Learn a new skill. Advance your career.
Our professional education courses offer immersive, specialized training for nondegree students and meet Columbia’s rigorous standards. Courses are offered both virtually and in person.
Audio and Podcast
Audio Essentials Bootcamp is an online course for journalists and storytellers of all kinds led by veteran audio journalist Kristin Schwab.
This course covers the basics of working in audio and is appropriate for those who are new to working in this format. As this course will be held online, participants should be comfortable participating in class and reporting via zoom and other online applications. Editing will be done in Adobe Audition.
Class time will be devoted to interviewing for voice, writing for the ear, finding and using hot tape, story structure, hosting and finding your voice, and group listening and critique.
Classes with the instructor will be held synchronously from 6:30 to 8:30 pm ET via zoom on Mondays and Thursdays: Monday, April 1, Thursday April 4, Monday April 8, Thursday April 11, Monday April 15, and Thursday April 18.
Participants will need a stable internet connection, a computer with administrative access (you need to be able to download), and a smart phone. Actual reporting work will be done between classes, and participants should expect to work on assignments when outside of class.
This course is $500 USD. Alumni of the Journalism School receive a 10% discount ($50) while current students, faculty and officers of other Columbia University schools receive a 5% discount ($25). For questions, please contact Professional Programs Director Kate Kennedy.
Investigative Reporting
Summer Investigative Reporting Course meets in New York for three weeks in July and is appropriate for journalists worldwide who report stories, as well as editors who manage investigative projects or teams.
Latin America Investigative Reporting Course is conducted in Spanish over two weeks in either Santiago, Chile or Cartagena, Colombia. It is designed for journalists from throughout Iberoamerica who work in any news media platform. This course has been postponed until further notice, and as of now, no applications are being accepted.
El Curso de Periodismo de Investigación de América Latina se impartirá en español durante dos semanas en Santiago, Chile o Cartagena, Colombia. El programa en Chile solo está abierto a periodistas que trabajan en Chile; el programa en Colombia está abierto a periodistas en Iberoamerica. Está diseñado para periodistas que trabajan en diferentes plataformas de difusión de noticias. Este curso se ha pospuesto hasta nuevo aviso y, a partir de ahora, no se aceptan solicitudes.
Publishing
The Columbia Publishing Course is the best preparatory course for recent college graduates who want a career in book, magazine or digital media publishing. For more than 70 years, this six‐week course has educated the industry's leaders, who return to the course to lecture and recruit from its ranks.
Graduates work as editors, literary agents, publishers, designers, publicists and more at major magazines, websites and publishing houses across the nation. The compact, practical nature of the course allows students to hit the ground running in their first jobs while simultaneously providing a comprehensive understanding of the industry that extends far beyond what can be learned in a typical internship.
The Columbia Publishing Course at Exeter College, Oxford was created in 2016 and runs through the month of September. Fully focused on book publishing, the four‐week course is designed after its New York counterpart but focuses on the British publishing world and is particularly recommended for U.K. and EU citizens.
Leadership and Executive Education
Sulzberger Executive Leadership Program
The Sulzberger Executive Leadership Program trains leaders of the world’s most respected news organizations and promising media start-ups to lead innovation and solve strategic business challenges in a time of rapid transformation, uncertainty, and opportunity.
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. Learn more about the program.
NAHJ Academy
The Latina Leadership Program, the inaugural initiative of the NAHJ Adelante Academy, is geared to train ambitious, mid-career Latinas on how to move from middle management to the newsroom decision-making positions that will truly shift the way communities of color are covered.
Columbia Journalism School is partnering with NAHJ to design and deliver 6-days of programming as the initial residency of the program, with lessons on personal leadership style; managing up, down, and laterally in a news organization; and innovating during disruption, all taught by our own world-class faculty, faculty from Columbia Business School. and leveraging our deep contacts with industry leaders in one of the great media capitals in the world.
Courses for Undergraduates
We are proud to offer select courses for current undergraduate students earning credit through the Columbia University School of Professional Studies, exclusively during the summer session.
Learn more about the courses we offer at the SPS Summer Sessions site.
Custom Training
Columbia Journalism School custom training focuses on the tools and techniques necessary for media organizations to remain competitive in an ever‐changing marketplace.
We recognize that every organization is unique. Our custom training programs are designed specifically for your organization, with your staff, resources and well‐defined objectives in mind.
For more information, please contact Director of Professional Programs Kate Kennedy.