DCAA hosts onsite training at Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for Cardinal staff

Daily Cardinal staffers Andrew Bahl, Sammy Gibbons, Lulu de Vogel, and Madeline Heim with Journal Sentinel reporter and DCAA board member Jim Nelson at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

For many years, the Daily Cardinal Alumni Association has provided journalism training to members of the Daily Cardinal staff. For the last eight years, training sessions conducted by professional journalists have been held in the Cardinal office in the basement of Vilas Communications Hall during the fall and spring semesters. Volunteer trainers have appeared in person or via Skype mostly on Sunday afternoons to hold seminars for the editorial and business staffs.

Occasionally, students take advantage of training that is held in the newsroom of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and four current staffers made that 80-mile trip east in April for a full day of observing professional journalists at work.

Journal Sentinel interactive producer/designer Erin Caughey shows how an online news page can be enhanced with special coding.

Here's a glimpse of how such a training day works: The four Cardinal staffers — Editor-in-Chief Madeline Heim, Managing Editor Andrew Bahl, Associate Editor Lulu de Vogel and incoming EIC Sammy Gibbons — skipped some classes on a weekday and arrived at the offices of the Journal Sentinel at 8 a.m. DCAA Board member Jim Nelson, who is a reporter and an editor in the newsroom, lined up several of the top newsroom professionals in various fields of journalism to help train the students:

• Commercial real estate and development reporter Tom Daykin provided tips on how to start the day by finding news tips buried in government agendas.

• Pulitzer Prize winner Mark Johnson talked about the enthusiasm he feels when he gets the perfect interview of insight and knowledge that leads to a ground-breaking story.

• Raquel Rutledge, Pulitzer Prize winner, emphasized the ability of a reporter to be curious, even over something as mundane as a car repair, which led to her major piece about a lack of fuel inspections.

• Business reporter Sarah Hauer provided tips on how a young reporter can start building sources and carving out a new beat.

• Greg Borowski, deputy editor for news and investigations, outlined the process of getting a series of stories ready for publication and how to make that process succeed by involving all stakeholders.

• Director of photography Berford Gammon provided examples of what to look for in judging photos for their news value and accuracy, and how attention to all elements in a photo helps to spot errors.

• Investigations, entertainment and news online producer Erin Caughey showed the Cardinal staffers the importance of learning coding and how using it can improve the visual images on a page and better emphasize the paper's reporting.

• Deputy editor/ digital engagement John Adams emphasized the power of analytics and data that the newspaper uses to drive readership.

• PolitiFact Wisconsin reporter Tom Kertscher talked about the value of fact-checking and holding the powerful accountable.

DCAA Board member Jim Nelson (from left), Journal Sentinel photo and video editor Mike De Sisti, and Daily Cardinal staffers Andrew Bahl, Lulu de Vogel, Madeline Heim and Sammy Gibbons watch a demonstration of how to fly a drone while taking video and still photos of the new Milwaukee Bucks arena.

The group even got a chance to go outside the newsroom to view a demonstration by Nelson and photo and video editor Mike De Sisti on how to fly a drone and the flight rules one must follow.

Journal Sentinel Editor George Stanley gave his blessing to the entire day of training. After the eight-hour training session, the four Cardinal staffers headed back to Madison exhausted but enthused about the profession they might be choosing.