smithproj.htmlTEXTMOSS0?


 
 

SEEKING YOUNGER READERS:

IT'S NOT YOUR FATHER'S NEWSPAPER ANYMORE
 

Charles Carroll Smith
Knight Foundation Copy Editing Fellow
Department of Journalism and Mass Communication
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Fall semester, 1998
Dr. Kay D. Phillips, Adviser
 



 

When it comes to capturing younger newspaper readers, success is all about, as Aretha Franklin once sang, respect.

 Youth editors at newspapers learn how to relate to teen-agers and their struggles to gain respect from adults because the editors often experience the same treatment from their peers. Those who run Newspapers In Education programs have similar struggles, yet all three elements of the same operation -- youth and NIE efforts, and the newsroom -- in many cases lack cooperation and trust.

 A huge effort is under way by newspapers to attract younger readers and to instill a regular reading habit among teen-agers. Papers have tailored their news, added features and added online sources and Teen pages. They've also tried to support high school journalism.

 Statistics indicating the success of this effort are sketchy. But many teens and their advocates, while applauding some efforts, say they are frustrated at teens' portrayal in newspapers.

 Getting a Read on a Big Audience

 The potential audience for newspapers among teen-agers is a large one. Teenage Research Unlimited says that according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of 12-to-19-year-olds is expected to rise from 29.1 million in 1995 to 34.9 million in 2010. (Zollo, "Wise Up to Teens,'' 1995, p. 18).

 But statistical evidence conflicts over whether all those teen-agers are reading and retaining information.

  Research in 1994 by Teenage Research Unlimited, of Northbrook, Ill., indicated that 84 percent of teen-age boys and 80 percent of teen-age girls looked at a newspaper each week. (Zollo, 1995, p. 79) A 1996 study, conducted by Yankelovich Partners of New York for the American Society of Newspaper Editors, indicated that more than 40 percent of the members of "Generation X'' (16-to-30-year-olds) read a newspaper daily. (Ketter, "What's Important to Generation X,'' 1996, p. 7)

 However, a yearlong series of surveys by the Times Mirror Center for The People & The Press, cited in "The Age of Indifference,'' "reveals a generation that knows less, cares less, and reads newspapers less ...'' (Kellermann, Kohut & Bowman, 1990, p. 1)

 According to another ASNE report, "Truths to Tell: Youths and Newspaper Reading, "close-up long-term studies of young people actively engaged outside of school with their peers'' indicate, among other things, that more than 90 percent of young people read some part of a newspaper occasionally during each week; about 30 percent read the paper on a daily basis, most often just after they get home from school. (Heath & DeWitt, 1994, p. 6)

 When teens look at newspapers, what are they reading?

 "Sports,'' says William Hawkins, executive editor of the Durham (N.C.) Herald-Sun, whose paper has expanded prep sports coverage.

 Corrie MacLaggan of Austin, Texas, a University of North Carolina student who was named the National High School Journalist of the Year by the Journalism Educators Association and National Scholastic Press Association, said that teens look for familiar topics in the paper. "They like to see high school sports ... see names and faces that they know in the news.''

 Trying to Plant a Seed

 In "Truths to Tell,'' the ASNE study's authors said their findings of high readership among teens "stand in spite of the fact that youth reading newspapers today do not believe they see themselves reflected sufficiently, accurately or fairly there ... young people say they do not find themselves in the newspapers they read.'' (Heath & DeWitt, 1994, p. 8)

 Chris Efken of Teenage Research Unlimited, who helped on an upcoming, updated Newspaper Association of America study on younger readers, said that the danger faced by newspapers is that teens "keep telling us that when they're looking for a job, or when they turn 21, then they'll pick up a paper. We need to get that seed planted when they're young. We've got to show them that it's a habit and encourage that.''

