Editors Hear About ‘The Value Of Friendship’

A presentation extolling the virtues of corporate-academic partnerships in journalism was delivered to international editors last week.

The group visited Preston as part of a whistle-stop UK tour to attend a multimedia talk about the joint initiative between the University of Central Lancashire (UClan) and publishing group Johnston Press (JP).

[Disclosure – this blog is a product of the partnership.]

Presenters at the World Editors Forum (WEF) event discussed the importance of the partnership to both parties in the setting of UClan’s new Sandbox development centre.

Among the speakers was David Rowell from JP who emphasised the importance to the company of the digital workshops for weekly editors.

Rowell said about 150 editors had so far visited UClan to participate in the seminars, which had “inspired their thinking” and helped them “come up with their own ideas for moving forward”.

JP’s head of editorial development also asserted that the workshops had “brought the JP family together” as editors kept in contact after attending to share best practice tips with their colleagues from across the UK.

Meanwhile, UClan’s head of journalism Mike Ward explained the benefits of the partnership to the university and stated both parties are “excited” about the changes brought about by the dual approach.

The group of international editors visited the UK on a WEF Study Tour, which also included visits to the Guardian, Financial Times and Daily Telegraph newsrooms.

According to the forum’s website, the aim of the tour was “to visit several of the industry’s most famous examples of integration to see how their once separate newsrooms work together and how they trained their journalists to adapt to the multimedia world”.