The Learning Newsroom program helps newspapers improve readership by improving newsroom training and culture. Experts help journalists improve communication, agree on priorities and set up strategic training.

"These newsrooms want to innovate to attract and hold new readers," said Learning Newsroom Project Director Vickey Williams. "They are willing to look at how to develop their people and change the way they work to produce a better newspaper."

Nebraska's Journal Star was a member of the Readership Institute's 2004 New Reader Survey. Texas' Corpus Christi Caller-Times is part of an E.W. Scripps Co. organizational development pilot.

"The staffs of these papers provide local news that is irreplaceable in their communities," said Andrew B. Davis, API president and executive director.

The program is funded through a $1 million grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

"This is groundbreaking work," said J. Scott Bosley, ASNE's executive director. "If the Learning Newsroom is successful, better-trained journalists will be able to work in a more constructive and adaptive work environment."

As many as 10 newsrooms will pilot the program. Lessons learned will be shared by ASNE and built into API's core curriculum when the pilots end in 2007.

Newsrooms already participating are The Bakersfield Californian, The Hamilton Spectator in Ontario, Canada, The Citizen-Times in Asheville, N.C., The Herald-Times in Bloomington, Ind., and The Telegraph in Nashua, N.H.

The Learning Newsroom is part of Knight's $11 million Newsroom Training Initiative. The initiative began in 2003 after 50 journalism groups nationwide called for a unified effort to increase both the amount of training available and the news industry's investment in it.

For details, see www.learningnewsroom.org.