 Indeed, Kevin Schwartz, general manager of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's student-run Daily Tar Heel, said that the key to attracting long-term readers is to instill a "force of habit of reading the newspaper'' at the earliest possible age. "It has to become habitual and addictive. If there was a way to make it illegal, it'd become even more popular among kids.''

 Regarding youth sections, Efken said: "The problem with separate sections is that there's nothing linking them. There's this article in this section and that article in that section. But they're all too scattered and difficult to find.
 "Largely kids tell us that they use the newspaper for information. ... (Among complaints) are that the type is too small, stories are tough to understand, they'd rather have a tabloid, and have more things in color....

 "It's all a case of personal relevance. What do you read? You read the stuff that interests you. So they want you to include more stories about what's going on in my world. What they're doing right, not wrong. They want to read about celebrities, reviews and by the teens themselves as well as music.

 "They want more art and graphics. They want newspapers to look more like TV. We've got to make them more engaging, compelling and personally relevant.''

 A Multipronged Effort, Starting in Schools

 Much of the effort aimed at attracting younger readers is divided between the NIE program and youth, or teen pages, many of them led by reporters/editors who are members of the Youth Editors Association of America.
 Other efforts at attracting younger readers involve the nurturing by the industry, through NIE and other programs, of high school newspapers, journalism teachers and students.

 At a high school media workshop at North Carolina A&T State University, Kay Phillips, state director of the North Carolina Scholastic Media Association, is partly a counselor, listening sympathetically about complaints by high school newspaper advisers about their lack of time, equipment and support, both financially and administratively, and a cheerleader for efforts to keep the advisers from leaving the field.

  Much of Phillips' presentation, and her handouts, involves copy desk tools, editing, grammar and punctuation tips. According to a 1991 survey, more than 40 percent of teachers only thought about getting involved in scholastic journalism after being assigned the position by an administrator. (Knopes, "Death By Cheeseburger,'' 1994, p. 22)

 Sue Farlow, at Asheboro (N.C.) High School, has been an adviser for the school's newspaper, Ash hi chat, for more than 20 years. Despite its frustrations, she enjoys the work, but says her biggest problem is a lack of time that her students can spend on equipment. Her journalism class, recruited based on other teachers' recommendations, includes the son of the publisher of the local newspaper, which still publishes the Ash hi chat, although it has dropped the same work for other schools.

 The journalism students say that they are regular newspaper readers, and that most students they know also read the newspaper. The students, many of whom plan to become journalists, also say they are frustrated with the way that the media stereotype them. They say they read the newspaper to find news about themselves and that not enough attention is paid to all that they do, such as secondary sports (including a champion cross-country team).

 Among the efforts on behalf of student newspapers are working relationships in which local newspapers provide staff and presses for the printing of the school papers, and Student/Newspaper Partnership Grants of $2,500 in "seed'' money from the NAA Foundation.
 
 Ruling Chills Student Speech

 Mark Goodman, of the Student Press Law Center, said that some of the difficulties for student newspapers can be traced to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in a 1988 case, Hazelwood School District vs. Kuhlmeier. In that case, school administrators were given the power to censor student newspapers in regard to forms of expression deemed "ungrammatical, poorly written, inadequately researched, biased or prejudiced, vulgar or profane, or unsuitable for immature audiences.''

 Goodman said that students who are resigned that they won't have full freedom of the press and that certain issues are off-limits are looking for other alternatives. "That's part of the reason why we've seen an increase in the number of non-school-sponsored or underground newspapers. The Internet has dramatically changed the situation, and youth pages and independent publications are also important venues for students.

 "What we've found is that students who have gone to work for non-school-sponsored publications say that one reason for doing it, if not the primary reason, is the freedom to write about issues.''

 Chuck Small, who leads the youth page for the Raleigh (N.C.) News & Observer, has noted the enthusiasm that students have for writing with what they see as unlimited freedom of speech on his pages. Indeed, he has dealt with strong language and other issues that students presumably never would attempt with a high school paper.

