Introducing the Emerging News Leadership Program by the Newmark J-School and Google News Initiative

The Emerging News Leadership Program will train a cohort of local and rural news leaders in everything they need to know to run a sustainable news organization, through a rigorous, online curriculum developed by the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York, in partnership with the Google News Initiative.  

The application for the tuition-free, six-month inaugural cohort opens today and closes February 9, 2024. The program will focus on advanced digital skills, the business of news and leadership & management. Publishers, founders, editors, managers, and others in local or rural media in the U.S. and abroad are highly encouraged to apply. 

“Our goal is to help emerging news leaders refine their understanding of the new business realities of journalism, upgrade their digital skills, explore emerging technologies and gain confidence in their leadership and strategy skills,” Niketa Patel, senior director of leadership programs at the Newmark J-School said. “With the Emerging News Leadership Program, we can offer talented local and rural journalists support in their leadership journey.”

Patel is also the director of the flagship Executive Program in News Innovation & Leadership at the school. 

The program will run from April to June and September to December, leaving a break for the summer, and will consist of weekly virtual classes, coaching sessions and peer circles led by a diverse network of newsroom leaders and experts. The participants will work on a capstone project to apply the program’s lessons to a challenge of their choice in their organizations.

“A thriving local and rural news community is essential to combat misinformation and strengthen democracy,” Casey Pallenik, News Industry Relations Manager at Google, said. “The Google News Initiative is committed to help strengthen local journalism and to supporting diversity in news leadership, which is what this holistic and immersive program is all about.”

The Google News Initiative (GNI) and J+, the professional training arm of the Newmark J-School, have partnered in the past to offer programs such as the long-running Product Immersion for Small Newsrooms, and GNI has supported participants in the Executive Program and the upcoming News Product Management Certification.

About the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY

The Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, founded in 2006, is a public graduate journalism school based in the heart of New York City’s media capital. With affordable tuition and extensive scholarship support, it prepares students from diverse economic, racial and cultural backgrounds to produce high-quality journalism. The school offers 16-month master’s degree programs: M.A. in Journalism, M.A. in Engagement Journalism, and M.A. in Journalism – Bilingual Program (English/Spanish). Through the school’s J+ division, which offers online and hybrid executive training programs, seasoned journalists gain the skills to step into leadership roles and launch modern business models and news products. The Newmark J-School is also home to three unique centers and initiatives: the McGraw Center for Business Journalism; the Center for Community Media; and the Journalism Protection Initiative.