Applications open for Sulzberger Executive Leadership Program

Fellows use the 21-week program to launch, accelerate, and implement a real-world project that is critical to the mission of their organizations and integrated into their day-to-day work.

The program begins with a two-week intensive at Columbia Journalism School January 2-12, 2024. Fellows then return to their organizations to immediately implement what they learned and are supported through a weekly virtual cohort meeting and one-on-one coaching. The program culminates back at Columbia for a final week-long intensive, including final project presentations, May 20-24, 2024.

Note: In-person sessions will adhere to CDC Covid-19 safety guidelines as well as all Covid-19 regulations and protocols required by New York City and Columbia University. Should any of these public health measures prevent in-person instruction, programming will be held virtually.

Focus Areas

• Leadership and Building a Culture of Innovation
• Venture Design Innovation Process
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
• Audience and Trends
• Marketing and Strategy
• Negotiations and Pitching

Each fellow is required to bring to the program an individual project of strategic importance to their news organization and of critical importance to their own role.

Financial Requirements

• Tuition is $20,000 for the complete program. Fees include course training, daily breakfast and lunches, and a few group dinners during the residency weeks. All other expenses, including travel and lodging, are the responsibility of participants and/or their sponsoring organizations. Participants can take advantage of Columbia discounts at area hotels.

How It Works?

• Week 1: The program begins with a five-day immersive project-based Venture Design Bootcamp at the New York City campus. Over the course of the week, fellows form small teams and build a new venture from scratch, learning both the process of building a business as well as the elements that need to come together to make a venture successful. This experiential learning also begins to turn a group of strangers into a cohort built on trust and authenticity that extends well beyond the course.
• Week 2: The program moves from the bootcamp model into workshops, case studies, and guest speaker events that dive deeper into concepts introduced in the first week. Led by Columbia Journalism and Business School faculty, topics include: Leadership, Interpersonal Dynamics, Marketing, Strategy, Negotiations, and Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion. Week Two ends with the first Design Review, where Fellows are able to fail fast and get feedback on their projects from the other members of the cohort.
• Weeks 3-20: Fellows return to their newsrooms and begin to apply the lessons learned. The fellows complete two-week sprints, in which they interrogate, test, and apply learnings to their own projects, using the same set of topics that they used in week one. Fellows have a weekly virtual meeting that rotates between getting feedback on their project deliverables and having intimate conversations with industry leaders. Fellows also have one-on-one coaching sessions with the Director.
• Week 21: The final week is back in New York City for final project presentations that prepare the fellows to seek support and resources from key stakeholders at their organizations. Fellows also visit with senior leaders at various NYC-based journalism institutions to see how the concepts they have learned throughout the course are applied in C-level roles.

Eligibility Criteria

• The Program is designed for senior and rising newsroom and business-of-news practitioners. Fellows come from a wide variety of news organizations, from the U.S. and internationally. They encourage organizations interested in fostering multidisciplinary collaboration to consider sending a team. They strongly encourage nominations of rising leaders from groups typically underrepresented in journalism.
• Most fellows are sponsored directly by their employer or by a donor to their employer.

For more information, visit Columbia Journalism School.