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From Buffalo to Kingsport, Tenn., from Jacksonville, N.C., to Warren, Ohio, a small group of newspapers are taking the lead when it comes to youth outreach – Newspaper In Education, youth sections and teenproduced copy. Circulation gains, above-average penetration, the growing of a new generation of readers, and the boosting of in-paper morale are just a few of the positive results from these efforts.
by Ronn Levine
Keith Wilson, vice president and publisher of the Kingsport (Tenn.) Times-News, has the ability to make one of the most complicated problems facing newspapers today – readership – sound a bit more manageable. He accomplishes this with a plan.
“Quite some time ago, it occurred to us that, given the demographics, if we were going to spend a lot of money getting people to read, we should focus on those who will be long-term readers. If we were going to develop new readers, we wanted to develop them for a lifetime – the earlier the better.”
So the Times-News focused on young people. Why get a reader for three months or six months, when you can have them for a whole lifetime, Wilson reasoned. He also envisioned “more time to get a return on that investment with younger readers.”
To carry out this strategy, the Times-News has put together a cradle-to-community-college approach that leaves no child wanting of a newspaper or a chance to perhaps work for a newspaper. This includes a strong NIE department, a vibrant youth section, partnerships with local high schools to print their school papers, and an entertainment section recently fine-tuned to appeal to college students.
“I know some people are going to ask how many of those [young] people are [going to stay] in that community, but we feel like we are developing readers,” Wilson says. “And if they’re not going to read our paper, they’ll be reading someone else’s, so it will be positive for the industry. Anecdotally, we hear very good things in the community about us.”
In discussions with publishers, Newspaper In Education managers and youth section editors at newspapers attempting to reach out to young people, the overriding sentiment is that these efforts are working. Penetration is high in the circulation areas, the newspapers have a very positive image in the community, young people are reading the papers, and morale among staff is high – employees like the idea of helping young people.
The question remains: With results such as these, why are there still so few papers with comprehensive approaches to attracting young people? A 2002 Youth Editorial Alliance survey found just 110 newspapers publishing youth-produced content on a weekly basis. And while NIE participation is higher – NAA Foundation’s recent research showed 950 of 1,420 daily newspapers in the Unites States having NIE programs – it is only four percent higher than it was eight years ago.
“We have a crisis of young people who are not reading the newspaper, and nobody knows how to fix it,” says Stanford Lipsey, publisher of The Buffalo News. “In the past, papers didn’t worry about it. When young people grew up, they would marry, settle down and then subscribe to the newspaper. But that’s not happening anymore. And it’s not just that they’re watching TV news instead of reading us; it’s that they don’t have as great an interest in news as they used to. It’s a different society today in which to publish than ever before.”
Lipsey, however, believes that “publishers cannot be relieved of trying to find the resources it takes to succeed in gaining these new readers.”
So his paper publishes the teen-written weekly tab, NeXt, which also includes content for 8-12-year-olds. The NIE department, headed by Cindy Sterner, is one of the more active ones in the U.S., with an advisory board, teacher listserve, an urban school that they “adopted,” and weekly classroom visits. Gusto, the paper’s weekly entertainment tab, has been recently redesigned, to try to make it more interesting to the 18-30 year-old demographic.
“The bottom line,” says Lipsey, “is that we’re concerned and doing all we can do.”
That concern has helped bring about what Lipsey believes is the highest penetration of any major market in the country.
While Lipsey and Wilson both were driving forces behind the creation of their paper’s youth sections, Publisher Charles Jarvis inherited his youth section and an active NIE department at the Tribune Chronicle in Warren, Ohio. Jarvis became publisher after an ownership change and had to be won over to the merits of youth readership.
“We took a wait-and-see approach when we came in,” says Jarvis. “So many people in the community have a daughter or son who was on or has been on Page One – and they come up and tell me the value. It’s amazing how many people we’ve touched that way. And then so many of those students went on to study journalism, become writers and reporters. It has been impressive, not having seen anything like this before.”
Jarvis says there are, of course, tremendous time and resources involved in these efforts. And it’s worrisome to know you have a a couple pages of copy being produced by high school students each week. “But you quickly see the value from the standpoint of the community,” he says.
Support from Above
NIE managers and youth editors all point to the support of management as a major key to their success.
Carmen Musick, editor of Ink?News for Teens at the Kingsport (Tenn.) Times News, says it makes a “world of difference” to have the support from her publisher in what she does. She heard from other newspapers that you have to change the paper drastically to appeal to young people. She disagrees.
“I write features for the living and family sections and Ink,” she says. “The only difference with the articles for Ink is that I have to talk to those people after school. And their schedules are busier than mine,” she adds with a laugh.