 In an interview, Small acknowledged that boundaries and guidelines for NandoNext, the newspaper's Web site, are looser than for high school newspapers and even the N&O, but he has had to set some limits.

  According to a policy on obscenities, slurs and vulgar language, the Web site "seeks to offer young people a place for open, honest' expression. Nevertheless, even as we realize our First Amendment rights, we also realize the
responsibilities we have to our audience, an audience of students of a variety of ages as well as teachers and parents.'' The policy was put into effect after the 1997 publication of a feature profile by Ryan Brooks, then a University of Missouri freshman, that contained vulgarities and racial slurs in direct quotes.

 Seeking Respect from Peers

 Mary Arnold Hemlinger, program and grants manager for the NAA Foundation, said that her office tracked more than 240 dailies that regularly publish locally produced, nonsyndicated youth content. And many of the editors responsible for those sections say they are put on the defensive in the newsroom.

 Kathy Miedema, editor of TX, the youth section in Ogden, Utah, said that the newsroom's attitude toward the section was mixed.

 Miedema sees "respect for what (the students) are doing and getting a section together every week, but at the same time they're kids and people constantly want to censor them or make fun of them for their opinions (to me, not to them). They also make fun of me for being defensive and protective of the section, and one co-worker says I run the 'bastard' sections (which include TX).''

 Lorraine Eaton, past president of the Youth Editors Association of America and former youth editor at the Norfolk (Va.) Virginian-Pilot, discussed the dilemma in a commentary in the association's Spring 1997 newsletter.

 Eaton said that in 1992, when she ran an idea for a lead story for the Teenology section past her supervisor, "She was polite ... but really was not interested in discussing the finer points of how to lure a teen-ager to a story about the presidential election.

 "In the months that followed, I started hearing comments around the newsroom about the section and its teenage writers. Frankly, most were not complimentary....
 "Then one day in 1993 it all blew apart. A national survey was released claiming that drug use among America's youth was rising substantially. Our front-page story contained quotes from experts, local adult leaders and politicians, but not one teen-ager. This despite the fact that every reporter at our newspaper has a copy of the names and phone numbers of all of our 100 or so high school correspondents.

 'Why didn't you ask the kids?' I queried the reporter.

 'What would I have asked them? If they do drugs?' He smirked when he said it.''

 Under Eaton's guidance, Teenology, and the Virginian-Pilot in general, worked to give a consciousness to teens that led to such successes as injecting teens' voices into routine stories such as the opening day of school. Another example, in another newspaper cited by youth editors was a front-page feature story in The Washington Post on Sept. 18, 1998, that interviewed high schoolers about the impact of the graphic Starr report.

  Eaton only recently returned to the Virginian-Pilot after taking time off for maternity leave, and is now organizing a teen Web site for the paper. But, she laments, her successor as teen editor is only given halftime to work on Teenology, and there's currently an effort to move the section from the front of the paper's Daily Break section Friday inside as a broadsheet to allow the Preview arts and entertainment section to come out front.

 In a YEAA brochure outlining Program Excellence Awards, Eaton said, "We are also very excited when one of our teen writer's stories appears in another section. One teen writer's story, 'Candy Gets Scary,' appeared on the front of our Flavor section.''

 Bill Norton, editor of TeenStar, a teen page at The Kansas City (Mo.) Star, said in an email message that in his four years in the post, "We've had two stories make our front page. Both were co-written by a regular ... staffer and a TeenStar reporter.''

 "In addition, we've had at least five teen-reporter-only bylines on our feature section front. We've had several more in the works that have been rerouted to our page.''

 Miedema says stories destined for her section are rarely moved to other parts of the paper for a simple reason.
 "They don't steal (the stories) because I don't tell them about them,'' she said. "If there's an assignment for a daily story, I give them my best writers. But I guess I'm really protective. They don't know on a general basis, like on the budget, what's coming. So they don't see them until they're in print.''
 

