Training and Events
Develop your skills.
Connect with your peers.
Learn practical skills, connect with colleagues and explore opportunities across local journalism. Start with CPA’s calendar, the Local News Solutions convention, self-guided courses or past sessions.
Find your next event
CPA calendar
Find journalism training, CPA gatherings and industry deadlines. Browse by month or list, then narrow by event type or organizer.
Browse CPA’s calendar →
COLab’s Colorado News Calendar
Find training, fellowships, contests and other opportunities collected by the Colorado News Collaborative.
Explore COLab’s calendar ↗
Learn and connect at Local News Solutions
CPA’s convention makes space for hands-on learning and conversations with colleagues across local news. Members and nonmembers, in Colorado and beyond, can find practical ideas for reporting, audience, revenue and leadership while building relationships across organizations.
Save the date: August 26–28, 2027.
Produced by CPA, Colorado Media Project and COLab.
Explore Local News Solutions ↗
Build your skills
Local News Solutions pairs practical training with time to connect. Between gatherings, explore self-guided courses, partner mentoring or the recordings and presentation materials in From the Archives below.
COLab mentoring and training
Explore reporting mentorship, hands-on assistance and training opportunities through the Colorado News Collaborative.
Explore COLab training ↗
Earn Your Press Pass
Self-guided courses in community reporting and newspaper sales are available as a CPA member benefit. Seats are limited, and CPA staff add participants on request.
Explore courses and request access →FROM THE ARCHIVES
Past training and presentation materials
Revisit past CPA sessions on reporting, sales, digital publishing and newsroom management. Open the past-training archive for session descriptions, recordings and presentation materials.
Browse recordings and materials →Past training (14 sessions)
2025 CPA Contest: entry orientation Editorial
A historical orientation for the 2025 CPA Contest, recorded January 9, 2026. Current categories, deadlines and rules are available on CPA’s awards page.
TAPinto publishing platform demonstration Business
CPA hosted Michael Shapiro of TAPinto for a demonstration of its publishing platform, newsletter tools and self-service advertising features.
Colorado Media Working Groups Lunch & Learn Business
Working groups explored shared challenges in digital publishing, printing, workforce development and community reporting.
About: In 2023 the Colorado Press Association and the Colorado News Collaborative, with support from Colorado Media Project and other partners, are dedicated to helping our state’s local newsrooms explore and pilot innovative solutions to wicked problems that they are facing right now, in communities across the state.
This L&L explained the cross-sector working groups and pilot projects designed to address core pain points that newsrooms are facing right now:
- Digital Strategies/CMS Conversions for Reach and Revenue
- The Future of Printing
- Citizen Observers/Earn Your Press Pass
- Ethnic Media Advertising Network
- Workforce Pathways for Inclusive, Sustainable Newsrooms
For recording access, contact CPA.
Earn Your Press Pass Overview with Lindsey Young Editorial
Lindsey Young introduced the Earn Your Press Pass course and its journalism fundamentals.
About: The Colorado Press Association and all of its member newspapers now have access to the Earn Your Press Pass course developed recently by Kansas Publishing Ventures (KPV) in conjunction with the Kansas Press Association. EYPP is an online, on-demand journalism crash course designed to aid newspapers in the fight to recruit people to their newsrooms. The course outlines basics like newspaper jargon, interviewing skills, editing, simple photography, etc.
In this webinar, Lindsey Young will review course materials, how to get started and answer questions.
For recording access, contact CPA.
An Introduction to Our Hometown CMS Business
Our Hometown introduced its digital publishing platform and newspaper CMS.
About: Learn about the features of Our Hometown ↗, a digital publishing platform and newspaper CMS, which provides a WordPress-based CMS, digital subscriptions, an ad network, newsletters, and features geared specifically toward print publishers.
A number of members have indicated an interest in modernizing their digital platforms, and COLab and CPA have been working to support Colorado newsrooms in this. A couple of weeks ago, we had Newspack provide information on its capabilities, and Our Hometown provides another alternative that may work for you.
For recording access, contact CPA.
The 10 Habits of Media Sales Superstars Sales
Ryan Dohrn explored the daily habits of successful media sales professionals.
About: There is a secret to media sales success. Period. It’s all about having and executing great daily sales habits. If sales was easy, everyone would be doing it. 30-year ad sales veteran Ryan Dohrn shares the 10 main habits that he observes when coaching superstar media sales reps in large and small newspaper markets across the country.
For recording access, contact CPA.
