“The training exceeded my expectations. The diversity of trainers and sessions was very beneficial, and it helped us build a lot of capacity, mainly how to be leaders of a newsroom, not only managers,” says Hagar Gamil, Radio El Nil, one of the 27 women journalists from Egypt who completed the WAN-IFRA Women in News Leadership Accelerator Media Management Training this week.
The training, that took place over 10 days in partnership with the American University in Cairo is in its fifth consecutive year in the MENA region but was delivered for the first time online due to restrictions from COVID-19. According to Fatemah Farag, WIN Director in the Arab region, “COVID-19 has disrupted business and everyone’s daily lives. It has created distance between colleagues and makes it hard to find a sense of community. We are so proud to have been able to bring this course together online, with the help of AUC, so that our community of WINners can continue their education and professional development.”
Empowering the next generation of newsroom leaders
During the 10 days, WINners attended several sessions aimed at building their capacities in managing newsrooms and focused on understanding the media landscape, media laws, human resource management, targeting audience and data analysis, managing sexual harassment in media organisations, communication and marketing skills, leadership skills, financial skills and gender balance.
“This type of trainings is challenging because the media landscape and audience interests are changing every day,” said Dr. Inas Abu Yussef, Lead Trainer of the Media Management Training. “They have to learn how to satisfy the audience, and at the same time, how to make women more capable in managing newsrooms and setting up new projects. This is especially importantly as we rarely find a woman as an Editor-in-chief,” said Dr. Abu Yussef.
On the last day of the training, WINners presented their final projects which were developed over the course of the training. The projects helped WINners apply the skills they acquired during sessions. These projects included a data journalism website, a news platform focusing on education, a website targeting teenagers to motivate them to be more involved in the public life and an online learning platform. The projects were built according to inputs from market research, SWOT analysis, a detailed human resource methodology and a practical financial plan, specifically for a targeted audience.
Testimonials from the WINners
“Reading “10 days of online training” is a long commitment, especially for women journalists who are working from home, and have to take care of children. Despite the long training hours and the density of the training material, it was eye opening. I learned how to look more critically at gender balance in the news and how to look at content from a different perspective. It also helped me have a clear vision for my future to work towards,” says Saymaa Abdel Hady, Al Ahram.
“Through the training I learned efficient leadership skills, the difference between a manager and a leader and promoting and marketing to make a project successful,” says Amira Mohammed, Welad Al Balad
“This training was a good opportunity to open up for a newer newsroom and a newer media in the Arab region. It is very important to discuss women and gender [issues], especially for those who are highly qualified, and to help them get the scientific support they need to be ready when it is time to take over in a newsroom or even to begin their own projects,” says Inas Abu Yussef.
