Getting young people into newspapers
To attract young readers, we need to put forth the concerted effort to include their voices, their perspectives and their interests.
Wrote Howard Owens, Director of Digital Publishing at Gatehouse Media, in his blog last weekend. Previously, he worked new media at the Bakersfield Californian and the Ventura County Star. Owens is based in Rochester, N.Y.
He continued:
The problem isn’t that young people are uninterested in the world around them; They just are not necessarily interested in what mature journalists call news. Not yet at least, and maybe never (not in the way, say, the depression generation was).
We may never turn today’s teens and young adults into newsPAPER readers, but if we want to have a future as local media organizations, we need to find a way to get today’s younger audiences clued into our information products.
It isn’t about launching the right web site with hip graphics, a little social networking and a tolerance for racy language. Those tactics have their place, but content is still king.
Similarly, Larry Atkins, a journalism teacher at Temple and Arcadia universities, wrote in the July 26 Christian Science Monitor:
Newspapers also need to focus more on issues that young people are concerned about. For instance, high school students are well-equipped to talk about student loans, school shootings, binge drinking, and substance abuse.
It’s important to engage young people in newspaper reading since they will be the next thinkers, leaders, and voters.
Atkins advocates hiring college-aged students to sit on editorial boards and to write editorials and op-ed pieces. Not a bad suggestion.
When I started teaching the editorial writing class at Temple in 2003, I had low expectations. I expected the students’ op-eds to have the depth and complexity of a saltine cracker. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of writing. I was exposed to subjects not covered much in the mainstream press, such as the tough job market for graduates, university admissions policies, heroin abuse in the suburbs, and voter apathy among college students.
Many of the papers gave fresh insights on local, national, and international issues. For each of my seven writing assignments, I would receive several articles that were good enough to run in major newspapers. During the semester, six of my students had their op-eds published. My experience convinced me that there are many talented young writers who should be harvested by newspaper editors.
Several years ago, I worked at a paper that ran a big story on how local skateboard enthusiasts were “grinding” the granite steps in front of various public buildings.
Any taxpayer too old to jump aboard a skateboard can identify with that story. But no one thought to actually talk to the skateboarders themselves. A story on any other topic would be sent back to the metro desk for “balance.”
And then we wonder why kids — “kids,” meaning anyone younger than I am; I’m 45 — don’t read the newspaper.
Kids don’t give a crap about city council meetings. Unless it affects them. That’s human nature. And we do a lousy job of explaining how city council affects them. Or can affect them.
We also do a lousy job of explaining how city council affects folks older than me, too. Our focus should be more on needs, expectations and results; and less on process. Younger and older readers alike grow bored reading process stories.
You can strike a patronizing tone by calling this approach “news you can use” or sneer when folks use a label like “real life, real news.” But these are only attempts to bring stories to life to readers whose eyes glaze over when they see headlines on stories about zoning hearings or budget reviews.
I like the idea of getting young people involved in the paper. And not by “ghettoizing” their contributions into a youth page or section. Get them involved in the local sections. Get them involved in the sports and features sections. Get them involved on the op-ed pages.
Young people are niche group — a niche that’s not being properly served by anyone right now: Radio no longer reaches that demographic. Nor does television, adequately. Nor does the internet.
Ryan Sholin of the Santa Cruz Sentinel wrote last week in his Invisible Inkling blog:
Find the unserved niche in your town.
Here’s a hint: If your newspaper isn’t covering it, it’s unserved.
…Sell to a niche, not a demographic. Local moms are a niche; Women are a demographic.
Kansas Jayhawks fans are a niche; teenagers in Chicago are a demographic.
Many many bonus points if you can find the niche in your town full of people with no outlet, no forum, no place that gets them together to share their experiences.
Read Owens’ blog post here.
The other two links came via Owens’ post.
Read Atkin’s CSM piece here.
Read Sholin’s blog here.