• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, March 18, 2013

The McClatchy Co. has partnered with The Poynter Institute on a multi-year program that will deliver journalism training to employees. The professional development initiative aims to help journalists stay abreast of rapidly evolving media technology.

Poynter’s faculty and experts will lead in-person workshops, online seminars and Webinars, as well as teaching certificate programs -- drawn from Poynter’s e-learning curriculum -- tailored to build specific skills. Together with McClatchy’s leadership, Poynter staff will conduct assessments and identify specific areas where training is needed to help achieve the company’s overall goals.

They will also help McClatchy develop its own in-house training programs for both the sales and editorial staffs at its 30 print and online properties.
 
Finally, Poynter will develop a training Web site for McClatchy on its e-learning platform, NewsU, which will host e-learning programs and enable online assessments.

While free or subsidized professional development courses used to be a perk of working at many big news organizations, in recent years these training programs have frequently met the same fate as other budget items -- cut by managers trying to set corporate finances on a firmer footing.

However, as illustrated by McClatchy’s Poynter partnership, the rise of online education (enabled by the expansion of Web video and online collaborative tools) holds out the prospect of high-quality instruction at a lower cost than traditional college and graduate seminars.

From 2007-2012, the number of Americans enrolled in various online courses more than doubled from 2.5 million to over 6million, according to figures from PBS and U.S. News & World Report.