Essentials of Newspaper Management

Rhodes University's Sol Plaatje Institute (SPI) for Media Leadership, Africa's only university-level media management and leadership institute, invites practising print media managers and aspirants to attend an accredited and certificated five-day management course for newspaper leaders.

The course, known as the Essentials of Newspaper Management, will run at the SPI on the following dates: 14- 18 March 2016, 19-23 September 2016.

The course will provide participants with insights and practical skills to help them make direct interventions in their print media and covers the following key modules:

-Leadership skills

What are the characteristics of good leaders? Organisation versus chaos. Managing or meddling?

-Managing circulation

A brief review of today's evolving print media industry and how to engage with audiences. We look at the reader as a customer. We look at circulation and distribution. And we examine how your media firm can face up to growing competition.

-Managing advertising

We examine the Advertising/Editorial ratios, volumes, values and discounts. We examine advertising in the international, regional, national and local markets. We examine the golden rules to get results and copy writing.

-Managing editorial

This module is aimed at print media managers with a non-editorial background. Some people believe that journalists are the most difficult group to handle, given their seeming preoccupation with truth, integrity, balance, fairness, ethics and standards... but are they team players? How do we ensure that they make a positive contribution to a business plan?

-Managing the budget

"A sale is not a sale until the money's in the bank." We confront the challenges involved in creating a realistic budget, ensuring its success by regular scrutiny and analysis, and devolving some financial responsibility down to departmental levels. The important area of credit control and bad debts will also be discussed.

-Managing the team

Why do people come to work? We examine recruitment and selection, induction and motivation, training and reward structures, grievances and discipline, and managing the owners.

-The importance of editorial independence and media ethics

In the aftermath of the 2011 phone-hacking scandal by London's News of the World newspaper which triggered the Leverson Inquiry into the culture, practices and ethics of Britain's press, the media across the world has woken up to take serious stock and to review its ethical conduct. How far should journalists go to get a story? What are the ethical responsibilities of journalists? Who are journalists accountable to? Who will guard the 'guard dogs' in the age of transparency of the digital and social media? Do we need new ethics in the new transparency age of digital and social media?

Sessions are led by industry and academic experts. We do offer the option of running the course in-house at your organization, which would eliminate the cost of travel and accommodation for participants. Please note that an in-house course will only take place if there are 16 or more participants attending the course.

The course is for newspaper managers - the new, not-so-new and aspirants who are looking for an opportunity to improve their businesses by getting the latest practical and research-based knowledge and understandings that contextualize, explain and analyze the rapidly changing print media sector and how this sector could embrace new ways of doing work and survive the market turbulence.

Our courses emphasize interactive learning and knowledge-sharing, especially learning by doing, and represent a useful platform to network with fellow newspaper managers from across Africa.

For more details on the course, please contact Yolisa at az.ca.ur@alezdizdam.y or telephone her on 0466038949. You could also visit the SPI's website www.ru.ac.za/spi

Date: 17 August 2015 to 21 August 2015
Venue: Sol Plaatje Institute, Grahamstown
Cost: 0466038782

More info:

Great Hall, Prince Alfred Street