Mr. Media Interviews by Bob Andelman
Friday, March 09, 2007
Howard Finberg, "NewsU" director: Mr. Media Interview
You may not know my guest today by name, but it’s safe to say that if you read an English-language newspaper anywhere in the world, Howard Finberg is having at least an indirect effect on its content.
Finberg is Director of Interactive Learning for NewsU, the online training and education arm of The Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida. That’s where I am today, in fact.
NewsU has enjoyed explosive growth since opening its virtual doors on April 11, 2005. Starting with just a few courses and little more than word of mouth advertising, the mostly free training for journalists now has thirty-five courses and 35,000 registered users.
In the interest of complete disclosure, I have often worked on assignment for The Poynter Institute and even wrote two white papers and the script for an animated video for NewsU. In fact, I wrote the following Dr. Seuss-inspired rhyme, which Howard himself recorded for NewsU:
You can do it wearing a hat.
You can do it with your cat.
You can do it at night,
And you can do it when you look afright.
You can do it when things are slow,
Or when you can’t get the creative juices to flow.
You can do it when mother’s not there,
And you can do it in your underwear.
BOB ANDELMAN:Howard, thanks for taking the time to talk.
HOWARD FINBERG:Glad to be here, Bob, and thanks for reminding me of why we don’t use that rhyming any more. The whole idea of underwear is just more than we can take.
ANDELMAN:I remember doing that and being very surprised that some of that actually made it into the final. Howard, can you give us kind of a brief synopsis of NewsU’s mission within Poynter?
FINBERG:Well, our mission is to extend our training and our teaching from Poynter to the universe that can’t get to the Institute itself for what we call an in-person seminar, so our desire is to reach those people who may not be ready to come to a Poynter seminar, who may not have the money to come to a Poynter seminar. And frankly, to reach people who might not be journalists and who would not qualify to come to Poynter. NewsU training is open to everybody. All you need to do is register. It’s free. It’s very accessible because the amount of time you spend on it is really up to you, and most of the things we do are very short.
ANDELMAN:So you’re open to non-journalists.
FINBERG:We welcome non-journalists. We think the skills that we offer training in are perfect for bloggers, for people who are running Web sites, for anybody who is interested in getting their writing sharper.
ANDELMAN:Would it be useful for someone who is actually being covered by the media, for them to understand maybe how things work? Could they learn that from it?
FINBERG:Well, you certainly can learn how a newspaper operates in the different departments. We have something called “Anatomy of a Newspaper.” If you’re a PIO at a police department, I would recommend you take “Covering Cops,”which is a great module in understanding how journalists need to cover the cops, and, in turn, it’s a way of if you’re a public information officer looking at the perspective from the journalist.
ANDELMAN:Do you have a lot of students taking the courses?
FINBERG:We have a good number of students. About 12 to 15 percent of our registered users are identified as college students, and there is a much smaller percentage who are over-achieving high school students.
ANDELMAN:And let’s come back to the journalists. I mean, why would a journalist choose to take an online course?
FINBERG:Well, I am going to give you back our motto, which is: the best journalists never stop learning. So if you are a journalist, you are always hungry to improve your understanding of the world around you and your craft. Given the turmoil in the industry, I would say it’s also a matter of job survival to be as good as you possibly can be, to really sharpen your job skills.
© 2007 by Bob Andelman. All rights reserved.
Finberg is Director of Interactive Learning for NewsU, the online training and education arm of The Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida. That’s where I am today, in fact.
NewsU has enjoyed explosive growth since opening its virtual doors on April 11, 2005. Starting with just a few courses and little more than word of mouth advertising, the mostly free training for journalists now has thirty-five courses and 35,000 registered users.
In the interest of complete disclosure, I have often worked on assignment for The Poynter Institute and even wrote two white papers and the script for an animated video for NewsU. In fact, I wrote the following Dr. Seuss-inspired rhyme, which Howard himself recorded for NewsU:
You can do it wearing a hat.
You can do it with your cat.
You can do it at night,
And you can do it when you look afright.
You can do it when things are slow,
Or when you can’t get the creative juices to flow.
You can do it when mother’s not there,
And you can do it in your underwear.
BOB ANDELMAN:Howard, thanks for taking the time to talk.
HOWARD FINBERG:Glad to be here, Bob, and thanks for reminding me of why we don’t use that rhyming any more. The whole idea of underwear is just more than we can take.
ANDELMAN:I remember doing that and being very surprised that some of that actually made it into the final. Howard, can you give us kind of a brief synopsis of NewsU’s mission within Poynter?
FINBERG:Well, our mission is to extend our training and our teaching from Poynter to the universe that can’t get to the Institute itself for what we call an in-person seminar, so our desire is to reach those people who may not be ready to come to a Poynter seminar, who may not have the money to come to a Poynter seminar. And frankly, to reach people who might not be journalists and who would not qualify to come to Poynter. NewsU training is open to everybody. All you need to do is register. It’s free. It’s very accessible because the amount of time you spend on it is really up to you, and most of the things we do are very short.
ANDELMAN:So you’re open to non-journalists.
FINBERG:We welcome non-journalists. We think the skills that we offer training in are perfect for bloggers, for people who are running Web sites, for anybody who is interested in getting their writing sharper.
ANDELMAN:Would it be useful for someone who is actually being covered by the media, for them to understand maybe how things work? Could they learn that from it?
FINBERG:Well, you certainly can learn how a newspaper operates in the different departments. We have something called “Anatomy of a Newspaper.” If you’re a PIO at a police department, I would recommend you take “Covering Cops,”which is a great module in understanding how journalists need to cover the cops, and, in turn, it’s a way of if you’re a public information officer looking at the perspective from the journalist.
ANDELMAN:Do you have a lot of students taking the courses?
FINBERG:We have a good number of students. About 12 to 15 percent of our registered users are identified as college students, and there is a much smaller percentage who are over-achieving high school students.
ANDELMAN:And let’s come back to the journalists. I mean, why would a journalist choose to take an online course?
FINBERG:Well, I am going to give you back our motto, which is: the best journalists never stop learning. So if you are a journalist, you are always hungry to improve your understanding of the world around you and your craft. Given the turmoil in the industry, I would say it’s also a matter of job survival to be as good as you possibly can be, to really sharpen your job skills.
© 2007 by Bob Andelman. All rights reserved.
Labels: Howard Finberg, journalism, NewsU, St. Petersburg, The Poynter Institute, training
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