'N.Y. Times,' BBC Join Summer University Seminar

The New York Times Web Newsroom Editor Fiona Spruill, and BBC Assistant Editor of Interactivity Matthew Eltringham have joined the program for the WAN-IFRA "Summer University" seminar, July 5-7 in St. Paul de Vence, France.

Spruill will share her experience managing the team of 80 producers and editors for NYTimes.com, a staff focused on taking full advantage of the digital medium by creating original multimedia materials, encouraging reader participation and packaging the news in smart ways.

Eltringham, a senior editorial figure at the BBC for more than 15 years, is responsible for the team providing editorial engagement with social media. The User Generated Content Hub is now a core of BBC newsgathering and has been part of reporting every major domestic and international story over the last five years.

At WAN-IFRA's Summer University, Eltringham will speak about "social newsgathering" and techniques and tools used to obtain quality content from audiences and manage that content.

Limited to 25 people, the three-day seminar will examine the changing media landscape and how news publishers can adapt by developing new organizations and multi-platform editorial strategies, interacting with readers, and efficiently using new technologies.

For details and registration, visit www.wan-ifra.org/summeruniversity2010 and select a language from the list at the left of the page.

Other speakers from newspapers and WAN-IFRA include: Randy Covington, training director of the WAN-IFRA Newsplex Training Center at the University of South Carolina; Madeline Finnerty, president of Finnerty International, which provides training and organization development services; Jonathan Halls, principal of Jonathan Halls & Associates, which provides training in leadership, multimedia communication, professional success skills and corporate learning solutions; Gregorz Piechota, special projects editor at Agora group's Gazeta Wyborcza, in Poland; Denis Teyssou, head of Medialab, the Research and Development Division of Agence France Presse.

The success of the Summer University has led to an Asian version, a week-long residential program to be held in Hyderabad, India. The leadership development program, a first-of-its kind on the Indian sub-continent, will be conducted in association with the Indian School of Business and 9.9 School of Convergence.