Lillian Swanson, a senior editor who developed professional development programs at The Philadelphia Inquirer, has been named project manager for NewsTrain, Associated Press Managing Editors Association announced today.
NewsTrain is a three-year project to develop 45 state and regional workshops that will offer top quality training to thousands of the nation’s frontline editors. The project is supported by a $1 million grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, with additional support from the APME Foundation, The Associated Press, the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation and state and regional workshop sponsors. Swanson joins NewsTrain director Carol Nunnelley in leading the project.
“Lil’s experience is a perfect fit. We’re fortunate to have someone with her outstanding credentials,” said APME president Stuart Wilk, vice president/managing editor of The Dallas Morning News.
In 18 years at The Inquirer, Swanson, 51, was assistant managing editor/ombudsman, features editor and senior editor for staff development. She is president of Pennsylvania Society of Newspaper Editors. Swanson also has worked as a journalist with The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and The Associated Press.
“NewsTrain is a tremendous opportunity for editors on the front lines to learn how to be more effective leaders in their newsrooms. The journalists I know are passionate about their work and hungry to get better at what they do. Their news organizations will benefit, too. Providing high-quality professional development is one of the best ways to retain valuable journalists. Over the next three years, all across the country, NewsTrain will do its best to help weave professional development into the fabric of news organizations,” Swanson said.
NewsTrain is part of a $10 million, three-year training initiative launched in 2003 by Knight Foundation after 50 national journalism groups called for a unified, post-recession effort to increase both the amount of training available and the news industry’s investment in it. In addition to NewsTrain, other grants are creating Learning Newsroom Project, an effort to establish model learning environments; News University, an e-learning center; the Traveling Campus, a skills training program; and Tomorrow’s Workforce, a project to help industry leaders understand and measure benefits of professional development.
For more information about NewsTrain or this announcement, e-mail Lillian Swanson or Carol Nunnelley at [email protected] or call (212) 621-7505.
About Associated Press Managing Editors
The Associated Press Managing Editors is a professional, non-profit organization with a membership that includes editors, managing editors and their top assistants from more than 1,500 American newspapers affiliated with The Associated Press. APME’s mission is to assist editors in coping effectively with newsroom management challenges, to monitor service provided by The Associated Press and to support journalistic excellence. APME also sponsors the National Credibility Roundtables Project, national Time Out for Diversity and Accuracy and the International Project.
About Knight Foundation
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation promotes excellence in journalism worldwide and invests in the vitality of 26 U.S. communities where Knight brothers published newspapers. Since its first journalism grant in 1954, the foundation has given nearly $250 million to advance the education of journalists and freedom of the press.