Connecting with young journalists
Other ways to help protect your newspaper's future:
- Don't make internships the first thing you cut when you're told to tighten the newsroom budget ... and then complain later when there aren't enough experienced J-school grads.
- Get to know the high school journalism teachers in your area. If they don't have a school newspaper, offer them space in your paper.
- Establish a teen page, and let teens do a lot of the writing. For a great example, see the(Joliet) Herald-News' "Teen Voice" page, overseen by Jan Larsen, and the related Web site (www.webstreetcafe.com), coordinated by Greg Matthews.
- Use the above steps to identify talented teen writers in your community. Help them attend a summer journalism camp, or a NINA workshop, or any number of other professional workshops.
- Don't fret the possibility that, after you invest time and money in training young journalists, they won't come back after college. You're still contributing mightily to the industry as a whole. And you might get a few back after all.
- Keep tabs on college and community college journalism programs in your area. Get to know the newspaper's adviser. Offer to visit a class. Invite the class to visit your paper.
- Encourage staffers to mentor a high-school or college journalist.
-- Jim Killam
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