Issue and Answers

Where we pick an important topic and hear from professionals in the field.

TOPIC: Discuss the success you have had in working with the other “side” of your newspaper. For NIE professionals, that would mean the newsroom. For youth editors, that would mean business, circulation and/or NIE.

Building Relationships

The key to opening the doors to the hallowed halls of nearly any newsroom is to build relationships and understand the flow of information.

• Get to know a few newsroom employees, especially the education reporter.
• Our teen-page adviser works in the newsroom. Inquire about upcoming stories they are running. (You might be able to let a particular school know their school will be featured. That will increase NIE sales as well as readership of the teen page.)
• Make yourself available to the education reporter and teen-page adviser. Offer them your database of school contacts–it’s something that enables them to do their job better and more efficiently.
• If you are the person conducting tours in your newspaper, use that as a reason to ask questions related to editorial. Newsroom employees will respect your understanding and appreciation of how editorial operates.
• During a major election night (which is coming up in two months!), the newsroom is very busy. Ask if you could assist in some way. Food strikes at the heart of every reporter and editor. Taking charge of coordinating food and beverages on election night or other special editorial events, breaks down walls.
• Thank them for working with you on whatever project they covered for you.

When you are coordinating a project, talk with an editor about the possibility of a story before and/or after the event (i.e. spelling bee, trivia contest, etc.). Motivate reporters to cover an in-house project by providing thorough information in advance and making yourself available for questions. If that doesn’t work, be a pest. If you are politely persistent, they’ll cover the event just to get you out of the newsroom.

I have found that investing the time it takes to really understand how journalists think–one editor always tells me, “If your mother tells you she loves you, get another source!” –and building working relationships with several key newsroom employees are very worthwhile.

Sue Shafer
Manager of Educational Services / Community Events Coordinator
Tribune Chronicle
Warren, Ohio
(330) 841-1600
sshafer@tribune-chronicle.com

Holistic Approach

At The Herald News in West Paterson, N.J., three new youth features have been added: Sneakers for middle graders, Clique for high-schoolers and Bring It for the young adult market. The page editor frequently contacts our NIE schools for submissions.

At The Jersey Journal in Jersey City, this was the inaugural year for Photography in Education. This interdepartmental project reached out to high school students. The publisher and marketing manager obtained seven major sponsors to make the program a reality, then the editor and managing editor oversaw the publication of a full page of student photos. Two top student photographers each received a paid internship at the paper.

Here are some keys to a successful collaboration with editorial:

1. Increase your “CQ” (Credibility Quotient). Know, by name, as many of the people who work in your editorial department as possible. When they write something that proves valuable to teachers and students, tell them you appreciate their work. Pass along any thank-you notes teachers write, as well as any negative feedback concerning editorial content.
2. Invite the editors and youth/education reporter to your workshops, introduce them and allow them time to speak to the teachers. Encourage them to go out to schools and read during NIE Week, Seuss celebrations, American Education Week, etc. Let them know when something newsworthy is taking place in a school.
3. Timing is everything. Offer to attend meetings when appropriate, showing up with a smile and food.
4. Don’t be shy about letting the editor know your numbers and what you think is realistically possible, with his/her support. Do your best to truly understand that circulation numbers are one of the measurable “bottom lines” for a newspaper’s success. Your quality program can make a significant positive impact. Believe in what you do and let that show.
5. View the newspaper holistically. Make every goal of the newsroom and newspaper an opportunity for NIE and maximize every NIE success as an opportunity for the newspaper to grow.

Kay O’Malley
NIE Resource Center
Newspapers in Education
Spring Lake Heights, N.J.
(732) 974-2113
kayonie@aol.com

A Good Base

I grew up with a reporter for a mother and an editor for a father, so there are times where the newsroom seems like a second home to me. I firmly believe that partnering with your newsroom on various projects can add even more value to your NIE program.

We have a section in our Monday newspaper called “Homeroom.” It is all about schools, student achievements and education initiatives in our community. I try to meet with this group of reporters once every couple of weeks during their news meeting to find out what they are working on. This helps me build relationships with the newsroom reporters and keeps me informed of upcoming projects. When I am notified about a series or project, I am able to work with reporters to create NIE activities that deal with the information presented in the articles. I present these activities to teachers in the form of a teacher’s guide or in-paper lesson.

