APME is pleased to announce a new
project director for its popular regional New Train workshops. Veteran
editor and educator Linda Austin will run NewsTrain, a 10-year-old national
touring workshop serving journalists in their own cities. Programs are designed
to provide training in the skills, knowledge and information newsroom leaders
need in a rapidly changing media environment.
This year's News Train workshops will be
hosted in Vancouver, Canada; Columbus, Ohio; Las Vegas, Nev., and Austin,
Texas.
"APME looks forward to delivering the
high-quality, low-cost training to journalists that has been one of
our core initiatives and is thrilled that Linda Austin will lead our
efforts," said APME President Debra Adams Simmons.
Austin has been the executive director
of the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism and a
professor of practice at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of
Journalism and Mass Communication for the past five years. Before that, she was
the editor of the Lexington Herald-Leader in Kentucky; executive editor of The
News-Sentinel in Fort Wayne, Ind.; and managing editor of the News & Record
in Greensboro, N.C. She also held leadership positions at The
Philadelphia Inquirer, including business editor, graphics editor, assistant
managing editor/finance and editor/publisher of PhillyTech magazine. She was a
fellow in the Punch Sulzberger Executive News Media Leadership Program at
Columbia University’s Journalism School and earned a master’s degree in
educational technology from Arizona State University.
She will jump right in. The first News Train
of 2014 is April 25-26 in Vancouver.
“I want to continue helping journalists to
access high-quality, low-cost training after I leave the Reynolds Center in
March,” Austin said. “As a former APME member and NewsTrain attendee, I know
firsthand how essential this training program is. I’m honored to help continue
its proud tradition in its second decade.”