2019 Kneeland Project Application Window Now Open
posted on 12.10.2018The Kneeland Project, a nationally-known newsroom leadership development program, celebrated its 20th anniversary this fall. In two decades, more than 500 U.S. television news directors and news executives have been to a Kneeland New Media Leadership Forum.
Several were news directors who were helming a Texas TV newsroom when they attended and who have since moved out of state, but even so, there are more than 25 Kneeland Fellows currently leading a Texas television newsroom. There have even been a few Kneeland Fellows who have become general managers of stations.
Kneeland brings together a rotating faculty of trainers to provide insight and tools for leading television newsrooms in today’s broadcast, online and mobile landscape. In these forums, new and veteran television news directors learn systems and approaches that address fostering a culture of enterprise reporting, developing staff coaching skills, managing multi-generational newsrooms, adapting to new technologies, achieving work/life balance and a host of other topics.
Many Kneeland attendees say the experience is life-altering, and often, the most significant professional development they have ever received.
2019 application window open
The Kneeland Project is now seeking applications for its next leadership session for TV news directors, which will be held Feb. 27 - March 2, 2019, in Austin at the TAB offices.
The deadline for applications is Jan. 11, 2019. Thanks to generous individual and corporate broadcast funders, Kneeland forums are nearly free for the small pool of selected applicants. The Kneeland Project pays all tuition costs, as well as accommodations. Participants cover only transportation and several meals.
If you are looking for a worthy end-of-year charitable donation that benefits the broadcast industry, consider contributing to the Kneeland Project, a 501c3 organization.
TAB’s role in Kneeland’s beginnings
When the longtime news director of Austin’s KVUE-TV, Carole Kneeland, passed away from cancer on Jan. 26, 1998, her husband and friends, including TAB’s late president Ann Arnold, got together to honor one of her last wishes – to create a newsroom leadership training effort.
Carole’s expertise in journalism and in managing an award-winning, innovative newsroom was nationally-recognized. So was her championing of newsrooms’ cause at the Texas Legislature and in the courtroom.
Kneeland started her broadcast career as a reporter for Houston’s KAUM-FM in the early 1970’s and after a few years joined Houston’s KPRC-TV, working for TAB’s 1998 Pioneer Broadcaster of the Year, News Director Ray Miller. She spent most of the 1980s as WFAA-TV’s Capitol bureau chief before taking over the helm of the KVUE newsroom.
TAB honored her career efforts with its 1997 Broadcaster of the Year award. It was her belief that newsroom managers often received little or no training to help them succeed in the high-pressure environment of running a television newsroom. She hoped we could pass along best practices for managing newsrooms based upon her and others’ experience, and so The Kneeland Project was born in February of 1998.
It began with a single, multi-day leadership forum in the fall of 1998 and has since grown to two training sessions a year as well as an online training component. TAB has helped The Kneeland Project in many ways by providing meeting space, administrative help, and fundraising assistance. Michael Schneider, TAB’s V.P., Legislative and Regulatory Affairs, has served on the Kneeland board of directors for many years.
TAB is proud to have been part of this effort and to have helped many Texas news directors through its involvement.
Questions? Contact TAB's Michael Schneider or call (512) 322-9944.
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