Newsroom Leadership Programmes

Programme at a glance 

Leading Newsroom Change is our two-day course for senior media professionals focused on organisational and strategic challenges faced by news organisations. It takes place in person in Oxford.

Programme description 

The course focuses on discussions and presentations by industry experts specialising in organisational transformation, audience development, and business models. It’s an opportunity for participants to step back from day-to-day operations, share experiences off-the-record with colleagues from other news organisations, expand their professional networks, and develop strategies for their own organisations.

We cover topics including:

• Key digital transformation considerations for news media 

• Digital news consumption trends, including our Digital News Report

• Innovations in audience engagement and product development 

• Culture change in news organisations 

• Diversity, inclusion and representation  

• Generative AI and its implications for journalism 

• How to motivate your teams and guide them through change

• Business sustainability

Participants benefit from the input and expertise of their fellow attendees through structured group discussions and interactive sessions. The collaborative and interactive nature of the programme helps participants build a network of peers they can turn to for advice long after the course ends.    

Who is the course for? 

The course is for editors and senior managers with 10+ years of newsroom management experience interested in developing strategies for how to lead their teams through change. 

Previous participants have come from organisations including AFP, the BBC, El Pais, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Mediahuis, the Financial Times, Rest of World, Dagens Nyheter, DPG Media, The Straits Times, Politiken, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, and many others.

Upcoming courses 

• 26-27-28 February 2025 

• 21-22-23 May 2025 (*Fully booked*)

• 2-3-4 July 2025 

Cost and registration 
 
Cost: £2,500 per participant. This includes two evening dinners at Oxford University colleges and two lunches. Accommodation and travel are not included. 
 
Registration: For more information and to register please email Priscille Biehlmann with a short bio detailing your experience.

What previous participants say

Programme at a glance 

Essentials Skills for Newsroom Managers is our one-and-a-half-day course on the fundamentals of newsroom leadership, with a specific focus on people management. It takes place in person in Oxford.

Programme description

This course will help participants to develop their people management skills, both in terms of managing direct reports and managing up, create strategies to navigate change and promote effective communication within their teams, and build their professional network.  

Participants will learn practical insights on: 

• The market forces shaping the news industry and how this affects changes in the newsroom  

• Fostering healthy team dynamics and wellbeing  

• Having difficult conversations and providing effective feedback   

• How to effectively push for change within your organisation  

• Defining your leadership style

Participants also benefit from the input and expertise of their fellow attendees through structured group discussions and interactive sessions. The collaborative and interactive nature of the programme helps participants build a network of peers they can turn to for advice long after the course ends.

Who is the course for? 

• New and junior newsroom leaders who are looking to develop their management skills  

• Aspiring leaders about to step into a role where they will manage a team 

• Established leaders who want to refresh and solidify their approaches to team management 

Previous participants have come from organisations including AFP, Mediahuis, the BBC, The Financial Times, ZEIT Online, DPG, Radio Slovenija, OCCRP, and many others.  

Upcoming courses 

• 30-31 January 2025 

• 27-28 March 2025 

• 15-16 May 2025 

Cost and registration 

Cost: £1,500 including lunch and a dinner at an Oxford University college (travel and accommodation not included) 

Registration: To apply for our Essential Skills for Newsroom Managers course please complete this form

What previous participants say 

Each year we host several invitation-only events for senior executives and editors. These include:

• Editor-in-Chief and CEO Forum 

• Public Service News Forum 

• News Innovation Forum 

• Digital News Forum 

• Leading Climate-Focused Newsrooms 

We also create private bespoke leadership programmes for small, mid-size and global news organisations, for different stakeholders at all levels of seniority.  

We work with you to design, deliver and evaluate an executive education programme according to your organisation’s needs and strategic priorities.  

Previous organisations we worked with include the BBC, Dagens Nyheter, RFE/RL, the Daily Maverick, and Reuters News Agency.

Email Federica Cherubini for more information.

What previous participants say 

Federica is Director of Leadership Development at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. She hosts our open-admission programs and invitation-only forums in Oxford and is leading on expanding our leadership development activities, working closely with the rest of the senior management team to ensure our offers are on mission, deliver value for the growing number of participants, and are financially sustainable for the institute. 

Federica is an expert in newsroom operations and organisational change, with ten years experience spanning major publishers, research institutes and editorial networks around the world. 

Rasmus is Director of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and Professor of Political Communication at the University of Oxford. He was previously Director of Research at the Reuters Institute and Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Press/Politics. 

His work focuses on changes in the news media, on political communication, and the role of digital technologies in both. He has done extensive research on journalism, American politics, and various forms of activism, and a significant amount of comparative work in Western Europe and beyond. 

Recent books include The Changing Business of Journalism and its Implications for Democracy (2010, edited with David Levy), Ground Wars: Personalized Communication in Political Campaigns (2012), and Political Journalism in Transition: Western Europe in a Comparative Perspective (2014, edited with Raymond Kuhn). 

