Calling women in local news! Join ONA on June 8 and 9 for a free leadership summit tailored to the needs of local journalists. This year, we’ve added workshops to the ONA Local Summit, including a special workshop focused on leadership tips for women in small markets and local news.
Building Women’s Leadership in Local News is an interactive workshop on June 8 that draws on lessons from the Women’s Leadership Accelerator. Whether you’re interested in moving into a leadership position or already managing people or projects, this session is designed to give you insights into your leadership style and useful tools to solve problems in the newsroom.
Serri Graslie, Director of Digital Training at NPR, and Jennifer Mizgata, ONA’s Director of Programs, will share insights from the Accelerator and practical ways that you can bring what you learn at the workshop back to your daily work by doing “tiny experiments” in your newsroom. Serri participated in the 2017 Women’s Leadership Accelerator. Jennifer designed ONA’s Accelerator program for women and coaches women in news regularly via Digital Women Leaders. Together, they will help you identify and develop your leadership strengths while also fostering an open dialogue about how women can be successful in news organizations with limited resources.
You’ll have many opportunities to continue the conversations and meet more women in digital leadership on Saturday, June 9 at the Local Summit. In the morning, Tasha Stewart, of ONA Cincinnati and WCPO-TV, will host a discussion on navigating a path to leadership as a woman in local news. This conversation will be part of the Table Talks, where anyone can join the collaborative chat and offer ideas.
In the afternoon, Tasha will also host a session on leading innovation from anywhere in the room, one of the themes that consistently emerges in our Accelerator programming. How do you get buy-in on your ideas? How do you remove blockers or convince people who want to shoot down your ideas? Tasha was a member of the 2016 ONA-Poynter Women’s Leadership Academy, and she has lots of practice pushing her newsroom to try new things.
Additionally, Kellen Henry of the New York Times will share tips on how to project manage culture change, reinforcing the idea that you can use experiments to build both products and goodwill in the newsroom. Kellen will give you strategies for drawing inspiration from the readers and communities that your work is serving, not just relying on your intuition or what your competitors are doing. Kellen was a member of the 2017 Women’s Leadership Accelerator and her sharp thinking on product has helped shape how the Times is reaching readers.
If you’re a woman working in local news, we hope you join us for these two inspiring days! It’s the first time that ONA has designed a workshop specifically tailored to the needs of women in small markets. Plus, the workshop and the Local Summit are both free! We’re thrilled to be able to offer this training tuition-free.