Ideas for Succeeding in NIE at Smaller Newspapers
Bigger is not always better. Maybe one of these ideas that come from folks at small papers will get your creative juices flowing.
1 Run a serial story with local ties. In one town in Texas, the story was by a Chinese American author and led to the discovery of a large Chinese American community, that eventually became a sponsor.
2 Get to know the location of the schools and introduce yourself to teachers and administrators. Arm yourself with newspapers and cookies and hit the road.
3 Conduct classroom and teacher in-service presentations. Every Tuesday at 8:20 a.m. at one school, students and teachers read the newspaper for 20 minutes. Teachers and school administrators say they were amazed and pleased with the enthusiasm the students showed toward the newspaper.
4 Develop an NIE Web site. One coordinator set it up so that when a teacher registered on the site, he or she became eligible to win a Teacher’s Lunch Out. The
coordinator substitute taught for the teacher during his/her lunch hour and gave her $10 towards the meal.
5 Develop a mission statement. Here’s one from Diane Goold (who some of these suggestions come from): “The St. Joseph [Mo.] News-Press is dedicated to promoting literacy in our communities. We will provide educators with training and instructional lessons to assist them in the use of the newspaper in all areas of the curriculum.”
6 Work with your local or regional library. Create a summer reading club by including a 4-page NIE activity booklet with summer reading club materials in it.
7 Hold a contest for subscribers who make vacation donations to NIE. Try to get a local company to donate the prize(s).
8 Assess the talent in front of you that can shore up weaknesses. Look around your newspaper. There are talented people all around you who, with a bit of encouragement and blatant flattery, will be happy to be drafted onto your team.
9 Talk to your circulation folks. Look for people in your circulation department who have a history with the newspaper. They can tell you what works and what doesn’t.
10 Become a speaker in the community – at schools, Lions, Rotary, Kiwanis, Optimists, etc. It’s a great opportunity to present your program to an audience of people who care about their community. |