Delegates have been selected for Trinity Mirror‘s newly-revised Editorial Leaders programme.
Four women and eight men from across the regional press have embarked on the in-house course which has seen many former delegates move on to become editors of regional newspapers.
Former delegates of the previously-named Today’s Editor programme include Roger Borrell, who went on to edit the Lancashire Evening Post and Birmingham Mail, and Steve Dyson, who became editor of the Teesside Evening Gazette and Birmingham Mail.
The current 12 delegates are Sarah Drew Jones, Cardiff’s WM magazine editor; The Journal news editor Matt McKenzie; Sunday Sun deputy editor Ken Oxley; Toby Chapman of the Liverpool Daily Post, Liverpool Echo deputy editor Andy Campbell; Liverpool Echo assistant news editor Jon Tunney; Liverpool Daily Post deputy editor Alison Gow; Gazette Media Company reader content editor Julie Martin; Wishaw Press chief reporter John Hutcheson; Evening Chronicle assistant editor Angela Upex; Western Mail business editor Sion Barry; and Merseyside Weeklies assistant editor Kevin Matthews.
Trinity has relaunched the course, which now includes modules on how to manage budgets and editorial strategies in the multimedia age.
Trinity editorial director Neil Benson said: ‘Going by previous experience some of these people will go on to become editors. It will be a different type of editor; it is going to be someone who is genuinely multimedia-focused rather than a traditional print editor who sees online as an add-on.
‘It is very much focused on editorial and leadership. One module looks primarily at leadership within the newsroom. Another key thread is about content development from the point of view of a senior person in the newsroom. There is also a big chunk of marketing; not a classic marketing course, but looking at the current media marketplace and how best we can position ourselves.”
Delegates will undertake three week-long residential blocks over a year, with some studies being taken over the internet. Each delegate has been allocated an in-house mentor so their course learning can be applied directly to the newsroom.
Trinity has worked with academics at the University of Central Lancashire to set up the course.
Benson is due to talk to delegates to present and discuss Trinity Mirror’s multimedia operations, and Darren Thwaites, editor of the Evening Gazette, will be talking about his hyper-local strategy.
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