What 2023 Will Bring: Local Ad Spending Forecast Business
Borrell Associates presented its forecast for local advertising spending in 2023.
Presented by: Borrell Associates
About: Borrell unveils its market-level forecasts for broadcast, print, outdoor, and digital media for 2023 and offers highlights from its assessment of millions of local businesses that were created since the pandemic. This 45-minute webinar will also deliver key insights from Borrell’s just-completed survey of how 2,000 local businesses spent ad dollars this year and what they’re planning for 2023.
For recording access, contact CPA.
Winning the Talent War Business
Jeff Butler discussed recruiting, managing and retaining employees.
Presented by: Online Media Campus ↗
About: HOW TO ATTRACT AND KEEP THE BEST TALENT IN THE UP AND COMING GENERATION
Have you ever struggled to recruit the right person for your team? And if you were able to find them, was it even more difficult to keep them? More than ever before, talent is in peak demand and companies are having to completely change the way they view human capital in order to stay competitive. In this program you will hear up-to-the-minute data and case studies presented by author Jeff Butler on how organizations are winning the war for talent. Jeff has helped dozens of companies on winning the war for talent and has seen unusual and ground breaking ways to attract talent that some many employers are chasing after.
Jeff has mapped out the complete employee life-cycle from hiring, managing to retaining. Each segment covers key areas where companies often lose their talent ranging from: mistakes in their recruitment process, to failing to adjust management styles to accommodate the changing workplace expectations. Both high-level theories as well as tactical strategies on workplace leaders are included so leaders can guide their teams to talent victories. Sometimes its a simple change like adding a video to a job ad, other times, it requires viewing your company in a completely different paradigm.
Learning Points
- Discover the 3 phases of employee recruitment – attention, interest, commitment.
- Hear about best practices of screening employees for maximum future performance.
- Techniques to spot effective succession planning.
Visit Online Media Campus ↗ · Read session notes
For recording access, contact CPA.
Advertising Insights from the CODA Ventures Survey Audience
CODA presented findings from CPA’s statewide audience study and their use in sales conversations.
About: The CODA team walked through the overall results of the Colorado statewide study commissioned by CPA to show how the data could be used by your local newspaper with customized sales sheets to have successful sales conversations.
For recording access, contact CPA.
7 Ways to Avoid Being Ghosted After a Sales Call Sales
Ryan Dohrn discussed following up after advertising sales conversations.
About: So you have had a great sales call with an advertiser. You feel great about it. Then, the advertiser goes radio silent on you. Dark. Dead. No replies. 30-year ad sales veteran Ryan Dohrn shares his 7 secrets to avoid being ghosted after a sales call.
For recording access, contact CPA.
20 Tips for Journalists from Susan Greene Editorial
Susan Greene shared practical reporting advice on sources, interviews, records, writing and collaboration.
About: Whether you’re a new reporter or veteran journalist, we all need regular refreshers on our craft. Colorado News Collaborative (COLab) journalist and coach Susan Greene will share suggestions and moderate a discussion among participants about source development, interviewing, records requests, story structure, writing, editing, working collaboratively and avoiding burnout.
Secrets to Getting Advertisers to Reply to Emails Sales
Ryan Dohrn shared ways to improve advertiser responses to sales emails.
About: Like it or not, email is an important part of our sales process. 30-year ad sales veteran Ryan Dohrn shares 7 secrets to getting more opens and replies to the emails we are sending out to advertisers. From prospecting to follow-up emails, you will be VERY surprised what is working.
For recording access, contact CPA.
10 Critical Sales Questions to Ask on Every Sales Call Sales
Ryan Dohrn discussed questions to strengthen advertising sales conversations.
About: We are selling in a unique time for America, the economy, and ad sales. 30-year ad sales veteran Ryan Dohrn shares his 10 new critical questions that he is currently asking to move the needle with advertisers and close more deals.
For recording access, contact CPA.
AdCellerant: Getting Started with Digital Sales Sales
AdCellerant introduced consultative digital advertising sales for local publishers.
About: AdCellerant reviews digital sales, getting started, taking a consultative approach, and more.
This webinar covers how smaller publications and legacy print teams are getting started with digital sales to support their local clientele. AdCellerant reviews different examples of publishers who are doing this now, the steps to get started, how to provide a consultative approach to your advertisers so they can expand their digital footprint, the revenue implications with these types of sales, and how you can leverage these now.
For recording access, contact CPA.
Looking for a particular training opportunity?
Don’t see the training you’re looking for? Check CPA’s calendar for upcoming events, or contact us about other professional development opportunities.