News Corp Australia, Google, and Melbourne Business School collaborated to address the skill gap in journalism through the Digital News Academy. The programme, launched in 2022, focuses on enhancing skills like audio and video production, data journalism, and social media. Over 30 experts have engaged in building a curriculum that suits learners at any career stage and fosters collaboration. With nearly 600 learners across 40 newsgroups worldwide, the academy has demonstrated clear individual and industry results.

---

Journalism needed a grassroots revolution.  It’s an industry facing rapidly changing technologies, platforms and business models.

Historically, newsrooms struggled – and often failed – to provide relevant ongoing training and professional development, with some journalists working without the opportunity of learning vital new digital skills and tools.

In early 2022, the Digital News Academy was launched, a world-first initiative to train working journalists in digital skills.

News Corp Australia (NCA), Google and Melbourne Business School (MBS) combined the knowledge and resources of leading media, technology and education organisations to drive grassroots change and deliver a stronger future for journalism.

A key taxonomy of skillset, toolkit, and mindset was factored in as objectives were identified, learning architecture was developed, a Learning Management System was selected and curriculum was built to cover mobile journalism, multichannel and vertical storytelling, audience engagement, verification, data journalism and in-depth reporting using AI with Google Pinpoint. More than 30 world-class subject matter experts were engaged.

Impact, learner experience, engagement and completion reporting provide quantitative and qualitative feedback, demonstrating clear individual and industry results.

Three Australian newsgroups were represented in the pilot. Today, more than 45 newsgroups spanning Australia, New Zealand, the US and UK are on board, with close to 700 learners involved.

This is our story.

How the DNA began

The initial commitment stemmed from discussions between the Executive Chairman of News Corp Australia, Michael Miller, and Google Australia & New Zealand VP Mel Silva, which identified their vision for an academy.

NCA and Google approached MBS in 2021 with a challenge – to devise, develop and deliver a training programme within the year.

The Discovery and Design process involved detailed documentation delivered after extensive interviews and focus groups with industry stakeholders.

The exercise uncovered a vast range of potential curriculum areas, and responses were largely focused on skills and tools required to improve practice and make tasks easier.

Journalists reported being time-poor, so any solution had to be targeted, easy to access and follow from any location, from metropolitan centres to remote rural sites.

Any solution needed to be practically focused and an extension of their newsroom practice, creating and fostering community and establishing an equitable centre of learning.

Objectives

The Discovery & Define document outlined the preliminary primary objectives for the Digital News Academy to uplift capability, empower journalists to engage existing and new audiences and build a sustainable business model for local and regional journalism.

The desired impact was to create a world-first academy model that was accessible and relevant to journalists at all career stages and locations, adaptable to teach evolving digital skills, practical and integrated into newsroom practice.

The academy would build and foster community and contribute to a sustainable and thriving news industry.

The Programme

All stages of design and development received input from Google, NCA and key MBS representatives with regular design/programme working group meetings and workshops.

During the Define stage, the MBS design team developed a delivery model for an effective, bite-sized skills, tools and mindset-focused programme.

A structure was suggested to provide synchronous and asynchronous components allowing for immersive Live Labs with world-class speakers, interactivity, high-quality self-paced content in a mobile-first LMS, drop-in sessions and learner communities called pods.

Sprints (or topics) were designed to run for four weeks, with nine sprints in the programme, evenly sectioned into Foundation, Intermediate and Breakthrough modules.

Each learning sprint was broken into an introductory video, Live Lab, Reflection, three-hour self-paced Explore section and activity-centred Embed section.

Each sprint would involve approximately 8-12 hours of learning.

Gnowbe, a mobile-first LMS, was adopted to facilitate the agreed learning architecture.

Gnowbe was selected for its go-anywhere capabilities and ease of use for learners to engage with content and undertake activities.

The choice of technologies through Gnowbe and Google Meet supported the time-poor nature of learners, as well as time zone differences and locations.

Curriculum planning

While the Discovery document partially informed the initial stages of curriculum planning, MBS appointed Academy Director Sonja Heydeman to identify and develop key themes and content and deliver the programme.