“Seriously, my job’s fun – and it all goes back to getting that support. Recognizing that kids will read the paper if we just get to them where they live. Get them engaged, and then they’ll move on to read other sections. They just want a voice.”
Musick says that the Times-News also feels like it is growing future staff. Last year’s student chairman of the advisory board is now on a journalism scholarship at East Tennessee State and wants to return to work at the paper someday. (“And it’s a he,” says Musick, a delighted aside addressing the lack of boys on student papers.)
At The Daily News in Jacksonville, N.C., NIE director Carolyn Alford started the youth section, Listen Up, with Publisher Elliott Potter several years ago.
“We’re developing lifelong newspaper readers and some great writers,” says Alford. “We’re making a difference in the lives of young people. But it’s also a tool in the community.”
She notes that publicity for the paper’s youth outreach is very positive and rewarding to see. “People see that commitment that we are making,” says Alford, and appreciate it.
Alford speaks at high schools, talking to students about how to get involved in the community. Five years ago, she was the education reporter when corporate said the paper had to start an NIE department.
One teacher uses the newspaper with her kindergarten class and finds that the students mostly have young parents, many of whom can’t afford the paper. The children bring the paper home, and they read it together, reaching the parents.”
R. Bruce Bradley, president of the Publishing division for Landmark Communications, Inc. in Norfolk, and a member of the NAA Foundation Board of Trustees, says that penetration numbers for his company’s papers are very high. The Roanoke (Va.) Times “is in the top five among 40 newspapers,” he says, and The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk “is in the top 10 among 30 newspapers. So [the strong youth outreach at those papers] is a piece of it. We do try to look at the long-term perspective.
“It’s really a factor of good people on staff coming up with good ideas. Sounds a bit simplistic, but good people can really make things happen.”
Bradley points out that advertising possibilities exist for both NIE and youth sections. “In NIE it’s more of a feel-good advertising or image advertising. Whereas advertising in youth sections can be more targeted and might be read by many adults.”
Like Wilson in Kingsport, he points to the exponential factor of a youth section, especially in a small town – counting students who write, students being written about, and their friends and family, a high number of people can become involved in the paper and turn into new readers.
State Support
Dawn Kitchell, state NIE coordinator for the Missouri Press Foundation, works with 292 newspapers in Missouri, from the Kansas City Star (269,000 circulation) to the Mexico Ledger (9,000 circulation). She says that it is “exciting but frustrating to help community newspapers. They put keen interest in community involvement, care deeply, believe wholeheartedly in NIE, but the flipside is they have small staffs and it’s hard to sustain those NIE programs.”
The support in Kitchell’s endeavor comes from the state foundation. She says that every state should have a dedicated person like herself dealing with NIE.
She tells a story to illustrate the ups and down of working with smaller papers.
“When I came [to the Washington Missourian, where she lives and serves as NIE coordinator], we sent out 600 papers every other week. Now we put out 2,000 papers a week. One day, I was told there’s a delivery problem. I come from a major metro in Tulsa. I said no problem just have the trucks drop off the papers at the school. They said what trucks. We don’t have trucks. But if Jane can take some to her cousin who teaches in the next town and John and his nephew drop some off?”
Kitchell also tries to convey the message that NIE pages are for all readers. Seniors love them, she says. They clip out serial stories for grandchildren who live in other places. And they’ve often lived through the history that the serials are covering.
Seniors, however, often have the time that other people in today’s rush-rush society don’t.
“We have to make the paper worth people’s time,” says Lipsey. “Winning the time battle is number one on the agenda both for young people and long-time subscribers.”
Jarvis admits that his paper is “overreaching a bit to do what we do.” But he points to the community following the paper has, and the number of journalists they’ve grown over the years. “It gives us a great deal of satisfaction,” he says.
Wilson also sees many positive results. “Our NIE program builds on hands-on utilization,” he says. He also points to intensive training given to 60-70 teachers each summer on how to use the newspaper. He stresses the importance of “entry points” in the paper for young people, be it the comics, the youth section, entertainment or local high school sports, where, he explains, they probably put more resources than anywhere else.
“This is all based on getting readers at the earliest possible age,” Wilson says. “I remember myself growing up with the paper reading the funnies – and think back to an early age at home reading the paper at home with my family.”
He says that “it is a lot easier to get an 18-year-old to start reading your paper than a 42-year-old. And then you’ll have them reading you for another 50 years, rather than 25.”
Wilson says that there have also been advantages in marketing, “so it’s not all altruistic.” You want the decision makers of the future as your customers and readers, he maintains.
Or as Lipsey says, “There’s no one solution, but it is a problem we must keep addressing.” |