Spotlight on NIE

When Gregg Jones, co-publisher of The Greeneville (Tenn.) Sun and chairman of NAA, led off the NIE2004 Conference, Newspaper In Education was indeed thrust into the spotlight as it perhaps has never been before.

Jones is the first publisher from a small paper in many years to be at the helm of NAA, and it reflects a true emphasis on all newspapers, large and small. That’s great news for NIE, which appears in so many different shapes and sizes, from The New York Times to the Oolagah (Okla.) Lake Leader, from the West Australian in Perth to The Royal Gazette in Hamilton, Bermuda.

Famed television producer Norman Lear, now an owner of an original copy of The Declaration of Independence, spoke at the Thursday lunch to promote his Declare Yourself–Let’s Go Voting campaign., “Without a newspaper, the world for kids is television sound bites,” he said. “They’re here and they’re gone. There is some context with the newspaper. It’s not just sound bites.”

On Friday, a first-time media session featuring three prominent Los Angeles Times staffers again hoisted NIE and newspapers to the top of the agenda.

“It is really important for our society that kids know what’s going on,” said Mark Barabak, an award-winning political writer.

Emphasizing the idea that newspapers need to take seriously the responsibility of keeping students informed, Cathleen Decker, assistant metro editor, said, “Any kid in school has on opinion from what he or she sees on television. They think they can vote. They’re idealistic–they know their free speech rights.”

“Kids are much more knowledgeable than we think they are,” said Barbara Serrano, deputy national political editor.

And on the idea that NIE professionals need to keep the lines of communication open with the newsroom, Decker said, “I’ll take story ideas from anybody. Talk to the city editor, education reporter; approach them as long as you’re not trying to get us to write about a sponsor. We’re very open to hearing ideas. We rely on getting input from people, especially people we work with at the paper.”

Appropriately, closing speaker Pat Farrell summed up the events best, listing five objectives for the audience.

• Be happy despite outside circumstances.
• Focus on what’s working.
• Be free of negative thinking.
• Learn the power of acknowledgment.
• Live in integrity with your values.

“What someone does is about them,” Farrell said. “How I react to it is about me.”

The reaction to NIE2004 was inspiring. With this kind of momentum, one expects that NIE2005, May 17-20, in Charleston, S.C., only gets better.

NIE 2004 Review

• NIE sites move beoyond 'brochure ware'
• Ten steps to a stronger state NIE network
• Journalism 101
• NIE doesn't have to be a lonely experience

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NIE Sites Move Beyond ‘Brochure Ware’

By Rob Runett

Newspaper In Education Web sites are evolving from static promotional pages to frequently replenished interactive resources for school teachers. In addition to forms for ordering lesson plans, the sites help teachers understand how to use those plans and offer news quizzes, games, updates on NIE activities and links to related educational sites. To thrive, the sites need the support of the newspapers’ online team.

Three newspaper representatives shared their perspectives during a May 13 session at the NIE2004 conference.

The News-Journal in Daytona Beach, Fla., features a wide variety of originally produced services and stories. Kristen Sternberg, the paper’s NIE home delivery coordinator, wrote the “Hot Issues and Cold Ideas” series as a free-lance writer before joining the newspaper. The series addresses very topical issues, such as school bullying, America’s shifting ethnic demographics, and the way children deal with terrorism. To expand the depth of information, the articles include links to articles from The News-Journal. The annual “Florida Quest” program brings to-gether print, online and even television dimensions. Children read a story developed by the NIE program that includes clues in the newspaper, on the local PBS station, and on the News-Journal Web site. Five thousand to 15,000 children participate annually, Sternberg said in a post-conference e-mail interview.

The “Especially for Teachers” section tells teachers how to get the most benefits from the site and links to lesson plans, information about workshops, and projects for educators. The site remains fresh with weekly updates to section such as “Vocabulary Word to the Wise,” “NewsCurrents Extra,” “Passport to the World” and “Breakfast for the Brain.”

In Fredericksburg, Va., The Free Lance-Star’s Janet Gibson bases her decisions on one core principle: “Is this going to help teachers in the classroom?” As the newspaper’s NIE manager, she devotes the equivalent of one day per month to the site. Even with limited time, the site presents multiple resources for teachers. She links to the Newseum’s timely “Newsmania” quiz and to lesson plans on kidscoop.com. The site maintains a simple but effective navigation system that includes a core set of links and main site sections (About NIE, Curriculum Materials, Order and Contact) on each page.

