Experienced media professionals who want to enhance their careers and broaden digital skills now have six specializations to choose from in the Medill School of Journalism's new Master's track, which launches this fall at Northwestern University in cooperation with the Media Management Center.

The new track begins with a pilot group of experienced journalists who want to create or run a media enterprise; learn more about marketing, corporate communications or public relations; build their own personal brand as entrepreneurs; or continue working as journalists or media professionals but with expanded skills and a comprehensive view of the field.

"We have a combination of disciplines offered at no other university and internationally renowned faculty who teach them," said Medill Dean John Lavine. "We're a journalism school, and a school of integrated marketing communications, and we teach media management."

"Today's journalists need and want to know more about tools, technologies, audiences, and business issues than they did just half a generation ago," said Lavine. "Today, more than ever, they also must have the skills needed to create value for themselves, whether or not they are holding down a 'traditional' job at any given point in time. Journalists must think of themselves as 'specialists' and rather than being someone's employee, they can also be their own brands."

The degree, which takes nine months to complete, enables students to select from a wide variety of courses and to focus on one or more concentrations:

Media Management: "Running a media company today is about growing the business and planting the seeds for future growth," said Michael P. Smith, executive director of the Media Management Center. "We want our students to understand the forces that are the catalysts for the dramatic changes in media and then to create strategies and systems to withstand the forces or ride the wave of change." Smith, who chairs the media management programs at the Kellogg School of Management and Medill, said: "The foundation for media strategy is to understand the experiences that enhance media usage and then to create a media organization where the customer is at the core."

Digital and Interactive: "This is more than tutorials in Flash or demos of DreamWeaver," said Owen Youngman, Knight Professor of Digital Strategy. "It's learning how to think about what's driving big change not just in journalism, but in the lives of our audiences. The basics of great writing, clear ethical guidelines, and disciplined thinking are still at the core of a Medill education. But graduate students learn to add two-way communication to the mix, then create experiences that leave the audience feeling smarter or better informed or more in control of their surroundings and their lives. That's what Web technology can do for journalists, and it is also at the core of Medill."

Innovation: "Learning how to innovate might involve working with computer science students to build software that gathers or filters news," Youngman said. "It might mean using data and technology to expand the definition of 'marketing' to include the viral spread of important ideas from one engaged user to another. It could mean learning how to grab a piece of someone's attention span for a really big story when they'd rather focus on one of the two or three other things they're doing at the moment. What students learn and do will help them react when the media landscape changes again, a few months or few years from now."

Audience Understanding: Smith said: "Across America and, increasingly, across the world we live a media life-style - from the time we get up in the morning until the time we fall asleep at night, we are surrounded by and use media. It is important to understand how and why and when and where media are used so that we can deliver the right message to the right audience through the right channel for the right device at the right time. Understanding what motivates media usage helps the journalist, advertiser, publicist or manager to deliver a more meaningful or valued message and to engage the consumer. Our classes grow from our own research, teach the skills of how consumers use media, and how to use and develop user-research - these are essential skills today."

Content Creation: "In this new multi-media universe, local media can be global and global media can be local," said Smith. "Also the new media are extremely personal. So the journalist, advertiser or marketer has to think about stories told on a variety of levels. We already know that the rules that govern content in social communities are different from the rules that we teach journalists. So, content creation has to become fluid and targeted at the same time. It is increasingly driven by new devices and younger generations' inclination for interactivity. It is not just doing a great ad or writing an investigative piece, it is also about creating an environment where readers-users help. Our classes in the content creation track are aimed at enhancing the skills of storytelling for newer media and new audiences."

Marketing: Smith said: "When I talk with Medill or Kellogg students about becoming a media brand in this digital age, I argue that it necessitates more than understanding the marketing function - it demands a marketing mindset. For media companies that means creating a customer-centric focus. For journalists, that means also having the skills of the marketer. For the media entrepreneur, that means knowing the relevance and importance of your brand and building from there. We see this in the blogosphere where some brand-name pioneers have followed a clear path - Know your passion. Create a clear, authoritative, respected voice. Always maintain your independence. Drive traffic, and partner when the opportunity arises with bigger players."