Heydeman’s intent for the programme was to develop a curriculum that resulted in tangible newsroom outputs, embracing practice pedagogy and pedagogies of inquiry-based and experiential learning.

A starter curriculum matrix was developed, validated and expanded with the support of numerous subject matter experts.

Topics would include: mobile journalism, multichannel and vertical storytelling, engaging with audiences, verification, statistics, data journalism – the basics, visualisation and in-depth reporting using the AI tool, Google Pinpoint.

Based on feedback and review, the content was refined and/or amended. Regular content and design reviews are in place.

Learning achievement was designed to gauge individual development in key skill sets and showcase how skills developed across the programme had translated directly into learners’ journalism.

Successful completion of each of the three modules and completion of the overall programme receive recognition with electronic badges.

Subject Matter Experts

Multiple world-class SMEs were consulted and integrated into synchronous and asynchronous elements of the programme.

So far, more than a dozen experts have contributed videos, activities and checklists for self-paced content and dozens of Live Lab guests have been engaged.

Experts include Emmy Award-winning mobile journalist Mike Castellucci, the BBC’s Dougal Shaw, the Wall Street Journal’s Julia Munslow, Information is Beautiful’s David McCandless, Verification expert Eoghan Sweeney, and Pulitzer finalist MaryJo Webster.  

Proven Business Impact

The programme has achieved exceptional results against key measures.

The DNA’s evaluation team conducts fortnightly data sweeps in Gnowbe to track engagement and completion rates for each cohort at different stages in the programme.

Impact reporting, determining the translation of curriculum into newsroom practice, is conducted at the end of each module, as well as Learner Experience surveys and focus groups.  This involves quantitative and qualitative feedback.

Impact:

• Impact: Reports show excellent application of learning. Between 81% and 94% of respondents report the programme’s curriculum translates directly to practice.
• Learner completion rates consistently sit above 80%
  and more frequently above 90%.
• The Learner Experience surveys record how useful learners find the experience. The three most recent surveys show 95%, 100% and 100% of respondents agreed/somewhat agreed the experience was useful.

The initiative has changed the way journalists can tell stories, using new tools and skills to reach new audiences.

• NCA Motoring Editor, David McCowen: “The Digital News Academy represents the best training I’ve had in almost 20 years as a journalist. The programme has given me the tools and confidence to improve reader engagement (e.g. video and interactive graphics resulting in more time spent on-site), boost social media performance (2m+ video views on TikTok) and develop techniques for more effective journalism (using spreadsheet tools to drive data stories).”

For News Corp Australia, the DNA is contributing to a mindset shift business-wide to digital first. As leaders in media, NCA now also leads in training, including integrating senior leaders in key delivery roles.

Head of Academy and NCA Group Executive, Corporate Affairs, Policy and Government Relations Campbell Reid said that with hundreds of participants from more than 45 news organisations, the Academy’s momentum exceeded all expectations.

“Working journalists who are part of the DNA programme are inspiring ground-up change in the way the organisations they work for are creating and publishing stories to meet the demands of today’s digital audiences.

“The programme is making a material difference to individual journalists and their professional skill levels and, just as importantly, it is delivering tangible benefits to the companies they work for.”

Google’s investment in the DNA has furthered its mission to support regional and local journalism, empower journalists to develop their careers and newsrooms for the future, as well as promote diversity of voices and publications.

Google’s Head of News Partnerships for Australia and New Zealand, Nic Hopkins, said the Digital News Academy’s e-learning programme had allowed journalists from diverse newsgroups to thrive and build essential skills for modern newsrooms.

“The Digital News Academy has set a new standard for professional development in news.”

Building on the success of the DNA, MBS has developed its next academy, to support the strategic direction of a global civil engineering and infrastructure organisation.

The DNA has won numerous awards for excellence in partnership, content
and e-learning. 

The future

From the outset, all parties knew the DNA would be a challenging project – to develop and deliver a programme with the capacity to bring about individual and industry change.

Google, NCA and MBS remain committed to the goals and outcomes for individual and industry success – the marriage of three interdisciplinary groups harnessing the skills, resources and unwavering commitment to a better future for the journalism industry.

See other articles from Excellence in Practice 2024.