2024 Fellows Wrap Second Session
April 3, 2024
The Media Transformation Challenge Class of 2024 wrapped week two of its year-long fellowship at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida, last week.
Fellows kicked off the week with individual updates on their year-long performance-driven challenges. In small groups, each Fellow presented their North Star, Metrics for Success, an Early Win and Emerging Strategies. Updates included:
– A mid-market legacy organization is appealing to Millennials to get them to become fans and subscribers by upping their marketing and improving non-news editorial content. A sports campaign saw 70% of its social shares coming from Millennials, up from an average of 50%.
– A global news cooperative is building a passport program, wherein mid-career journalists spend two weeks in a different area of the business to increase skill sets and improve holistic understanding. Participating staffers and managers rated the program a “10” and others are clamoring to participate.
– By taking a “coffee shop” approach with its homepage, a leading European daily news organization was able to increase the number of articles read per day AND time per visit by 4%.
Fellows also learned about their temperament types from MTC Faculty and Myers-Briggs expert Karen Baum Gordon.
And MTC Coach Fran Scarlett gave the cohort a deep-dive on how to formulate effective strategies, including shifting the focus on their core competencies, assessing deficiency and aspiration gaps, learning the ins and outs of the Business Model Canvas, and tapping into the Value Wheel.
And of course, the cohort built community by kayaking, shuffle boarding, and eating their way through St. Pete. Fellows convene again in June in Salt Lake City for Week Three.