Question

Topic: Copywriting

Looking For Seminar On Newswriting Basics

Posted by brian on 3/24/2011 at 12:58 PM ET 125 Points
Can anyone recommend a good seminar or conference on news-writing basics? A colleague has an employee who has a great deal of advanced writing skills and experience, but his current role requires writing content that's much more of a news-writing approach. Essentially, we're hoping to re-educate him to write more effective headlines and ledes and use more of an inverted pyramid approach.

We've found some online courses, but feel those won't be as effective as real classroom instruction. Ideally, a 2-3 day course would be helpful.

Please don't reply that we need to go back in time and get this person to earn his bachelor's degree in journalism, or fire him and hire a real professional “because this type of thing can't be taught in a weekend.”

This is a real situation where we hope to improve someone's skills, so please provide your best recommendations.

Thanks!
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by brian on 3/24/2011 at 3:26 PM Author
    This person is located in Ohio, however they would be open to conferences anywhere in the Midwest, or elsewhere in the U.S. Thanks, Phil!
  • Posted on 3/26/2011 at 8:51 PM Accepted
    Brian - try contacting the Specialized Information Publisher's Association at:

    https://sipaonline.com/

    They run courses and can usually help put you in touch.

    You should also try your local newspaper. The big papers have freelance trainers that come in and work really hard with staff. That is the way I would go because you would avoid all the flim flam that comes from searching the web.

    The best journalists, as you have indicated, have learned on the job. It's great when we realise that a degree in writing or journalism only really indicated a good memory. It's ideas and motivation that make a good story!

    Hope that helps. Let us know how it goes!

    Peter
  • Posted by brian on 3/29/2011 at 12:10 PM Author
    Thanks, Peter! Much appreciated.

    I'd like to keep this topic open for a few more days in case others have advice to share or would like to share experiences with this type of training. Additional input requested. Thanks!
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