MOSCOW, July 1 (RIA Novosti) - Russian news agency RIA Novosti believes that investing in training programs which improve staff skills is the most effective anti-crisis program for media outlets, the agency’s editor-in-chief said.

This January and June the news agency introduced a series of lectures and seminars to train staff in multimedia technology for video recording and photo imaging, infographics, Internet search engines, “black PR” and legal risks in the media.
The training culminated in two-week multimedia courses held at a summer school in the Moscow Region. The classes, which started on June 20, are being held in the form of business games.
“While the agency like anyone else is affected by the negative consequences of the economic crisis, we cannot allow ourselves not to invest funds in improving the skills of our staff,” RIA Novosti Editor-in-Chief Svetlana Mironyuk said.

“Without the knowledge and skills of our journalists and editors, we could not provide our clients with a full-fledged multimedia news line, which delivers complicated information in an accessible format,” Mironyuk said.
Such multimedia products are the future for journalism Mironyuk said, adding that the agency also plans to provide training courses for its staff in the future.
RIA Novosti deputy editor-in-chief Maxim Filimonov, who heads the Integrated News Department, said that around 400 people had already attended training sessions: “We want our people to think in stories which are told first of all visually.”