 Striving for Relevance, Student Diversity

 Eaton and other youth page editors said they have pushed strongly for more diversity in their groups of correspondents, particularly to reflect the many views of teens today.

 David Pego is director of educational services for the Austin American-Statesman, where he oversees the NIE program and a weekly page for students. In an e-mail message, Pego said many papers err when they rely solely on outstanding students for their teen panel.

 "When you get the school leaders and 'brains' creating stories for you, then you wind up with a lot of material that simply isn't interesting... I cannot tell you how many abortion and censorship stories I have read when a journalism sponsor tries to tackle important issues. Too many of us adult editors want kids to create stuff that (the adults) would be interested in. Not me. I want (the students) to consider their target young people before they put their arrow to the bow.''

 Norton, of The Kansas City Star, offers a sobering reflection about the tendency toward "youth news.''

 "I'm a bit uncomfortable with the term 'youth news,' " Norton said. "News for young people often is about perspective. Theirs vs. ours....
 "As for coverage of issues relating to teens, our approach is traditional: Look at schools, sex, drugs, sports and weirdos. We insert the word teen often in headlines, particularly involving accidents and violence, when we wouldn't craft a similar identifier for adults, e.g. 'Middle-aged man arrested for shooting wife.'
 " ...the tendency here remains to talk down to teens in print. We describe or identify something as a teen issue, then quote only adults as 'experts' or 'authorities.' We don't so much want to cover them as preach to them. For example: a year ago last spring, several TeenStar correspondents helped a feature writer do a piece on high school kids here heading off to Cancun for spring break. When an editor finally finished morticing the edges off what was a wonderful piece of teen's perspective, it read as if it were an admonition to all those lunkhead parents who let their kids board planes for wild and wicked Mexico. To say our TeenStar reporters, plus those (teen-agers) our reporters had interviewed, were disappointed, would be an understatement.

 Cathy Barberich, youth editor for the Fresno (Calif.) Bee, offers a similar recollection: In an interview, Barberich said that when she began in her post in 1986, "one of the things I ran into in the beginning was that copy editors thought stories ought to be written the same way as everything else in the paper. These stories were teen-written, not as high quality, but written in conversational language and style. Things have improved since, but in the beginning there was some trepidation. People thought our reporters could do the stories so much better.''

 Jane Marshall, editor of Yo!, the youth section published by the Houston Chronicle, said that although teens don't write in the section ("we're almost too big for that''), they provide input as advisers.

 "Our copy editors remember that the writing has to be very clear and simple. ...If we don't know about something and try to hedge around it, the kids don't put up with that kind of B.S. in stories.... We don't try to be cool in the writing because we're never as cool as they are, and we don't use a lot of lingo because by the time we hear it, it's not even used anymore.''

 Bob Welch, youth editor for the Register-Guard in Eugene, Ore., said that he fights misconceptions by the newspaper's staff.

 "The attitude here is still a little bit on the, 'Well, that's the toy department' when dealing with kids, but the good news is that I think it's changing. In the last year or two, some hardened reporters have seen what kids are writing and say, 'This (writing by teens) is profound.' ... They're writing about what it's like when you walk into a cafeteria and two of your classmates get shot, giving up your kid for adoption, living with a boyfriend. And it's starting to wake up some of our readers and editors.''

 NIE-Youth Coordination, Cooperation

 One proposal that has been suggested has been more coordination and cooperation between newspapers' NIE department and youth editors. In the Fall 1997 YEAA newsletter, Rene Gunter, manager of education programs for the NAA, suggested three reasons for such cooperation: economics, education and a need for allies.

 The idea of an NIE-youth editors' partnership also was endorsed in the same issue by Laura Crooks, editor of Our Generation of The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash. Crooks said youth editors who responded to a poll indicated that many have tried to start something at one time or another linking to NIE, but the effort fizzled. "Still,'' she said, "there's no lack of interest in partnering with NIE.''

