuition, housing and some meals, and includes a travel stipend of up to $500. There are no exceptions to the eligibility requirement.

Twelve fellowships to attend the Maynard Institute’s Multimedia Editing Program are available to journalists from small and medium size publications. The fellowships are made possible by a three-year grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation. 

Fellowship applications are invited from journalists who work at U.S.-based newspapers with circulation of 50,000 and below. Journalists who work for online operations of such newspapers are welcome to apply.

Since 1979, the Maynard Institute has trained journalists of color to become editors and Web site editors, helped assignment editors improve their copy editing skills, and prepared news professionals for supervisory roles. This program has produced effective newsroom leaders of all races who can promote team work, introduce and manage change, and improve the quality of journalism.

Like all Maynard programs, the Multimedia Editing Program is open to people of all races.

The month-long Multimedia Editing Program runs during summer, 2011 at the Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno. The program will equip participants to help their news organizations build a robust online presence and strengthen the print product.

Instruction will be in-depth and hands-on and cover the breadth of digital media tools: video, audio, blogging, slideshows, tagging, databases, basic HTML, analyzing the success of your Web strategy, using social networking to draw more people to your site and an overview of content management systems.

Skills will be taught in segments that build upon each other. The length of the program will allow participants to do more than simply touch upon each skill. At the Multimedia Editing program, participants will have time for practice, critique and improvement, giving them a working knowledge that can be applied immediately. As always, strong copy editing skills, including headline writing for print and online, and design will be emphasized throughout the program.

Apply here.

If you have questions, contact Evelyn Hsu, program director, at Ehsu@maynardije.org or Elisabeth Pinio, manager for outreach, at 510-891-9202 or epinio@maynardije.org.

The Knight Digital Media Center
UC-Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism

The career path for many of today’s journalists is merging with entrepreneurship. Journalists who once covered topical, feature and investigative news for established newspapers are becoming independent publishers of specialty blogs and hyperlocal community news sites. These sites fulfill an important role in the emerging news and information landscape.

Powerful and easy to use Web publishing tools make creating quality online news sites easy and affordable. These new tools are allowing individual journalists and community journalism to flourish as part of the evolving news eco-system.

One of the KDMC at UC Berkeley newest offerings is an innovative training workshop for journalists who have or are actively seeking to venture into online community or specialty news publishing. The Web Publishing for Independent Journalists Workshop will provide journalists with the hands-on training and tools to get started with an online publishing enterprise.

Participants in this five-day workshop will receive training on:

•    Setting up and maintaining a WordPress blog
•    Establishing a brand
•    Shooting good video and video editing
•    Using Photoshop to prepare images for publication
•    How to sell advertising
•    Data visualization at the community level
•    Basic Mapping and Data-driven Maps
•    Using social media to develop and engage with audiences
•    SEO and Google Analytics

Complete applications for the March 2011 Independent Journalists Workshop must be received by January 28, 2011 at 11:59 p.m. PST.

WHO SHOULD APPLY: Journalists who have already begun or are in the process of launching an online news venture.

COST: The fellowship covers all lodging, meals, and instruction costs. Cost of travel to the workshop must be paid by the applicant.

HOW TO APPLY: An online application form and instructions are available here.

Applicants need to register with the site to begin an application (valid e-mail address required). Applications can be saved and completed in several sessions.

If you have any questions, please see Frequently Asked Questions or contact Alisha Diego Klatt, program specialist, at kdmcinfo@journalism.berkeley.edu or (510) 642-3892.

Jan. 14, is the deadline for applications to attend The Knight Digital Media Center (in partnership with the USC Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, and the Online Journalism Review) News Entrepreneur Boot Camp to be held May 15-20, 2011, at the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, in Los Angeles, CA. This intense one-week boot camp plus six-week online learning program is designed for 20 competitively selected digital entrepreneurs with great ideas for community news and information initiatives in the public interest.

