After several practical lessons, individual exercises and mastering of multimedia tools, in the last week of January the School of Advanced Journalism students learned about the specifics of managing media outlets. The course consists of three modules and represents an introduction on how to start and successfully run a business in mass media.

The first module was dedicated to print media management. On the first day of the course, future journalists met Elena and Victor Cobasneanu – the director and editor-in-chief of the Observatorul de Nord newspaper from the town of Soroca. The Cobasneanu spouses, who have nearly 20 years of experience in mass media, talked to students about how to run a newspaper, how to manage an editorial team, what the income and expenses of a publication are.

Television as a business was the topic of the second module of the course. For two days, trainer Dorin Scobioala, who has a lot of experience as a TV manager, explained to future journalists how money is earned and spent in television. The students found out the cost of a minute of TV advertising, how a program schedule is made, what off time and prime time means, and how the audience of a TV channel is measured. At the course, students also learned how to calculate the budget of a media outlet and how much money is needed to launch a new TV channel.

The third module – Management of media projects – was held at the SAJ for the first time. It was introduced into the study program as a reaction to increasing numbers of project-based ways to do mass media, especially online platforms. For that, however, it is necessary to know how to convince funders and win a project.

For two days, the Independent Journalism Center officer for strategic development Ina Grejdeanu explained to students the key stages of project management – from idea, writing, implementation to evaluation of results. The trainer explained how to identify potential funders, how to obtain money for projects, how to correctly make a plan, set objectives, goals and arguments. For a better understanding of this process, young journalists participated in a practical exercise, simulating the public presentation of a project. “Writing projects is not easy; it requires solid abilities, effort, will and conviction that it is possible, regardless of how difficult the beginning might seem, and it is exactly what I wish to students – courage, initiative and ambition,” trainer Ina Grejdeanu said at the end of the course.