I first came to Poynter as a visiting scholar, hired by the Institute’s president, Jim Naughton. This memo went to the National Advisory Board and Poynter staff ahead of its meeting, and it is Naughton making the case for distance learning.
He opens with the challenge of teaching “sequencing” to beat reporters and editors, admits he’d fudge it, then describes how Tom French did it in a seminar — an email from French’s 10-year-old son explaining a black eye (“nat + hockey stick + momentum + my eye + ow”), two clips from “Sling Blade,” and Monet’s paintings of the cathedral at Rouen. What stayed with Naughton was the size of the room:
I kept thinking how extraordinary such a performance would be if made available to thousands of aspiring writers who couldn’t or didn’t get to attend a Poynter seminar.
Yes, I’m becoming a convert to e-Learning.
The memo notes that Dean Karen Dunlap had briefed the Board of Trustees on the faculty’s exploration of distance learning — “less structured, more self-guided” than what API and others were doing — and recounts Naughton emailing Hodding Carter at the Knight Foundation about collaborating. Carter replied almost immediately that the suggestion “comes at a good time”:
Eric Newton of Knight followed, saying they had been “thinking about Poynter as perfect” to collaborate on what they called “News University.” Naughton’s aside: “News U. Has a certain ring to it.”
And then my name appears, which is why this document is in my files:
As a Poynter visiting scholar, Howard Finberg has guided a faculty task force in considering e-learning. He’s drafted a report outlining our next steps and providing a focus for our discussions with the Knight Foundation.
Naughton’s closing was cautious — “We’ll see where this palaver goes” — but he saw the potential in combining Knight resources and Poynter teaching.