Topics to be covered included:

•    Identifying the best business model for sustained success.
•    Developing a feasibility plan.
•    Audience development and customer acquisition.
•    Developing and implementing revenue and advertising strategies.
•    Successful social networking models.
•    Understanding and using analytics.

Traditional news organizations are floundering as business models collapse and audiences are increasingly turning to alternative news and information sources. This is the third KDMC@USC boot camp designed for digital journalists and others who are passionate about new ideas for serving the information and news needs of their communities but who lack the grounding in business and start-up skills.

Expert faculty from both academia and the private sector provide intense instruction, coaching and mentoring on developing marketable business plans for building organizations that provide news and information in the public interest.

WHO SHOULD APPLY: Applicants must have demonstrated skill in developing news and information in the public interest (i.e. have produced quality content for publication and provide references for such work). They must commit to completion of a six-week online pre-camp course conducted by the USC Marshall School of Business and complete pre-camp assignments critical to the success of their project. They must be willing to share their project concept and details with fellow boot campers as well as with instructional faculty.

WHEN AND WHERE: May 15-20, 2011, 
University of Southern California
, Los Angeles, CA

COST: Lodging, meals and instruction/coaching plus a subsidy for partial travel are included. In addition, KDMC@USC will provide follow-up mentoring and resources. Successful completion of the course will result in a USC continuing education certificate.

HOW TO APPLY: Applications must be submitted online at http://www.knightdigitalmediacenter.org/boot_camp_applications/.

The online application deadline is January 14, 2011. From these applications a group of semi-finalists will be selected by January 28. They will be asked to complete an assignment related to their start up projects by February 25. Final boot camp participants will be named by March 7.

DEADLINE: Friday, January 14, 2011

QUESTIONS: Please contact, Vikki Porter, Director, Knight Digital Media Center at vporter@usc.edu or 213-821-0071.

Displaced Journalists’ partner Knowledgewebb, a premier site for digital media and other helpful training, is giving us all a free webinar for Christmas. It’s Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. EST.

From Knowledgewebb.net, Nov. 17, 2010

We’ve all been there. You’re sitting in a meeting or in a conference session, and someone mentions a something you don’t know. You feel like you SHOULD know it after all this time, but at this point you’re afraid to ask for help. Things like…

“What’s an avatar, exactly? And how do I get one?”

“How do I get an email signature?”

“What’s a Google Alert and how do I set one up?”

“I don’t know the difference between Google Voice and Google Chat and all the other Google stuff my friends are using. HELP!”

“What’s this hashtag thing people keep going on about?”

Consider this Knowledgewebb.net’s holiday gift to you and yours. We’re offering this webinar free to everyone, and we’re including a digital goodie bag filled with great resources to download and try. Come prepared with all of the burning questions you have – you’ll get to ask them anonymously and you’ll get immediate answers in the second half of this webinar.

Sign up here on the Knowledgewebb site, and let your friends and colleagues know, too!

Important note:  You must have pre-registered for this free session and received a confirmation message from our office in order to participate.

The Knight Digital Media Center, which is associated the UC-Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, has opened the

KDMC instructor Jeremy Rue (right) talks about video and audio recording with 2010 multimedia workshop fellows Cindy Shultz and Tom Paulson

application process for its next round of free week-long digital media workshops for working and independent journalists.

The program teaches multimedia storytelling, including how to capture and edit video, photos and audio. There is a workshop on Web publishing for independent journalists and another on Web 2.0 training for journalists. Another one covers interactive, computer-assisted census reporting.

To apply, or to find complete details about these free workshops, go to the Knight Digital Media Center site.

These are fellowships and you must be accepted to attend. Capacity is limited, but it’s certainly worth applying. All sessions are on the University of California-Berkeley campus. The Knight Digital Media Center pays for lodging, meals and the use of equipment. If you are accepted for a workshop, you pick up the travel expenses.