 One successful NIE/teen section collaboration cited by Crooks is a "best of'' section produced by the Virginian-Pilot, highlighting some of the work featured in the paper's weekly Teenology section. Best of Teenology is published quarterly and distributed to about 60,000 high school and middle school students through teachers using the NIE distribution network. The paper's NIE department writes a lesson plan to accompany the section.

 At The Buffalo News, NeXt editor Susan LoTempio sits on the Kids Committee, which consists of representatives from the newsroom, advertising, NIE and marketing. The group meets once a month over lunch to share what each is doing. The idea is to prevent overlap and to find ways to help each other.

 LoTempio's NIE counterpart, Cindy Sterner, said that although the NIE department tries to help the youth editor, "we don't work closely.'' She said the youth editor didn't have a lot of contributing editors, so she asked whether a note seeking student volunteers might be included in a quarterly newsletter sent to teachers.

 Dana Plewka, educational services coordinator of The Fresno (Calif.) Bee, said that she sits in on the newsroom's budget meeting once a week "and surprisingly often something comes up, and I get to know the editors in a way that at least they know I exist. That way, they're more likely to pick up the phone and say, 'Do you know any contacts?' Or I can say that I'm doing a serialized children's novel in the paper, and ask them if they can promote it... We have a much better relationship if we're seeing each other on a regular basis.''

 Gloria Wilkeson, educational service manager of the South Bend (Ind.) Tribune, said that one of her goals is to "get a friend'' in the newsroom. "Every once in a while, something comes up, and it slips by because there's no direct pipeline between us and the newsroom. That's something I'm trying to foster.''

 But Miedema, editor of TX, said her section does not work with NIE "on purpose, because we don't want them to mandate what we write about.''

 At the News & Observer, Small originally was rebuffed in his efforts to produce a teen page and instead turned to NIE coordinators Jean House and Anita Stack, both former teachers, to create the on-line edition. The hard-copy version, Horizons, came along three years later.

 A local committee of workers is recruited from area schools and meets monthly to discuss story ideas. The names of members of this committee also are kept nearby as sources for stories for use by the general news desk.
 Jane Marshall, in Houston, said: "When we first started, the person with NIE worked closely with us on the whole concept. She advised us what to do, said don't make it like homework, make it so you want teachers to use it, because the minute it becomes homework, it turns kids off.''

 Jim Abbott, NIE coordinator for the NAA, said that the cooperation between NIE and youth page editors is being accomplished only in fits and starts.

 "I'd like to say that it's a trend,'' Abbott said, "but it's one we don't see industrywide. One side or the other needs to take that first step.

 "Unfortunately, many of the people who run NIE programs are ex-teachers and have no appreciation for the newspaper business. So they wander into newsrooms at something like 14 minutes before deadline and get chased out. And that's where they form their opinions.''

 But Is It Working?

 In a recent article in "Presstime'' magazine, author Carolyn Terry said: "Little quantitative proof demonstrates that NIE or other formal readership efforts have increased the volume of young readers, but anecdotal evidence abounds. Researchers at individual newspapers measure feedback from children and teachers and surges in NIE circulation.'' (Terry, "Today's Target, Tomorrow's Readers,'' Presstime, September, 1998)

 Terry wrote that NIE professionals have earned the trust of school administrators. "But,'' she said, "with that trust comes responsibility. School districts encourage newspapers in the classroom because NIE programs accompany them with professionally written curricula, instead of simply dropping stacks of papers on the doorstep," Terry quoted Pat Hauk, NIE manager at Newsday, as saying.

 Terry said many NIE programs align with the education goals set by state and local governments. Indeed, according to Ann Powderly, NIE coordinator at the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, Virginia newspapers have designed NIE programs specifically with statewide standardized tests in mind.

