CMA Trainings are deep-dive, expert-led sessions on topics such as media law, audience engagement, business development, assessment strategies, and more. These events require a small registration fee and are designed to deliver high-impact learning that you can take back to your newsroom or classroom. CMA also offers a New Adviser Training program, designed to help new student media advisers build confidence and competence as they step into their role.
New Adviser Training
Conceived with the needs of new advisers in mind, CMA’s New Adviser Training presents expert-led sessions on critical topics such as media law, business development, policy and student training, as well as unparalleled networking opportunities. The track also offers veteran advisers opportunities to refresh their skills and share their expertise with newer advisers.
The New Adviser Training is presented four times a year: in person at the fall and spring national conventions, and live online in January and July. The training is for CMA members only and a great value with high-impact results.
The New Adviser Training comprises eight sessions. Participants who attend all eight earn a certificate of completion.
New Adviser Training Courses
Advising 101: Introduction to Advising - Whether you’ve been advising for six months or six years, you likely have been asked the question, what is an adviser? This session will help you better understand your role so you can help others better understand what you do and what you don’t do. Topics include the role of the adviser and its challenges and the basics of advising.
Advising 102: Policies and Procedures - Written policies and procedures provide an essential foundation for organizational management that is equitable and effective. This session highlights the rationales and essential elements of policies and procedures that can guide your student staff and operations to success.
Advising 103: Budgets and Revenue - College media advisers often start out knowing plenty about journalism or related technologies but too little about running the business, the side that keeps the lights on. This session addresses key topics including establishing ad rates, managing expenses, and finding additional revenue.
Advising 201: Recruiting, Training and Retraining - It isn’t student media without students, but recruiting talented, dedicated students every year can be a struggle. This session presents tips for staff recruitment and retention, leadership development and training.
Advising 202: Relationships on Campus - Advisers are often stuck between a rock and a hard place—between your students and your administration. In this session, veteran advisers discuss how to manage your program’s image on campus, navigate campus politics, and leverage professional relationships to support your students’ success.
Advising 203: Connecting with Resources - It can be difficult to know where to turn when you need help with contest entries, applying for awards, designing training, defending your students, even defending yourself. This session will point you in the right direction by supplying a boatload of CMA resources and professional contacts — support that every adviser can’t live without.
Law 101 for Advisers - In this first of a two-part session, learn the rights and responsibilities that accrue to your media students and to yourself as their adviser. Presented by legal experts from the Student Press Law Center, this fast-paced tour of legal basics will present ways to protect yourself and your students and will suggest resources for getting legal help, should you need it.
Law 102 for Advisers - This session extends the legal guidance in Law 101 on issues affecting students and advisers, and will avail you the opportunity to pitch your questions to a legal expert.
New Advisers Forum
This open, in-person forum at each national convention presents a panel of CMA veterans to answer your questions, provide much-needed perspectives on the work, and help you process the information gleaned at the convention.
Summer Training
New in 2025, our Summer Training picks up where the New Adviser Training and Confabs leave off, by diving deep into areas of major importance over the course of three weekly sessions. Two Summer Training tracks are offered, in May and August, each with tiered pricing: discounted for CMA members and full priced for non-members.
The next summer training will be announced in January.
To register or participate in a training, log in through the CMA member portal by clicking the "Member Login" button at the top of the page. For open trainings available to nonmembers, use the registration links provided on the event page.
Coming Soon!
The CMA Handbook for College Media Advisers. Completely new and comprehensive, the CMA Handbook for College Media Advisers is the first nuts-and-bolts, how-to encyclopedia for college media advisers since 1997’s New Adviser Handbook. Watch for the first edition to be published soon in accessible PDF.
Questions?
Email CMA HQ or VP of Member training, Bill DiNome
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