I just banned a spammer from the site. Please let me know if you get any spam from Newscoach2. I want to leave it open, but if this becomes a recurring problem, I will close it or shut it down.

Several of my staff collaborated on a series that started today, "The Year of the River." It was an occasion for praise. The journalists accomplished some important objectives we have for our newsroom, so I wrote my note to the staff focusing on these accomplishments and making some points about some of our priorities. Effective praise does more than making people feel good. It's a training tool that says, "Look at this. Here's ho… Continue

A number of sites offer great exercises for editing students. They include: Newsroom 101, which has tons of style and grammar exercises, the ACES Web site, which has online quizzes and other training resources, and the Purdue Writing Lab.

We need to compile a listing of the best sites to provide materials, discussions and other fodder for newsroom training.

I'll get things started with a plug for No Train, No Gain, still number one when you Google "newsroom training." NTNG hasn't grown much lately, partly because I've been too busy to do my old job of content coordinator and bug people to provide materials and partly because Dolf Els, our webmaster, has been too busy to post the mater… Continue