New TPA benefit: Earn Your Press Pass training

Membership in an exclusive organization has its privileges. Texas Press Association membership now offers a new privilege — free, self-paced online training for journalists at member newspapers. Today’s publishers have a tough time hiring experienced journalists for their newsrooms — particularly those in smaller markets.  

The result: rookie employees with no formal training or professional experience struggling to learn on the job with minimal guidance. Now there’s free help available to ease that learning curve. TPA has contracted with Kansas Publishing Ventures (KPV) to provide TPA members access to an online training course titled “Earn Your Press Pass.” The course is designed is to help prospective and rookie reporters who have solid reading and writing skills by teaching them solid journalistic skills.

“The labor shortage is real, and finding former journalists or recent journalism school graduates to move to smaller communities is nearly impossible,” KPV majority owner Joey Young said. “The purpose of the course is to give the basics to a solid candidate who just needs a little bit of training to make a good reporter.”

TPA Executive Director Mike Hodges said the program is a good fit for today’s newspaper environment. “Our members are finding it tougher than ever to hire experienced journalists. Publishers and editors are looking for efficient online training aimed at teaching the basics to newcomers and honing the skills of those already on staff. The ‘Earn Your Press Pass’ program offers high-quality online content presented in user-friendly, self-paced segments.”

Lindsey Young, co-owner of KPV and a practicing journalist, teaches the course. A former high school journalism and public speaking teacher, she has been immersed in community newspapering since Joey and Lindsey purchased their first community newspaper, The Clarion, in 2014. “I wanted to create something that feels more like a conversation with a well-informed friend than a traditional class,” Lindsey said. “There aren’t any homework assignments or quizzes. Instead, the ‘test’ for Earn Your Press Pass users will be becoming a part of their community newspaper and writing about local issues.”

As someone who has both a teaching background and practical real-world newspaper experience, Lindsey is able to teach the basics to a new or potential hire so an overworked editor can focus on other tasks. “We needed a on-demand solution,” Joey said. “So we came up with what we would want a new hire to know, and Lindsey started working on the curriculum.”

Lindsey teaches simple interviewing steps to make new reporters more successful. Additionally, the course outlines basics like newspaper jargon, editing and basic photography. “My hope is that people who go through the course will come out the other side with all the fundamentals and a list of questions for their editor or publisher so they can have meaningful, well-informed discussions about expectations and the nuances of their own community,” Lindsey said.

Joey said newspapers are increasingly relying on new hires who “are naturally curious and have decent writing ability,” but have no training or journalism experience. The solution, he said, is to “train them up.”

“We need bodies who can go to these things, cover it, and feel competent. That’s what Lindsey set out to do…to help people feel a little more confident.”

“We just want people to use it,” Joey said. “I really believe this is something to bridge the gap for papers that struggle to recruit.” The training syllabus first became available to all members of the Kansas Press Association in September.

TPA chief Hodges asked Donnis Baggett, TPA’s executive vice president and a 50-year veteran of small and large Texas newsrooms, to quietly evaluate the content. “I was extremely impressed,” Baggett said, adding that while the program was designed for newbies, it can benefit experienced journalists as well. “Lindsey even taught this old dog some new tricks. The content is solid, it’s easy to use, and you can sign into and out of the program as your time allows. Lindsey’s engaging nature makes the lessons enjoyable, which makes you look forward to the next segment.”

Baggett added that the syllabus is focused on journalism reality, not journalism theory. “It’s based on the needs and demands of today’s overworked, high-stress newsroom. It’s all about how the rubber meets the road.”

Hodges said “Earn Your Press Pass”  training should help improve members’ newspapers. “We’re always looking for ways to help meet our members’ needs, and we look forward to seeing the results of this training in the TPA Better Newspaper Contest for many years to come,” he said.

TPA members interested in the training may request access through Hodges at mhodges@texaspress.com.