Florida Press Association joins “Earn Your Press Pass” network

The Florida Press Association and all of its member newspapers free of charge now have access to the “Earn Your Press Pass” course developed recently by Kansas Publishing Ventures (KPV) in conjunction with the Kansas Press Association. This course is another value added FPA member benefit provided to your newsrooms as we continue to hear from you that more “back to the basics” training is needed at our local newspapers.

The course is an online, on-demand journalism crash course designed to aid newspapers in the fight to recruit people to their rural newsrooms. The course isn’t designed to replace journalism school but rather allow newsrooms to recruit people who already live in and are passionate about the communities the newspaper serves.

“The labor shortage is real, and finding former journalists or recent journalism school graduates to move to smaller communities is nearly impossible,” KPV majority owner Joey Young said. “The purpose of the course is to give the basics to a solid candidate who just needs a little bit of training to make for a good reporter candidate.”

Course instructor Lindsey Young is uniquely qualified to teach the course with over 10 years of high school instruction under her belt before joining her and her husband’s company, Kansas Publishing Ventures, full time in 2016. Lindsey has the teaching background and the practical newsroom know-how that makes for a perfect training partner for newsrooms.

“I wanted to create something that feels more like a conversation with a well-informed friend than a traditional class,” Lindsey said. “There aren’t any homework assignments or quizzes. Instead, the ‘test’ for Earn Your Press Pass users will be becoming a part of their community newspaper and writing about local issues.”

The course outlines basics like newspaper jargon, interviewing skills, editing, simple photography, etc.

For more information or to sign up, please contact, Vanessa Lozada at vlozada@mediagenius.com