McGraw-Hill Personal Finance Reporting Online Courses

The International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) has offered two online courses in English and Spanish on covering personal finance for Hispanic journalists and US journalists covering finance issues for minority and immigrant communities. These courses started on July 1 and will end on August 18.

The courses were open to Spanish-speaking and English-speaking journalists from ethnic media. Participants are being trained to effectively cover consumer finance issues including topics ranging from credit and lending, housing and mortgages to retirement planning and investing.

The Spanish course was led by Xavier Serbia, the editor-in-chief and founder of Xavierserbia.com. Serbia is a personal finance syndicated columnist and has written for various Hispanic media outlets, in addition he has written several books (in Spanish) on the subject.

The English course was led by Chris Roush, who teaches business and economics reporting at the University of North Carolina and has written six books, including two about business journalism.

The courses will be divided into three parts: a six-week online training in personal financial journalism a six-week online mentoring period, during which participants produced stories to publish them in the media. a three-day field trip to New York City, where six selected participants will have the opportunity to interview with notable financial experts.