Our newsroom is also very good about giving me a “heads up” when they will be running a special last-minute feature. Our area was recently hit by a series of damaging storms, including a tornado that destroyed an entire town. With the help of the newsroom, I was able to notify my teachers via e-mail of some special coverage that would be in the paper during that week. I was also able to e-mail my teachers when our newsroom ran a special tribute to former President Reagan on the day of his funeral. My teachers appreciate knowing about the upcoming news features so they can plan their daily lessons around the articles.

Talk with your editor about attending an occasional newsroom meeting or find a contact in your newsroom that you can touch base with now and again.

Christina Nevitt
NIE Coordinator
Lincoln (Neb.) Journal Star
800-742-7315 ext 7354
christina.nevitt@lee.net

Working on the Web

The key to working successfully with advertising and marketing departments is to collaborate and compromise creatively....[In most cases,] we do “our thing” and they do “their thing” and no one ever thinks of the “whole thing.”

However, you might miss some great ideas if you don’t come together in the planning stages of your youth pages.

When we redesigned our Teen Trib Web site [at the Waco Tribune-Herald] to incorporate a “Teen Mall” advertising component last year, we brainstormed with advertising, Web and marketing folks about ways to use each of our departments to meet our common goals. Those were to gain readers, interest advertisers and cross-promote the newspaper’s print and online editions. One of the many results was a house ad that did all three.

The marketing department designed the ad, which would run as a strip across the bottom of the Teen Trib print pages each week, we agreed. Until that point, I had specified that I didn’t want advertising on the front cover of the teen section. But they let me help design and approve this one so it would be bright, colorful, very “young” looking and actually enhance the design of the page. In turn, the editorial content we produced would get more attention on the Web.

As a result of running the ad each week, we attracted new advertisers and directed a lot of traffic to the Web site, much of which, as it turned out, was for editorial content.

Stephanie Allmon
Assistant features editor
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
sallmon@star-telegram.com

Common Goals

Working with the advertising department at the Reading (Pa.) Eagle has been great for the Voices section and a learning experience for this former hard news reporter. Having thought about the Voices section as a product (something that made the journalistic idealist in me cringe), I’ve come to appreciate better what my audience (teens in Berks County) wants.

Find out and respect what the goal of the advertising department is. Here are some ways the editorial side of Voices has worked with the advertising side:

1. Each month we send the ad department a list of stories planned. That helps ad reps find people who may want to advertise. We’re a weekly themed section so a section on hair might not be beneficial to karate schools, which preferred to advertise in a section about security. It is essentially a one-way communication at that point: Advertising doesn’t influence the content of the stories or the section. That said, we’re not adverse to suggestions. An ad rep sent us a note about a teen who is a popular deejay at an advertiser. We expanded on the suggestion and created an issue on local teen-run businesses.
2. Advertising got us free movie passes for a cover contest we had in which teens had to name all the movies on the cover. In the promos for the contest we mentioned the movie theaters.
3. Advertising puts together a festival each year in cooperation with the Berks County Parks and Recreation Department. We make our teens available to sit in the Voices booth and to help out behind the scenes.
4. Cooperate as much as you can and be direct about what you feel comfortable ethically doing.

Lisa Scheid
Voices Editor
Reading (Pa.) Eagle
voices@reading eagle.com

Youth Sections and NIE

NeXt, the weekly 12-page youth newspaper of The Buffalo News, and The News NIE program collaborate on more projects every year. NIE coordinator Cindy Sterner says that Wednesday is her best circulation day in schools, thanks to NeXt. This year we started a NeXt book club, printing book reviews from young readers and using NIE and NIE contacts with teachers and school librarians to publicize the program, get the book into schools and mail prizes. NIE works to get extra copies of NeXt into high schools when there’s a strong school-related edition (such as a recent issue on the new SAT).

NeXt also this year started a Question of the Week with Classroom Connection, the homework hotline run by the NIE department (since our Web site does not as yet have interactive polling capacity). NeXt also works with the News Promotions Department with annual sponsorship of prizes for high school photography show.

Jean Westmoore
NeXt Editor
The Buffalo News
(716) 849-4076
next@buffnews.com