"Earn Your Press Pass" Online Training

It’s time to “Earn Your Press Pass” through FREE video training that covers the basics of community journalism.  (A benefit of OPA membership.)

This on-demand program is designed to teach journalism fundamentals to new reporters with little to no experience so they learn to create valuable news coverage. Recruiting a new experienced reporter can be difficult, but if you find someone that wants to write and cover their community, then this course will teach them the journalism basics to succeed. Long-time reporters may even pick up a few tips! 

Course Topics:

A variety of practical course topics are offered. Each video is around 10 minutes in length; and the full course is approximately eight hours. Some PDF materials are also available with certain courses so you can print or save them for easy reference. 

Video Training covers:

• Interviewing (6 videos)
• Types of Stories (8 videos)
• Writing Techniques (6 videos)
• Editing (3 videos)
• Journalist Rights & Ethics (4 videos)
• Photography (3 videos)
• Newspaper Terms and
• AP Style Common Rules

A user can log in when they want to brush up on a particular topic or when they find a free hour. The videos may be watched in any order and at your own pace. Then when a user completes all courses, they receive a certificate of completion. There are no assignments or quizzes, so there’s no need to stress. Just focus on digesting the information to be ready for future assignments.

“Earn Your Press Pass” was developed by Kansas Publishing Ventures in 2022. Owners Joey and Lindsey Young own three weekly newspapers and a few marketing businesses in southeast Kansas. Lindsey, a former journalism teacher, expertly teaches the basics in the course videos.

Are you ready to sign up?

• your name
• email address and 
• news organization name.

Register for Access

Access provided to only OPA member publication staffs.