 In an introductory video, Powderly offers these thoughts on the program: "Newspapers In Education may be defined as using the newspaper as a teaching tool in an educational environment in an effort to enhance and stimulate learning ... For the newspaper industry (NIE) is a program to motivate young people to read and make informed decisions. For the educational community, the newspaper's greatest benefit may well be that it creates a value for what is being taught in school by making the content relevant to the student. It gives students a reason for learning.''

 One of the NIE's strengths in North Carolina is a three-credit, 30-hour workshop format taught to teachers by Sandy Cook on how to use the newspaper more effectively. As the News & Observer's Jean House pointed out in a newsletter in the Winter 1998 NAA Foundation Update, "The newspaper is worthless as an instructional tool to most classroom teachers if you don't show them how to use it and give them activities related to their grades and subject areas.''
 Likewise, Cook, statewide Newspaper In Education coordinator for the North Carolina Press Foundation, travels around the state offering NIE workshops to show teachers and, at a recent workshop at North Carolina State University, student teachers how better to utilize the newspaper in classrooms.

 One of the key criticisms of the NIE program was exposed in an Editor & Publisher column in 1997, "No Income Expected,'' by Jay Schiller. In the article, Schiller described NIE as little more than a circulation-pumping gimmick.
  In a responding letter March 21 (reprinted in the Spring 1998 NAA Foundation Update), Stephen Hamblett, outgoing chairman of the NAA Foundation and publisher of the Providence Journal-Bulletin, said, "Schiller misses the point by paying lip services to NIE's most important function growing future readers.''

 Referring to the conflict between NIE's educational and circulation aims, Abbott said: "I just think we need to cooperate better. Get rid of the bean counters if we just want to educate. Some (NIE programs) are educationally oriented, and others are purely bean-counters. There's always going to be a dichotomy within the ranks.

 "It's helpful for both sides to look at the news operation. Remember, NIE has its finger on the pulse of the schools. There are lots of stories there and good sources.... NIE is a valuable source for youth pages because we go out to schools, get in there and listen to kids, know what they're talking about and listening to.

 Still, NIE's mission is a topic that leaves many NIE leaders uneasy.

 J. Alan Baumgarten, director of education services for the Daily Herald in Provo, Utah, said that although his NIE program is based in the circulation department, "My bias is that NIE belongs in promotion or the marketing department. The problem is that it becomes a numbers chase, and that becomes the primary concern. NIE used to plug a hole to increase circulation figures. It was legitimate circulation, but the problem was that when numbers fell, papers were dumped on schools. You can't turn the school into an arena for marketing. You're jeopardizing the program if you allow that to happen.''

      CONCLUSIONS

 From conversations with dozens of NIE and youth officials, it's clear that there's no lack of effort in attracting younger readers. Many newspapers have launched aggressive efforts, including new online editions, to capture youths' voices. And NIE's already impressive efforts, including a popular stock market game, are expanding to cover older students and adult literacy efforts. Newspapers are using more promotional efforts and community service aimed at younger people, appearances by staffers and tours. Papers also are forging aggressive partnerships with high school newspapers.
 All these efforts, however, remain tied to the bottom line: The youth efforts still must be seen as a profitable avenue that will attract advertisers, and NIE, which has earned the trust of teachers and educators, still veers between competing education and circulation goals. NIE coordinators also labor under the misperception that, in working closely with teachers, students will equate newspaper reading with homework, short-circuiting efforts to attract them independently as a new generation of newspaper readers.

 The Achilles' heel, however, remains communication; misconceptions and lack of coordination thwart the success of youth efforts. Though there are some successes, such as the Raleigh News & Observer's work, many NIE and youth paper editors operate independently. Perhaps the catalyst for communication, and a vital point man in the newsroom, could be a copy editor. At the very least, regular meetings should be held between all departments.
 Though most papers that have established youth pages (at last count, 240) have also organized teen panels, the panels often represent an underutilized resource.

