Editing courses

Our experts help delegates examine the entire content of the modern newspaper and ways in which it can be made more relevant and useful to readers. Using the latest research, we examine the changing market and how newspaper executives can make content relevant, accessible, entertaining and exciting. There are also practical sessions on how to run the newsdesk, including organisational skills, time management, discipline, and motivating the staff.

Who should attend: Mainly those on, or aspiring to, the newsdesk and anyone else who directly influences the content of the paper.

Course Length: Five days.

A top-quality course for quality people. This course is aimed at the editorial executive of the future. Each delegate will tackle our famous in-tray exercise of 25 real issues which have landed on the editor's desk. There are also sessions, from acknowledged specialists, on man-management, leadership, drawing up an editorial strategy, market research, budgeting, employment law, graphics, design and public speaking. Many of today's newspaper editors have passed through this course.

Who should attend: Those who aspire to the editor's chair. The course is suitable for heads of departments, assistant editors, deputy editors and recently appointed editors. Delegates, other than working editors, should be nominated by their editor.

Course Length: Five days.

A high-powered course that looks at the topics that turn on the reader; where to find them and how to get the best out of them. An essential course for anyone who takes responsibility for the features content of a newspaper or magazine.

Who should attend: Anybody taking responsibility for a publication's features material.

Course Length: Two days.

A dedicated course for features subs that deals with everything from words and grammar to editing complex articles. The two-day hands-on programme includes sessions on different features styles and how to deal with them; ensuring features match the publication's style; feature headlines, sub-heads, drop-ins, standfirsts and outboxes; merging facts from other sources; accuracy, fact checking, additional research and use of pictures. The programme does not include layout.

Who should attend: Anyone working as a sub-editor in a newspaper features department or on a magazine who wants to develop their editing skills.

Course Length: Two days.

Sport has changed beyond recognition in the last 20 years. Now sports stars are huge celebrities, sport is big business and fans expect more detail, more analysis, more humour and a greater say. How well have newspapers kept up? All the research shows that sport can be a big driver of sales but do we capitalise on it? This course, by senior sports journalists, deals with everything a good sports-editor needs to know achieving the right content for the readership; establishing the balance between factual reporting and comment and speculation; dealing with the grassroots sport; giving the fans a voice and how to bring humour, anger, passion and sparkle to the back pages.

Who should attend: Anybody working on, or able to influence, the sports pages.

Course Length: Two days.

Good reporters become chief reporters and suddenly they are managers - responsible for their own staff. This course helps to ease this first step into management. Sessions deal with time management, motivation, running a diary and how to balance the role of journalist and leader.

Who should attend: Chief reporters and reporters who aspire to a more senior role.

Course Length: Two days.

Newspaper and media management has never been more challenging, or more exciting. But what are the skills required to establish a successful, results-orientated career, and what issues will managers face over the next five years? This is an intensive five-day course which looks at how to build, develop and lead a dynamic, prosperous enterprise which draws the very best performance out of people.

Who should attend: Sectional heads or deputies who are contemplating a move into wider management or existing executives who wish to broaden their skills, face the issues of the future and maximise their earning potential.

Course Length: Five days.

In many of today's newspaper and magazine offices more and more is expected from fewer and fewer people. This course, from an editor who took weekly and evening newspapers to award-winning success with tight staffing levels, deals with using all available resources to best effect, keeping people motivated in a stressed environment and getting the most out of every job.

Who should attend: Desk heads with limited resources.

Course Length: Two days.

A high-powered course which aims to give journalists a greater understanding of their readership. The course examines market research, how to read it and implement its findings to the best effect, explores ways in which the sales-editorial relationship can be developed, and looks at the content and design that modern readers demand.

Who should attend: Editorial executives and senior journalists.

Course Length: Two days.

A course for the publishing executive who has little formal training in accounting and finance. The course, which deals with budget planning, controlling costs and how to cut costs effectively when the need arises, is also useful to journalists who want to take a broader view of their industry.

Who should attend: Publishing executives and those who seek a greater understanding of the business.

Course Length: Two days.

This is a new course for 2007 devised by Peter Sands to help newspapers ensure their What's On guides are targeted at the right market. The course is based on research showing how people spend their leisure time and what they want from a newspaper entertainment guide. The content looks at the topics, tone and style of successful guides. There are detailed sessions on listings, reviews, advice, the print/web relationship and appropriate design. It is a hands-on course and delegates will leave with a raft of ideas and a set of proofs to form the basis of a revitalised guide.

Who should attend: Editors, deputy editors, feature editors, designers and anyone taking responsibility for the entertainment content and layout.

Course Length: Two days.

The course covers the thought process behind why newspapers should run campaigns, what sort of issues to campaign over and when best to launch. Just as importantly, what to avoid and when not to dive in.

You'll learn the planning process of how to run and sustain original, exciting and thought provoking campaigns that stimulate readers, raise the profile of the paper, put on sales and, importantly, successfully achieve their aims and goals.

Who should attend: Reporters and news editors (or their deputies) who have little or no experience of news campaigns - or for those who have been too afraid to launch one.

Course Length: Two days.