Direct Lines
Ties That Bind
By Sandy Woodcdock
When I took over the Student/Newspaper Partnership Grant program in 2001, I didn’t realize that money – and lack of it – is just one of many obstacles to creating a successful school newspaper program.
I didn’t think about aging facilities unable to accommodate computers or security risks associated with updated electronics. I didn’t anticipate the effects of the No Child Left Behind legislation or teacher shortages.
Yet scholastic journalism programs still thrive, thanks in part to support from their professional counterparts.
“Don’t think about it – just do it,” says Kevin Keane, executive editor of the Contra Costa Times in Walnut Creek, Calif., and vice president/news of California Newspapers Partnership North for MediaNews Group Inc. “[Newspapers] can’t look at the obstacles. You have to put that aside. Journalism is too important, and this is really important to sustain the profession.”
Keane not only talks the talk, but walks the walk.
In 2003, the state of California took over the Oakland Unified School District. The subsequent funding shortfall led to the death of the district’s journalism programs.
Various forms of support breathed life back into the programs over the next few years. Funds from an anonymous donor kept the programs alive for one year. An op-ed piece in the San Francisco Chronicle prompted another windfall, this time from a former publisher.
But those were just stopgaps, says Steve O’Donoghue, director of the California Scholastic Journalism Initiative. The programs needed to become self-sufficient. O’Donoghue, a retired district teacher, former adviser and Dow Jones Journalism Teacher of the Year, was brought in to coordinate the effort to bring the programs back to long-term health.
Then O’Donoghue and Keane connected. At the time, Keane was executive editor of ANG Newspapers, a group of San Francisco Bay-area publications including The Oakland Tribune. The meeting led to a solution that brought the programs a new and better life.
O’Donoghue identified eight schools wanting newspapers with instructors willing to act as advisers. Keane agreed to publish a monthly broadsheet page of news from each school. Ten thousand copies of the eight-page section were distributed to all district high schools.
“We found the degree of instruction and the quality of the work were really wide, once the work was laid side by side,” Keane recalls.
That disparity led them in year two to focus on improving journalistic quality. They shifted from individual school pages to a city-wide approach, with the goal of bringing content to a level suitable for full-circulation distribution of the section.
Now, content goes directly to two part-time copy editors, who facilitate the journalistic give-and-take common between professional reporters and editors. Once the stories meet newspaper standards, they compete for page one and a byline just like in the real world.
The monthly section was distributed to The Oakland Tribune’s full circulation for the first time in May.
Keane says he hopes students consider the increased audience a reward for their efforts. And he wants readers of The Oakland Tribune to see how hard these students are trying.
“It’s important to the success of the city of Oakland that they have faith in young kids,” he says. “This will show them a side of the kids the readers may not be open to.”
For his efforts, Keane received the “Friend of Scholastic Journalism” award from the Journalism Education Association in March.
“He not only saved school programs, his efforts have improved them,” says O’Donoghue, who nominated Keane for the honor. “This city-wide newspaper … has served as an incentive for them to improve their writing skills.”
NAA Foundation Director Sandy Woodcock can be reached at (571) 366-1008 or sandy.woodcock@naa.org.“Don’t think about it – just do it. [Newspapers] can’t look at the obstacles. … Journalism is too important, and this is really important to sustain the profession.”
Kevin Keane, vice president/news, California Newspapers Partnership North, Walnut Creek
