Poynter’s News University, which provides affordable journalism-related training for writers, editors, bloggers and students, has nearly 200,000 registered users. To celebrate they are sharing the stories of users and offering prizes, including an Apple iPad, for the best ones.

A previous contest winner, school newspaper advisor and English teacher Elisabeth McMullin wrote, “I was surfing the Web and trying to find some help when a high school newspaper advisors resource site pointed to NewsU. You were the answer to a desperate prayer from a desperate advisor! Everything I saw was excellent and easy to understand.” 

One of this year’s contestants, Drew Selman of the St. Louis Photojournalism Project, explained the importance of NewsU for their project.  “Their practical classes along with courses that cover more in-depth topics keep my photographers well armed to gather truly great stories,” he said.

 NewsU’s online resources include a wide variety of webinars and self-directed courses. Hundreds of courses, including Introduction to Reporting, Cleaning Your Copy and First Amendment for the High School Journalists are free thanks to the support from a Knight grant.  NewsU plans to expand its curriculum with additional courses with topics including investigative journalism, business, Web design and user interface design and understanding media audiences.

NewsU is also launching The J101 Project, a 16-week, college credit Introduction to Journalism course that will be available to students at NewsU’s partner schools: Florida Atlantic University, Missouri State University and California State University, Fullerton.