Reaching Generation Next

In 1997, high school journalism in the Washington, D.C., was dead. Not single public high school in the city published a newspaper that year. When The Washington Post discovered this crisis, they embarked on a program to reintroduce journalism and newspapers to the city's high schools. What came to be called the Young Journalists Development Program was born.

By 2003, the program operated 21 high school journalism programs and reached beyond the city into its diverse suburbs.

Dorothy Butler Gilliam, the leader of the project, wanted to extend this sucess to other cities, so she pursued and put together "Reaching Generation Next: A News Media Guide to Creating Successful High School Partnerships" with the help of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Written by Lisa Frazier Page, the book is a how-to for editors, newspaper advisers and principals to come together to create good scholastic journalists.

We have posted the full contents of the book online to make it easier than ever for journalists and high schools to connect.

All documents are in PDF format.

Complete book (41Mb)

Cover (151K)

Introduction (1 Mb)

• Acknowledgments
• Letter from the president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE)
• Letter from the president of the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation (RTNDF), Radio-Television News Directors Association (RTNDA)
• Introduction
  

Chapter 1
HOOKING THEM EARLY: The Rewards of Investing in Scholastic Journalism (5.4 Mb)

• The Poynter Institute’s high school programs of the `70s and `80s
• My Story (Shashank Bengali, reporter, The Kansas City Star)
• The persistent crisis in scholastic journalism
• The response of two local newspapers to the crisis
• The response of major industry groups to the crisis
• My Story (Dana Hedgpeth, reporter, The Washington Post)
• The big rewards reaped by one newspaper from its high school program
  

Chapter 2
GETTING STARTED: Creating a Successful Print or Broadcast Partnership (9.2 Mb)

• Tips for the newsroom manager involved in setting up a high school partnership
• My Story (Gerald Boyd, managing editor, The New York Times)
• My Story (Maria Elena Salinas, co-anchor, Univision Network News)
• Tips for the staff member responsible for operating a high school training program

Chapter 3
RESURRECTING SCHOLASTIC JOURNALISM: A Look Inside Some Model Newspaper-High School Training Programs (8.3 Mb)

• The American Society of Newspaper Editors’ 2002 survey of newspaper involvement with local high schools
• Teen/youth pages
• My Story (Natalie Hopkinson, reporter, The Washington Post)
• Internships/Apprenticeships
• My Story (Rick Rodriguez, executive editor and vice president, The Sacramento Bee)
• Printing of school papers
• Structured mentoring programs
• Workshops and camps

Chapter 4
TURNING STUDENTS ON TO TELEVISION AND RADIO: Broadcast Partnerships That Work (5.6 Mb)

• The growth of training programs at community-oriented radio stations
• The Radio and Television News Directors Foundation’s survey of electronic journalism in the nation’s high schools
• Newstudies, a radio training program for high school students in Philadelphia
• Radio Rookies, a community-based radio training program for New York youths
• My Story (Eliott Rodriguez, anchor, WFOR-TV, the CBS-affiliate in Miami)
• HTV Magazine, a television magazine produced by students in Springfield, Mo.
• Detroit Public Television’s partnership with the Detroit public schools
• My Story (Mike Woolfolk, anchor and managing editor, WACH, the Fox affiliate in Columbia, S.C.)
• Youth Radio, an independent radio training program in Berkeley, Calif.

Chapter 5
TEACHING THE TEACHERS: Print and Broadcast Training Programs for High School Teachers (5.8 Mb)

• The importance of teacher training
• The American Society of Newspaper Editors’ High School Journalism Institute
• The Radio and Television News Directors Foundation’s Teacher Ambassadors Program
• My Story (Karla Garrett Harshaw, editor, the Springfield (Ohio) News-Sun, and senior editor, Cox Community Newspapers)
• The broadcast workshop sponsored by the Student Television Network, a national scholastic organization of broadcast teachers
• Teacher training offered by individual news organizations
• My Story (Joann Harumi Ng, features copy editor/designer, The Oregonian)

Chapter 6
Resources (553K)