ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The Poynter Institute and the Online News Association (ONA) will collaborate on training, events and digital content in 2011, forging a partnership that brings together the world’s largest organization of digital journalists with journalism’s premier training institution. Members of ONA will receive discounts on training, and Poynter will work with the Newseum and ONA to promote and archive the Online Journalism Awards (OJA). In turn, ONA will help Poynter promote its training and events, and will contribute content to the Institute’s website, Poynter.org.

“We believe our strengths as individual organizations will come together nicely,” said Stephen Buckley, Poynter’s Dean of Faculty. “The partnership helps Poynter continue to build ties with digital journalists — a crucial audience for us — and allows ONA to expand its focus on training and membership growth.”

The most ambitious aspect of the partnership involves the Online Journalism Awards, which ONA administers. Poynter, working with the Newseum, will help promote and archive the work of winners, who in turn will help produce “how to’s” that reveal the thinking and processes that informed the award-winning work. These “how to’s” will be featured in a new section of Poynter.org devoted to quick skills building and the Institute’s essential teaching.

“Each year the OJAs recognize the best of digital journalism, and I can’t think of a better way to extend and honor that work than to use it as a basis for learning,” said Christine Montgomery, ONA Board President and Managing Editor of PBS.org. “The fact that training is at the essence of this partnership is key for us.”

ONA members, who currently have free access to Poynter webinars co-produced by ONA, will be able to take advantage of discounts on all of the Institute’s training next year, from webinars to in-person seminars. ONA will help promote select training efforts offered by Poynter, and will help provide teaching content for the Institute’s website. Poynter and ONA also plan to team up to produce at least one major event in 2011.

About The Poynter Institute

Poynter trains journalism practitioners, media leaders, educators and citizens in the areas of online and multimedia, leadership and management, reporting, writing and editing, TV and radio, ethics and diversity, journalism education and visual journalism. Poynter’s News University (www.newsu.org) offers newsroom training to journalists and journalism students through interactive e-learning modules and links to other journalism education and training opportunities. Poynter’s Web site, (www.poynter.org) is the dominant provider of journalism news, with a focus on business analysis and the opportunities and implications of technology.

About the Online News Association

ONA is a leader in the rapidly changing world of journalism; a catalyst for innovation in story-telling across all platforms; a resource for journalists seeking guidance and growth, and a champion of best practices through training, awards and community outreach. Founded in 1999, ONA has more than 1,600 professional members whose principal livelihood involves gathering or producing news for digital presentation. The membership includes news writers, producers, designers, editors, photographers, technologists and others who produce news for the Internet or other digital delivery systems.