Creating the maximum impact on individuals and organizations was a major priority as the Knight Digital Media Center developed and adapted its programs. KDMC recognized in particular that organizations had to change if individuals were going to be able to innovate and contribute to the development of the enterprise.

The design of our programs reflected that:

• Contents

  Introduction

  Key learning

  Journalism leadership & strategy

  Learning partnerships

  News entrepreneurship

  Knight community information challenge

  KDMC consultancy

  An effective digital strategy rests on an "audience first" approach, rather than an initial focus on tools. This approach is often difficult for established organizations to achieve without facilitation so putting audience front and center was a key element of KDMC programs.

• Skills training has the most impact when it is aligned with a strategy and tactics that both managers and staff understand.  That meant our programs needed to teach strategic thinking and planning as well as effective leadership communication.
• In legacy organizations, frontline journalists will embrace change if they play a meaningful role in deciding what changes are needed and have access to expertise and facilitation to determine what needs to be done. While encouraging leaders to push as much decision-making as possible within the organization, KDMC also often played devil's advocate when decisions were being made in a vacuum.
• Training programs have the most impact when they require and help participants actually do something, such as developing and implementing a strategic plan. KDMC typically required that participants in intensive programs develop strategic and implementation plans over the course of the program.
• Interviewing and surveying participants in advance of the program is critical to shaping training programs that will meet participants where they are and help them advance. This became standard practice at KDMC, and we found the process also helped participants focus on what they wanted to accomplish so they could hit the ground running when the training began.
• Training a small team from an organization improves communication and creates more potential for traction once the team returns to their organization. As its training model evolved, KDMC typically invited pairs to its intensive training programs.
• Follow up coaching after participants returned to their organizations and implemented changes greatly increased the effectiveness and impact of training.

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