  Laura Crooks said that her paper, The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash., sets up meetings between the teen panelists and the paper's editorial board. Another suggestion has been to invite legislators to meet with young people to discuss real-world implications about proposed legislation aimed at youth.

 The teen correspondents also make valuable sources for stories involving schools or topics of interest to young people. The correspondents were used as part of a back-to-school piece in the Virginian-Pilot, and the Washington Post in a story on teens' reaction to the Starr report. The Charlotte Observer used its teen panel as sources for a feature about school lockers.

 The names of a newspaper's teen panelists ought to be readily available for use as sources by the news or copy desks at any time, either through the teen editor or independently. However, Elizabeth Gelgud, a copy editor who is also teen editor at the Charlotte Observer, said that although her teen panel has become quite savvy in dealing with the media, she would prefer that any inquiries be funneled through her, so that she could ensure that the teens are treated fairly.
 Teen-agers not only represent future readers, they also are the next generation of journalists. Teens can be cultivated as future resources through internship programs or independent study programs for correspondents, as Eaton said is done at the Virginian-Pilot. A curriculum was written that includes a night on the copy desk, a computer-assisted reporting project, an in-depth story project and a stylebook test. Students earn one semester of honors credit for the course, and the youth page editor is responsible for grading the students. Workshops can also be valuable.

 Teen-agers deserve a place at the table in arranging and covering news; other constituencies covered by the newspaper would demand no less. Copy editors should learn to take care in reporting youth news, particularly crime, and try to puncture stereotypes. Keeping in mind that teens indicate news preferences that are little different from those of other readers (local news, names, sports, items of interest to them), care should be taken to keep that perspective in mind in story selection, play and headlines.

 Finally, though it's impossible for us, the current generation of journalists, to think like teens, we must keep in mind that a younger generation neither wants to play by what it considers old-fashioned rules, nor understands why such rules exist. We must learn to try to think "out of the box,'' recognizing, according to the latest NAA study, that teens want papers to use less-conventional layouts and sections, report less violent news, state the facts without being so bland, and organize the newspaper better, so readers don't have to move around so much to find what they want.
 

      RECOMMENDATIONS

  * Make a list of teen correspondents readily available to other news desks. Establish a copy desk contact who is aware of the procedure to contact the teens.

  * Make it the business of copy editors and others in the newsroom to get to know those involved in the youth pages and NIE program. Even if the editors don't actively participate, such as visiting schools, they ought to be aware of what's being done in their own newspaper's name.

  * Consider beginning a special classified section for youth, and keep teens in mind in business story selection and coverage. Many sources cited studies indicating that, in addition to appreciating entertainment news, teens consider newspapers valuable resources in obtaining jobs, products and other services.

  * Forge closer links to high school newspapers, offering assistance where available and allowing the use of the newsroom's human and electronic resources, if practical.
 

       SOURCES
 

Crooks, Laura (1997). Linking to NIE? For Some Sections, It's a Perfect Partnership. YEAA News. Fall. p. 4.

Eaton, Lorraine (1997). A Note from the President. YEAA News. Spring. p. 2.

Eaton, Lorraine (1997). A Note from the President. YEAA News. Fall. p. 2.

 Gallagher, Tim (ed.) (1996). What's Important to Generation X. A Project of the Future of Newspapers Committee. American Society of Newspaper Editors. Reston, VA: ASNE Foundation.
 
Gelgud, Elizabeth (1998), copy editor/teen editor, Charlotte Observer, Teen panel survey.

Gunter, Rene (1997). Why Editors Should Work with NIE Departments. YEAA News. Fall. p. 3.

Heath, S.B. & DeWitt, S. (1994). Truths to Tell: Youth and Newspaper Reading. American Society for Newspaper Editors Literacy Committee: A Special Report. St. Petersburg, FL: The Poynter Institute for Media Studies.
 
