Foundation Update (Spring 2006 issue)
Above the Fold
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First Place |
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Under 12 Winner
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UP FRONT
Cover contest winner salutes the ‘new generation’ of newspaper readers
Last year, Oleksandra Barysheva was a finalist in the NAA Foundation’s annual Literacy Tabloid Cover Contest. This year, she’s the winner.
The 14-year-old resident of Matawan, N.J., who is a ninth-grader at Matawan Regional High School, chose “Newspaper Inspiration: New Generation” as her theme. Her design features an older boy reading the newspaper with two younger children hovering nearby – a girl at his shoulder peeking inside the paper, and a little boy pointing at a car on the back page.
Barysheva’s artwork took the first-place prize over more than 700 entries. Second place was awarded to Jessica Packer, 16, of Miami, while 13-year-old Moriah Askenaizer of Hollis, N.H., came in third. Ten-year-old James Stephen Kennard of Manning, S.C., was the winner in the under-12 category.
“The cover contest is something we look forward to all year,” says Jim Abbott, vice president, NAA Foundation. “The young artists who participate come up with the most delightful and imaginative designs. It’s always tough to choose a winner, and we applaud everyone who entered for their effort, enthusiasm and creativity.”
The NAA Foundation once again will offer the annual Literacy Tabloid special section to newspapers across the country in conjunction with International Literacy Day on Sept. 8, 2006. Barysheva’s theme, “Newspaper Inspiration: New Generation” will set the tone for the section, which is sponsored by Verizon and written by the National Center for Family Literacy.
For information about the 2006 Literacy Day Tabloid, visit www.naafoundation.org or call (703) 902-1728.
NET RESULTS
Conference ideas translate into a new Web site for a newspaper’s teen program.
By Kelsea Gurski
Oh, what we can accomplish if we only listen.
In 2004, I attended the annual NAA Foundation Youth Editorial Alliance Conference for the first time. Among the many ideas I brought home to Springfield, Ill., from Fort Lauderdale was a printout detailing the ideal teen newspaper Web site, which essentially explained why teen sections should have a Web site to complement the print product and what that site should include.
After I showed the suggestions to Barry Locher, editor of The State Journal-Register, he called me into his office and said, “We should do this.”
Plans already were in the works for an update of the print edition of The Voice, our teen section, for its 10-year anniversary in September 2005. We wanted a new look for our Web site to complement the makeover.
It’s not that we didn’t appreciate the site we already had – some teen sections don’t even have online content. The problem, however, was that our page was exactly like every other Web page our newspaper offered. It certainly wasn’t attractive to a teenager, and it didn’t feature nearly enough content or opportunities for interaction.
Photo by: JEFF THOMPSON
Nathan Atkinson surfs the new Web site of The State Journal-Register’s teen program, The Voice. He is a Voice intern and a 2005 Youth Editorial Alliance Conference teen fellow.
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This past October, I once again attended the YEA Conference and brought along Voice intern Nathan Atkinson, who was selected as a teen fellow. Nathan’s contribution to the annual teen fellow presentation involved developing ideas for the ideal teen newspaper Web site. This year’s presentation was so detailed that we came home with an example already laid out for us.
Within a week, we met with a member of our Web staff and showed him the ideas that Nathan and his peers had developed. A prototype of our new home page was ready days later.
Our new, vibrant and teen-friendly Web site (www.sj-r.com/voice/) went live in December. We now offer much more content and more opportunities to participate with the section. We also have made it easier for users to send feedback and ideas.
We even gave our staffers who have been actively involved with The Voice for a semester or longer their own page – which, naturally, they love. Their moms probably love it, too.
The site is remarkably similar to what the teen fellows proposed at the YEA Conference, both in its design and what it provides. After all, if that’s what teens want out of a site, who are we to tamper with it?
The SJ-R’s Web staff members fully embraced the opportunity to have fun with our site. They implemented techniques they have long wanted to try out on our newspaper’s site, and the result is faster and more eye-appealing.
Let’s just say our newspaper’s online editor, who is patiently waiting his turn for the paper’s main Web site to get a face-lift, is insanely jealous.
Kelsea Gurski is editor of The Voice at The State Journal-Register in Springfield, Ill. She can be reached at kelsea.gurski@sj-r.com.
