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Help your newsroom work better with data

The New York Times has created training materials to help its journalists work better with data. You can use them in your newsroom too.

The ability to work with numbers and data is key to the work of reporters and editors alike, but many journalists have traditionally stayed away from spreadsheets and databases. The training team at The New York Times identified an opportunity to increase their newsroom’s fluency with data by developing materials and a master class to increase spreadsheet literacy among other skills.

Using Google Sheets as a basic tool, over the past 18 months, the team has trained more than 60 reporters and editors to leverage data in their reporting.

The Times has now made their training materials public and is encouraging other newsrooms to learn from their process and apply it to their own newsrooms.