The NIE Web site of the Deseret Morning News in Salt Lake City is designed to give teachers and administrators easy access to educational information, said Brenda Smith, NIE promotions coordinator. The site optimizes the Web’s interactivity by hosting chats with teachers. The chat acts as an idea-generating tool and helps to validate the teachers’ efforts. The site also presents samples of the serialized products, a mainstay of NIE programs, and posts biographies of famous Americans, such as Harriet Tubman.

As the session moderator, I offered these additional suggestions:

• Move beyond “brochure ware” to create engaging, interactive sites.
• Create relationships with your newspaper’s online or IT team–find a “champion” who can assist with Web-related needs.
• Have a presence on your newspaper site’s home page.
• Make sure your NIE home page is available in the newspaper site’s search engine.
• Include your contact information on every NIE page.
• If you need additional help, consider service providers such as NIE Online, Hollister Kids and NES/NES Customer Portal.
• Explore other NIE sites by starting with NAA’s links page.
• Make sure your site is listed correctly–contact Ronn Levine at ronn.levine@naa.org with updates.

Rob Runett, NAA’s Director of Electronic Media Communication, can be reached at rob.runett@naa.org.

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Getting Help from Your State Press Association

Ten Steps To a Stronger State NIE Network

1. Make a connection with other NIE professionals in your state. It’s important to feel like part of a larger community and to have somewhere to turn for support.
   
2. Organize the NIE professionals in your state. Utilize the Internet as a way to have regular communications without travel expense. Talk with NIE coordinators in other states that already have organizations so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.
   
3. Once you are organized, develop a relationship with your state publishers association. It is helpful to have a publisher who is willing to champion your cause.
   
4. Determine what assistance the publishers association is willing to provide and submit a written proposal. It could be for a permanent statewide coordinator, funding to help run your organization, underwriting for an annual conference, workshop, or money to purchase curriculum.
   
5. Send at least one member to the publishers’ annual meeting. Try to get on the agenda to give an NIE update. It is important to keep NIE on the minds of the publishers.
   
6. If you have an annual conference or workshop, invite a representative of the publishers association to attend and find other ways to maintain an ongoing relationship.
   
7. Establish working partnerships with other organizations in your state (state bar associations, teachers associations, the League of Women Voters, etc.) that help to fund special NIE projects like tabs or serials or contests.
   
8. Create a newsletter to keep in touch with other NIE professionals in the state and to send to your partnership organizations to let them know what you are doing. If printing and mailing costs are an issue, make it an online newsletter.
   
9. Have representation from your state at the annual NIE conference. Even if you can only send one person, there are vital networking opportunities and essential informational available at these conferences.
   
10. Establish a workshop to show teachers how to utilize NIE. Include a session for new NIE coordinators.

–Don Williamson

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Journalism 101

By Erin Orr

It’s amazing that for an industry in the business of communication, newspaper people are among the worst communicators.

From the newsroom to advertising to circulation to Newspaper In Education, most departments are notoriously bad about keeping one another informed. We get so caught up in producing our portion of the daily miracle, we forget that the people around us can’t read our minds and we can’t read theirs.

Here are some tips and tidbits to help improve communication and relations between NIE programs and editorial, as presented May 13 at the NIE2004 Conference:

1. Communication. That this is No. 1 on the list should come as no surprise. Send e-mails, follow up with phone calls, drop by the newsroom until you get the youth editor/features editor/managing editor’s attention and hold it for more than 30 seconds. Which brings us to...
   
2. What DO you do? Most newsroom staff doesn’t know or understand what NIE coordinators do. Spell it out.
   
3. Establish a variety of contacts. Don’t rely on that one relationship with the youth editor, the features editor or the managing editor. Cultivate relationships with a few different people in the newsroom. The more people who understand what you do, why you do it and how it plays a part in building readership, the more advocates and allies you’ve got.
   
4. Learn how the newsroom works. The more informed you are about the process of reporting, story writing, and how stories and photos are played, the better you can knowledgably speak the language.
   
5. Read the newspaper. Demonstrate a working knowledge of what’s in the newspaper on a regular basis. You’ll be better poised to pitch projects to the newsroom–and you’ll gain their respect.
   
