Practically all news media offer their employees a chance to follow courses or complete their education. There are, however, several pronounced differences, as is clear from the answers of the journalists interviewed. In more than half of the cases under review, the focus is on internal training sessions in which the editorial staff as a whole participates. The interviewed journalists from De Gelderlander, NOS and nu.nl explicitly point out that, in addition to the internal training sessions, they can also take external courses.
Journalists working for NoS also mention ongoing training programs, which can be internal as well as external, the latter bought from the Media Academy. Most of the courses focus on management and various training courses deal with design, online search strategies, final editing, writing, style, image processing and conducting interviews. Three journalists emphatically mention three technical courses, viz. finance for non-financials (De Gelderlander), sessions with lawyers including WoB procedures (on access to government records) (De Telegraaf) and training in legal issues and in accountancy (Het Financieele Dagblad).
At De Gelderlander, every journalist can resort to a budget of €500, which he or she can use discretionally; most editorial staffs, however, have a kitty reserved for training of their members. However, at half of the news media studied, the journalists concerned paint a gloomy picture of the time and the budget available. This may be due to economies and falling revenues from the advertising market.