Kellermann, Donald S.; Kohut, Andrew; Bowman, Carol. (1990). The Age of Indifference: A Study of Young Americans and How They View the News. Times Mirror Center for The People & The Press. Washington, DC.

Knopes, C. (Ed.) (1994). "Death by Cheeseburger: High School Journalism in the 1990s and Beyond. Arlington, VA: The Freedom Forum.

Newspaper Association of America background information

Newspapers In Education background information

Raleigh (N.C.) News & Observer, How to Ensure the Next Generation of Readers, A Report by the High School Readers Subcommittee.

Terry, Carolyn (1998). "Today's Target, Tomorrow's Readers.'' Presstime. September.
 
Weston, Margaret Phillips (1998). Is the Answer Xtreme?: Can a Youth Section Aimed at Teenagers Effectively Attract People Ages 15-18 to a Daily Newspaper. MA graduate thesis. The University of Georgia.

Youth Editors Association of America background information

Youth Editors Association of America, Program Excellence Awards, Youth Content Showcase.

Zollo, Peter (1995), Wise Up to Teens. New Strategist Publications Inc.
 
 

Interviews:
 -- Jim Abbott, Education Programs Manager, Newspaper Association of America
 -- Cathy Barberich, youth editor, Fresno (Calif.) Bee
 -- J. Alan Baumgarten, NIE, Provo (Utah) Daily Herald
 -- Chris Efken, Teenage Research Unlimited, who helped on soon-to-be-released NAA Youth Readership study
 -- Dave Farrell, NIE Online newsletter
 -- Mark Goodman, Student Press Law Center
 -- Patt Hildebrandt, educational services director, The Greensboro News & Record
 -- Mary Susan Horne, journalism teacher, Eastern Wayne High School, Goldsboro, N.C.
 -- Liz Hunter, NIE, Fayetteville, N.C. Observer Times (notes only)
 -- Lynn Jacobson, mirror youth section, Seattle Times
 -- Dick Johns, University of Iowa, Southern Interscholastic Press Association
 -- Vickie Kavanagh, The Oregonian, Portland, Ore.
 -- Corrie MacLaggan, UNC, National High School Journalist of the Year. (Notes only)
 -- Jane Marshall, "Yo,'' Houston Chronicle youth section
 -- Kathy Miedema, TX youth editor, Ogden, Utah
 -- Bill Norton, The Kansas City (Mo.) Star youth editor
 -- David Pego, Austin American-Statesman youth editor
 -- Dana Plewka, educational services coordinator, Fresno (Calif.) Bee
 -- Kevin Schwartz, director and general manager, The Daily Tar Heel, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
 -- Cindy Sterner, NIE, Buffalo News
 -- Linda Waller, deputy director, Dow Jones Newspaper Fund
 -- Jean Westmore, "Next'' youth section, Buffalo News
 -- Jeff Womble, youth editor, Fayetteville, N.C. Observer Times (notes only)

On-Site Visits:
 -- Raleigh News & Observer: Chuck Small, copy editor, professional support staff for NandoNext/Horizons; Jean House, educational services/ NIE director; Anita Stack, educational services/NIE assistant coordinator.
 -- Norfolk (Va.) Virginian-Pilot: Lorraine Eaton; Candy McCreary, teen editor; Anne Powderly, educational services coordinator
 -- Durham Herald-Sun: Jim Cribbs, NIE coordinator; Bill Hawkins, executive editor;
 -- Charlotte Observer: Amelia Pastina, NIE special projects coordinator; Elizabeth Gelgud, copy editor/teen editor
 -- Asheboro: Sue Farlow & Ash hi chat staff at Asheboro High School.
 -- NCSU student-teacher workshop with Sandy Cook, statewide Newspaper In Education coordinator for the North Carolina Press Foundation.
 -- North Carolina State A&T University high school newspaper workshop with Kay Phillips, state director of the North Carolina Scholastic Media Association.