In 2014, he won the Doris Graber Award for best book on political communication published in the last ten years, awarded by the American Political Science Association, for Ground Wars. He is also recipient of the 2014 Tietgen Prize for his work on current changes in the news media. 

Tania Montalvo is the programme manager in our leadership development team. She is involved in the design and operation of courses in our portfolio and works with the team in developing and expanding our offer to our participants.

From 2017 she was Deputy Editorial Director at Animal Político, one of the most important news organisations in Mexico, where she coordinated investigations focused on corruption, human rights, inequality and violence. She also led multimedia, audience, and innovation teams to create stories in different formats for different audiences. 

Nic is a journalist and digital strategist who played a key role in shaping the BBC's internet services over more than a decade. 

He was a founding member of the BBC News Website, leading international coverage as World Editor (1997-2001). As Head of Product Development for BBC News he helped introduce innovations such as blogs, podcasting and on-demand video. Most recently he led digital teams, developing websites, mobile and interactive TV applications for News, Sport, Weather and Local. 

He has played an important part in the development of social media strategies and guidelines for the wider BBC. Nic was a Visiting Fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. He is married with three children and lives in London. 

Lucy is an expert on strategy, innovation and leadership and focuses on successful responses to the challenges of digitalization. She is Senior Visiting Research Associate at the Reuters Institute, Oxford University and Non-Executive Board Member of the NZZ Media Group and formerly of Swiss PSM broadcaster SRG and VIZRT, the media tech provider. Lucy advises leading companies worldwide industry on digital transformation strategy and implementation. She has held professorships at the University of Oslo, the Institute for Media and Entertainment New York (IESE) and the University of Jönköping. She keynotes frequently at international conferences and is the author of numerous books including Hearts and Minds: Harnessing Leadership, Culture and Talent to Really Go Digital, Going Digital, Innovators in Digital News, Strategic Management in the Media, and Inside the BBC and CNN. She holds a PhD and Habilitation from the University of St Gallen and an MBA from City Business School/Ashridge.  In 2020 she received an Honorary PhD in Media Economics from the University of Neuchatel, and in 2017 she was awarded the European Media Management Award for Excellent in Media Management Scholarship and Practice. 

Alison Gow has been a journalist for more than 30 years, working across print and digital brands including the Liverpool Echo, Daily Post, and WalesOnline. In two decades of working for Reach plc, she conceived and implemented a number of digital transformation projects and brand launches for Reach plc, including the digital-first newsroom model. Most recently Alison restructured the Nationals and Regionals multimedia departments. She left Reach last March to take a career break.)

Ramaa Sharma is an award winning media leader, an Ashridge trained executive coach and journalist. She has over 19 years experience in the media industry including 17 years at the BBC where she was a Senior Editor in News. 

During her time at the BBC, Ramaa led large scale digital transformation initiatives and edited numerous award winning multimedia journalism projects across the years. In 2020 she devised and led a Race & Inclusion programme for the BBC’s News board.

Combining her leadership, journalism and coaching experiences, Ramaa now offers digital transformation, culture change, content strategy and D&I consultancy as well as related CIPD sessions to leaders and fellow coaches.

Ramaa is also a member of the faculty at the Oxford University's Reuters Institute. At the Institute Ramaa speaks on the leadership courses, facilitates group coaching sessions and also presents podcasts, most recently on Authentic Leadership.

Lastly, Ramaa also conceives and presents documentaries largely on systemic inequalities. Her most recent documentary was for BBC Radio 4 called Culture on the Couch.

Mar is co-founder of The Self-Investigation. She is a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist, digital wellness educator and Acumen fellow working on raising awareness on how technology is changing the way we interact with ourselves, each other and as a society. She writes a column in Spanish newspaper El Confidencial on this topic. She’s committed to creating a healthier working culture in journalism to prevent others from burning out like she did after leading the technology and data work for the Panama Papers investigation.

Kim is co-founder of The Self-Investigation. She provides personal leadership coaching and mindfulness-based stress reduction and resilience training to a broad public, including journalists and change makers from around the world. Prior to starting her personal development work, she served as a global freedom of expression activist and later as a founder and then organizational advisor to many media, journalism and social justice support programs around the world. She believes creating a more balanced, compassionate and sustainable world starts with nurturing those qualities in ourselves. 

Jeremy is a media adviser with more than 30 years experience of the industry. He specialises in helping to build leadership teams and encourage managers to work collaboratively, creating team spirit and ways to share best practice. He is a former Editor-in-Chief for one of the biggest regional publishing companies in the UK, and was the Editor-in-Chief of the i newspaper, helping to build a new editorial team from scratch, following its acquistion by JPIMedia. Jeremy is the founding director of Chrysalis, a leadership and transformation consultancy.