Medill is accepting applications to the track from candidates with at least seven years of experience and invites them to choose from a broad array of graduate-level classes in Journalism, Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) and Media Management.

More information on the track for experienced professionals is here.

The application form is here.

For more information, please contact:

Mike Smith, Executive Director, Media Management Center
m-smith3@northwestern.edu

Anne Penway, Director of Admissions, Medill
a-penway@northwestern.edu

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Previously: Northwestern Announces a New Master's track at Medill

Doha, Qatar -- Northwestern University launched its first executive media training events in Qatar in May, which was attended by over 60 local media professionals. Launched in connection with the Qatar Foundation's Management Education and Research Center (MERC) and taught by professors from Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism, Kellogg School of Management, Media Management Center, and Northwestern University in Qatar, the sessions focused on the global media transformation. The workshop was a Qatar Foundation initiative to encourage local journalists and editors to benefit from its newest university, Northwestern University in Qatar, which offers world-class academic programs in journalism and communication as well as its new center focused on executive education and research.

Explaining the objective of this event, Dr. Fathy Saoud, President of Qatar Foundation stated: "One of our major objectives has been to introduce executive quality education programs in order to leverage local capabilities in all fields. Today, we are delighted to be working with our newest university partner, Northwestern University to provide world-class training in journalism, marketing and communication."

Dr. Ahmed Hasnah, Associate VP for Higher Education at Qatar Foundation, noted, "as part of the successful implementation of Qatar Foundation's mission in education, research, and community development, as well as to meet the needs of the country and region, not only undergraduate degrees will be offered but an increasing number of graduate programs and training events are beginning to be offered under the auspices of Qatar Foundation."

Sessions were taught by Michael P. Smith, the Executive Director of Northwestern's Media Management Center, John Lavine, the dean of Medill School of Journalism, and Richard J. Roth, Senior Associate Dean for Journalism at Northwestern University in Qatar. Training sessions at the workshop highlighted the following areas: trends reshaping media, global best practice in media growth and how to increase revenue through advertising.

John Lavine noted that this event was an opportunity to test the demand for training sessions the university is considering having in the future: "Media management executive and continuing education expands on Northwestern's efforts to partner with media organizations in Qatar to create educational and professional opportunities for its workforce. This event shared Northwestern University's research, and knowledge of the changing global media field. We feel we learned a lot about the needs of media leaders and professionals over these two days that will help us shape potential executive and professional education programs for the future."

The event was attended by senior leaders, editors and marketing executives from the Peninsula newspaper, Qatar Tribune, Al Jazeera television, Qatar Foundation, as well as other government agencies and corporations.

Learn what kind of news Web site would attract and interest teenagers - and many other people, too - from a new report and upcoming one-hour Webinar by the Newspaper Association of America Foundation and the Media Management Center at Northwestern University.

In the report and Webinar, researchers who developed and tested Web prototypes with teens in focus groups around the country outline "Ten Key Lessons About Serving Young Audiences." And they demonstrate exactly how current news sites actively repel teen readers. The results will surprise you.

Click here to download a copy of the report.

To sign up for a free one-hour Webinar on the report April 23 at 1 p.m. Central Time, go here.

The NAA Foundation and the Media Management Center teamed up to explore and put to the test better ways to match the online news preferences of teens. Based on the findings of previous research with young people, researchers developed a series of prototypes of home pages and story-level pages, then tested them with 96 teenagers in focus groups in six cities: Fresno; Denver; Philadelphia; Springfield, IL; Fort Lauderdale and Orangeburg, SC. Teens' responses were remarkably and overwhelmingly consistent, regardless of market size or location.

Researchers found that the answer isn't to dilute the news for teens, but to be bolder. Given that teen responses were very similar to those of adults who are light readers, researchers recommend creating a new type of site - not just for teens, but for all people who lack experience with news and have a limited amount of time to get engaged with it.

For more information, contact:

• Vivian Vahlberg: v-vahlberg@northwestern.edu
• Stacy Lynch: stacy.l.lynch@gmail.com
• Jeanne Fox-Alston: jeanne.foxalston@naa.org