Click here to apply. You have to register first, but you can take your time with the application, returning multiple times to complete it.

Workshop dates and deadlines are as follows:

• Dec. 12-17, 2010: Interactive Census Workshop (Deadline: Oct. 17, 2010)

• Jan. 9-14, 2011: Multimedia Reporting and Convergence Workshop (Deadline: Nov. 19, 2010)

• Feb. 14-18, 2011: Web 2.0 Training for Journalists Workshop (Deadline: Dec. 10, 2010)

• March 21-25, 2011: Web Publishing for Independent Journalists Workshop (Deadline: Jan. 28, 2011)

• May 15-20-, 2011: Multimedia Reporting and Convergence Workshop (Deadline: March 18, 2011)

• June 13-17, 2011: Web 2.0 Training for Journalists Workshop (Deadline: April 15, 2011)

It’s important to note that the absolute deadline for applications, for all of these workshops, is 11:59 p.m. PST.

If you have any questions, go to Frequently Asked Questions or contact Alisha Diego Klatt, program specialist, at kdmcinfo@journalism.berkeley.edu or (510) 642-3892.

Now for more detail on each workshop:

Web Publishing for Independent Journalists Workshop

This is a perfect workshop for journalists who hope to get into online ventures. It will provide tools and hands-on training. Topics include blogging, video production and editing, Photoshop, data-driven maps and data visualization. The course will cover branding, ad sales, strategy for using social media and search engine optimization (SEO) — the secret to making your site come up near the top of a search in Google or any other search engine.

The career path for many of today’s journalists is merging with entrepreneurship. Journalists who once covered topical, feature and investigative news for established newspapers are becoming independent publishers of specialty blogs and hyperlocal community news sites. These sites fulfill an important role in the emerging news and information landscape.

Powerful and user-friendly Web publishing tools make creating quality online news sites easy and affordable. These new tools are allowing individual journalists and community journalism to flourish as part of the evolving news eco-system.

Multimedia Reporting and Convergence Workshop

These are intense, multimedia training courses for mid-career journalists. Topics range from storyboarding to incorporating multimedia into storytelling. Those who attend will learn audio/video recording and editing, flash graphics, digital photography, Photoshop and web design concepts. Guest speakers will explore the future of journalism, the role of technology, and the importance of audience engagement. Fellows will learn through hands-on projects to produce multimedia stories using all of the tools covered in the workshop.

Web 2.0 Training for Journalists Workshop

This training takes participants through the progression of reporting news for multiple digital platforms, starting with quick text posts and moving through photos and video and finally ending with a full multimedia presentation. The workshop provides hands-on training using Twitter and Facebook for reporting and driving web traffic, creating data-driven map mashups, dynamically updating a blog for breaking news, publishing photo galleries and audio slideshows, producing videos and editing videos using Final Cut Pro. Participants will leave with new tools for reporting and with new insights on how to serve new and emerging audiences.

The Interactive Census Workshop

This customized visual storytelling workshop is designed to train journalists in new ways to process data from the 2010 Census. They will illustrate the information using visualization and mapping tools to create a clearer, more meaningful picture of the complex statistics gathered in the national survey. Fellows will brainstorm with industry experts.

In this intensive six-day workshop, participants will learn to create cutting-edge interactive graphics. The skills and tools will benefit your newsroom or your independent journalism career long after the census.

You will learn to:

• Tell stories with interactive GIS maps
• Clean and prepare U.S. Census data
• Create beautiful and effective interactive charts
• Build close connections with 19 other great visual storytellers

This is an advanced workshop. Ideally, applicants will have some basic experience with at least one of the following:

• Computer Assisted Reporting
• News graphics
• News design
• Website production

If you cannot attend a workshop there is another solution. The Knight Center makes video recordings of major speakers and sometimes a bit of the lab work in all of these workshops. Some of these are available free online on the Knight Digital Media Center website. Some sessions are available as streaming or archived webcasts.