Premium Times Publisher joins Poynter Media Transformation Challenge as first African Fellow

PREMIUM TIMES Publisher Dapo Olorunyomi, on Monday, joined Poynter Institute’s Media Transformation Challenge fellowship as its first African fellow.

The Media Transformation Challenge (MTC) Programme is a yearlong fellowship and leadership programme designed for senior news executives.

Mr Olorunyomi is one of the 27 senior executives drawn from different organisations across the globe who made the 2023 cohort.

Others include Jennifer Joseph and Karen Leo of ABC News, Paul Shanley, Sara Gillesby, David Scott and Julie March of Associated Press, BBC, Anika Palm of CNN, Larry Graham of The Diversity Pledge Institute, Amanda Zamora of Co-Founder among others.

The fellowship, Mr Olorunyomi said, “looks potentially helpful for the future we seek to plot at the Premium Times and Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development progression,” adding that he looks forward to learning a lot and sharing the outcomes when he returns.

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Throughout the fellowship, participants will identify and pursue their most significant business performance challenges with help from MTC’s trademark tools, concepts, coaches, peer group and alumni network.

Appraising the 2023 cohort, MTC Executive Director Charles Baum said, “I am deeply grateful for this very diverse, talented incoming class, and we are excited to begin a new set of MTC journeys.”

About the Media Transformation Challenge Program

The Media Transformation Challenge (MTC) Program: A Poynter Institute Executive Fellowship is a yearlong fellowship and leadership programme designed for senior news executives. Fellows identify and pursue the most significant business performance challenge they face and deliver real results with help from MTC’s trademark tools, concepts, coaches, peer group, and alumni network. This programme has over 350 active alumni with strong ties to the programme leadership and coaches.

MTC began as the Sulzberger Executive Leadership Program at Columbia in 2006-07 under the direction of programme architect Douglas K. Smith. Since January 2020, Poynter has been home to this programme, and Charlie Baum has been the executive director. A different programme in leadership, network and methodology now operates under the Sulzberger name at Columbia.

The coaches for the 2023 MTC programme include Stéphane Mayoux, Robyn Tomlin, Amanda Barrett, Lauren Gustus and Danyelle White.

About The Poynter Institute

The Poynter Institute is a global nonprofit working to address society’s most pressing issues by teaching journalists and journalism, covering the media and the complexities facing the industry, convening and community building, improving the capacity and sustainability of news organizations and fostering trust and reliability of information.

The Institute is a gold standard in journalistic excellence and dedicated to the preservation and advancement of press freedom in democracies worldwide. Through Poynter, journalists, newsrooms, businesses, big tech corporations and citizens convene to find solutions that promote trust and transparency in news and stoke meaningful public discourse.

The world’s top journalists and emerging media leaders rely on the institute to learn new skills, adopt best practices, better serve audiences, scale operations and improve the quality of the universally shared information ecosystem.

The Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership, the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), MediaWise and PolitiFact are all members of the Poynter organisation.