Sulzberger Program: Course Description

Sulzberger Project Adviser Charles Baum congratulates James Schachter of the New York Times during 2008 Sulzberger Fellowship graduation ceremonies.
Photo/Rebecca Castillo

Fellows will be expected to identify the most critical challenges confronting their news organizations. Leading academic and professional authorities in the industry will guide fellows through classroom lectures, panel sessions and breakout discussions on the following issues:

• Journalistic values
• Digital Revolution
• Strategy
• Marketing
• Community demographics
• Business models
• Management economics
• Budgeting
• Ethical decision making
• First Amendment challenges
• Industry and ownership structures
• Effective communication skills
• Personal performance skills
• Leadership

Phase I

During the first week on campus, fellows will work with their advisers and peers to discuss how course content can best be used to meet their specific goals for achieving success in their workplace. They will also attend lectures offered by members of the Columbia School of Business Executive Leadership program. At the end of this first session, fellows will be ready to define a specific set of initiatives for overcoming their workplace challenge.

Phase II

Fellows will modify their strategies and goals at their organizations over the next six to eight weeks. They will then gather on campus for three days in March to finalize project goals and create a communications/strategic game plan. They will also be assigned the next set of steps to help with their project.

Throughout this process, fellows will become familiar with the typical phases of leading change – the hallmarks that distinguish launching, building momentum and transitioning to completion. The assignments following the second session are customized to ensure success.

Phase III

Fellows will be expected to produce another progress report prior to this third week-long session on campus, in May or June. This week will be devoted to discussing how news businesses can incorporate the legitimate concern for value – money, profits, competitive competence – with an equally legitimate concern for values involved with the gathering and presentation of news and information.

Phase IV

The final full-week session is held in the fall and is designed to help the fellows analyze their results to date. The final assignment involves producing reports outlining the steps they took to reach their final outcomes. The reports are due by the end of the year. A summary of the results will be posted on the Sulzberger program website, and be sent to the Sulzberger sisters who endowed the project.

Phase V

Certificates will be presented at the end of the program during a full-day meeting in mid-January that includes a meeting with the incoming Sulzberger class and a celebration dinner. The fellow’s CEO and top executives will be invited to attend the final session.

"The Punch Sulzberger News Media Executive Leadership program that Arlene Morgan coordinates at the Columbia School of Journalism is remarkable in its ability to galvanize decision-makers within the journalism community towards initiatives that can move the profession smoothly and successfully into a developing new paradigm, even to the point of helping define that new paradigm. It would be difficult to over-estimate the importance of this unique effort," said Aaron Barlow, senior contributing editor, ePluribus Media.