McCormick Foundation underwrites pilot program for new API series on ‘Building Your Journalistic Brand’
RESTON, Va. — The Robert R. McCormick Foundation has awarded the American Press Institute a grant to help launch a new series of regional workshops on “Building Your Journalistic Brand.”
The one-day program focuses on how journalists can create a personal brand that identifies their talents and passions and expands their reach, giving them a competitive edge. The program to open to all journalists, including those who work for news organizations across all platforms; bloggers, freelancers and other entrepreneurial writers, reporters and editors; multimedia and visual journalists; journalists trying to re-enter the workforce after being displaced by media downsizing; independent news producers; university journalism educators and their students.
“At a time when careers are in flux, today’s journalists must be assertive in getting the word out about the work they do,” says Clark Bell, McCormick Foundation Journalism Program Director. “This workshop will provide participants strategies and a game plan to develop their personal newsgathering brand. In today’s competitive media environment, it’s no longer sufficient to maintain journalistic anonymity.”
“Brand is all about building an emotional connection with consumers,” said Drew Davis, President and Executive Director of API. “That’s no different for journalists. This program will give them the tools to connect with their audience on a level that supercedes the basic writer-reader relationship.”
The pilot program, co-sponsored by the Medill School of Journalism, will be held Friday, April 8, at Medill’s McCormick Tribune Center at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. Tuition is $15, which includes a continental breakfast and workshop materials.
Joe Grimm — noted journalist, editor, career-builder and educator — will be leading the workshop. A longtime API discussion leader, Grimm was newsroom recruiter and staff development editor at the Detroit Free Press. He is a visiting editor-in-residence at Michigan State University’s School of Journalism and the creator of the journalism careers blog, “Ask the Recruiter.”
Complete details about the April workshop are available at:
www.americanpressinstitute.org/11/JournalisticBrandChicago/
Additional regional workshop sites will be announced in the weeks to come.
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About The American Press Institute
The American Press Institute (www.americanpressinstitute.org), an independent, non-profit educational center based in Reston, Va., is dedicated to advancing the business of news. API provides newsmedia professionals and organizations with knowledge for new solutions — through training and executive development seminars, workshops, custom tailored programs, industry forums, research reports, and more.
About the Robert R. McCormick Foundation
The Robert R. McCormick Foundation is committed to fostering communities of educated, informed and engaged citizens. Through philanthropic programs, Cantigny Park and museums, the Foundation helps develop citizen leaders and works to make life better in our communities. The Foundation was established as a charitable trust in 1955, upon the death of Colonel Robert R. McCormick, the longtime editor and publisher of the Chicago Tribune. The Robert R. McCormick Foundation is one of the nation’s largest foundations, with more than $1 billion in assets. For more information, please visit www.McCormickFoundation.org.