6. Explore newsworthy topics of interest to all age groups: 9/11, elections, weather, anything special about your city/region/state, etc. Explain how these topics will be of interest to schools, and what role the newsroom can play.
   
7. Get feedback. Ask your teachers: What parts of the paper do they use in the classroom? What NIE projects have they used? Which ones did they dump or ignore? Why? Bring those results back to the newsroom.
   
8. Be dogged. Don’t take “No” for an answer. So your first, second, third, etc., pitch is shot down. Do what the best reporters do: Never give up.
   
9. Engage. Invite different members of the newsroom to be part of various outreach events, be it career fairs, speaking to classes or job shadowing. Key: Give serious thought to which reporter or photographer or editor would be best for different events. The religion reporter is likely ill suited to speak to students wanting the lowdown on sports writing.
   
10. Don’t be intimidated. Journalists are people, too– no matter what you’ve heard.

Erin Orr, features editor of The State Journal-Register in Springfield, Ill., can be reached at Erin.Orr@sj-r.com.

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NIE Doesn’t Have To Be a Lonely Experience

Susan Anthony (pictured right), manager of the community service department at the Patriot-News in Camp Hill, Pa., says, “If doing something like reaching out to the youth content editor helps you to develop a relationship with the editorial department, find a way to make it work for you.”

Among the issues facing NIE professionals are low salaries, high turnover, inadequate staffing and part-time jobs with full-time assignments or full-time jobs with 60-hour work weeks. There are also the actual job pressures of finding or creating stimulating educational curriculum, training teachers to use NIE, finding sponsors, fund raising and, all too often, the need to hit circulation goals.

But there was another major concern on the minds of many of the professionals attending NIE2004 in Los Angeles–being alone inside a building, inside a company where no one really understands or seems to care what it is that you do.

“Isolation is the single most damaging thing for a person in this position,” said Mary Miller, NIE coordinator for the New York Newspaper Publishers Association.

“I remember calling newspapers in the state when I first started, and the receptionist didn’t even know they had an NIE program.”

Being isolated or even excluded was mentioned in more than a few workshop sessions during the conference. It was on the minds and lips of panelists at sessions on getting help from state associations, learning how to manage time, how to start out as an NIE coordinator, fund raising and how to have effective NIE programs at smaller papers.

It was also front and center at a session titled “Reenergize, Renovate, Recreate: How Do NIE Veterans Deal with the Job?” The panelists included Margaret Kaplow, education sales and services manager for The Washington Post, Carolyn Dickson, NIE manager for the Deseret Morning News in Salt Lake City, Ann Pellegrini, manager of educational and partnership marketing at the Chicago Tribune, Donna White, NIE coordinator at the Gettysburg (Pa.) Times and Susan Anthony, manager of the community service department at the Patriot-News in Camp Hill, Pa.

“You have to learn how different departments work,” said White. “You have to teach employees at the paper how NIE works. Let employees know you’re not just dumping papers in schools.”

The idea of being proactive resonated with the panel.

“Put snippets about NIE in the employee newsletter,” said Anthony. “Have a place for NIE to be explained in orientation sessions for new employees. Have a session on NIE on Take Your Kid to Work day.”

Being on the cutting edge of things that affect NIE was also a priority.

“You have to be savvy enough to know about trends in newspapers. If doing something like reaching out to the youth content editor helps you to develop a relationship with the editorial department, find a way to make it work for you,” said Anthony. “Will it directly help NIE? Maybe not. But if the relationship is there, you’ll be able to use it. Help people do their jobs. Collaborative things are something papers are not used to doing.”

Reaching out to educators was also a suggestion.

“Go to the classroom. Go to teachers–some of the ones who really get it,” said Kaplow. “Ask them if we offer this, this and this, which program or product would you use.”

Planning and balancing the workload were high on the agenda.

“Make a conscious decision to cut back to full time,” said Dickson, only half-jokingly. “Do a year’s planning at a time. Give teachers a brochure that says here’s what we’ll have for you this year.”

Lastly, there was the recommendation to seek out help.

“Have advocates inside the newspaper and get coaches from the E-forum,” said Pellegrini. “Find mentors even if they are outside of the newspaper industry. Try asking corporate sponsors and people and organizations you partner with.”

Running an NIE department will always present challenges. But being proactive, reaching out to people and maintaining a positive approach to working with educators and students can make it a lot easier.

–Don Williamson