The UK's Trinity Mirror PLC has successfully trained its staff in multimedia, explained Neil Benson, Trinity PLC's Editorial Director, at The 15th World Editors Forum.

Multimedia knowledge at Trinity Mirror was, according to Neil Benson, patchy. They needed quick solutions and had no time to study the experiments of other newsrooms. They decided they needed external experts since they didn't have the knowledge within the company. Thus, the company decided to work with the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN).

The staff was split in three groups. The first was reporters and photographers. Many of the younger reporters could easily handle the new technique, but Trinity Mirror had to get all of the others up to speed. Their aim was not to train their staff in an academic way, they wanted it to be hands on, quick and effective.

The second group consisted of desk heads and assistants, people who are highly influential and can push the multimedia idea every day in the newsroom. Neil Benson said this is a group that still needs quite a lot of work.

The third group was a very crucial one: Deputy and assistant editors. They had to be given tool kits to be better leaders within the new multimedia paradigm. But the editors were not always happy to take part in the training, the solution to this problem was to have bimonthly forums where they invited challenging guests.

The editors are now responsible for different parts of the web page. There was also a multimedia blog created so the editors could share the ideas they'd picked up.

Trinity Mirror concentrates on seven main things in their staff training:
1. Strategic understanding
2. The management toolkit
3. Real world projects
4. Technology and applications
5. New ideas, new content
6. Confidence - (the editors have become more confident)
7. Influence - six delegates have been promoted to new multimedia roles after the training