The ONA-Poynter Leadership Academy for Women in Digital Media is happening April 12-17, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to work with the 25 amazing women and expert faculty collaborating in this inaugural group.
Find out more about the participants and the faculty.
With the high level of interest — nearly 500 applicants — in the program, we thought we’d share the emerging themes and topics for the week aimed at starting focused, candid conversations. ONA and Poynter will be creating summary materials of the event, and you can follow the ongoing conversation on Twitter using #digitalwomenleaders.
Understanding Your Leadership Skill Sets
Faculty: Katie Hawkins-Gaar (Poynter), S. Mitra Kalita (Los Angeles Times), Kelly McBride (Poynter), Jane McDonnell (ONA), Butch Ward (Poynter)
The cohort will share their goals and experiences as leaders to help set the tone for the week. Using the results of a survey, they will also dive into strategies for management styles and decision-making, and then review their own strengths as digital leaders and start developing a personal leadership plan outlining their goals.
Designs for Leadership in Digital Media
Faculty: Laura Amico (The Boston Globe), Sara Catania (NBC4 LA), Cory Haik (The Washington Post), S. Mitra Kalita
We’ll discuss challenges specific to leadership in the digital space, including creating a culture of innovation and agility, entrepreneurship, managing digital products and wrangling technology and tools.
Participants will also have a conversation with Wall Street Journal’s Rebecca Blumenstein and Fusion’s Jane Spencer, moderated by Facebook’s Liz Heron, about championing colleagues for leadership roles.
Navigating Newsroom Culture
Faculty: Meredith Artley (CNN), LaToya Drake (Google), Liz Heron (Facebook), Stacy-Marie Ishmael (BuzzFeed News), S. Mitra Kalita, Will Neville-Rehbehn (VShift), Latoya Peterson (Fusion)
We’ll discuss systemic inequities in newsroom culture, focusing on creating a cohort to support diversity in leadership, strategies for balancing a career and family, developing business partnerships and the ins and outs of negotiating a compensation package.
The Business of Leadership
Faculty: Meredith Artley, Kelly McBride, Butch Ward
We’ll focus on the business side of leadership, including how to wield influence, how to manage business relationships, the ethics of women as leaders, and a look at money, budgets and revenue. Faculty and participants will engage in one-on-one coaching.
Bringing it Home
Finally, participants will have a chance to share their personal leadership plan and discuss how to keep conversations going beyond the Academy. We’ll invite the cohort to share feedback on everything from format to presenters to topics covered so that we can improve future events.