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| The NAA Foundation focuses on Newspaper In Education, newspaper youth content, scholastic journalism and diversity. In this blog, you'll learn about products, programs and resources that emphasize the use of newspapers and other media by young people. You'll also learn about programs and activities that can help news media companies transform their cultures in order to grow business and increase readership and audience. |
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NIE: teacher-to-teacher marketing
Barbara Allen of the Tulsa World and Kelsea Gurski of The State Journal Register in Springfield, Ill., covered the 2008 Young Reader Conference for the Foundation. Here's an excerpt from their Phoenix roundup on NIE teacher-to-teacher marketing.
I'll post more of Barbara's and Kelsea's nuggets in the coming days. If you'd like to read their full account, which includes photos, click here.
Teacher-to-Teacher Marketing
When Cindy Piller, educational services manager for the Times-Call in Longmont, Colo., needed a creative, effective sponsor thank-you ad quickly, she turned to an amazing resource - teachers.
Pictures and stories from NIE teachers explaining benefits students have reaped from newspapers in the classroom have resulted in the most effective ads Piller has used, and the approach is simple.
"Teachers are at the core of what we do," she said.
"You are selling learning. You are selling a different way for kids to learn that impacts them, that improves their test scores. You are selling learning, not just teaching, not just education. But these students will learn reading the newspaper."
Why should the NIE coordinator be speaking in an ad telling teachers to subscribe? Instead, Piller said, let teachers use their own voices in ads about them, their students, their classrooms and their creative ways for using the newspaper as a teaching tool.
Picking the right teacher is not as important as simply putting teachers in the ads. Include teachers with clout, male teachers and those who teach English language-learners, Piller suggested, and incorporate plenty of comments about student response. Photograph teachers in their classrooms and your newspaper studio against white backdrops for Photoshop cutouts and take more than just headshots. Make the message and photographs big, and show teachers and students together.
"My advice is, if you can, turn it up a notch," Piller said.
Results she has seen from these ads include:
- Teachers sharing more information on how they are using the newspaper
- Teachers calling the NIE coordinator about cool projects they are doing
- Teacher orders increasing
- Sponsors becoming easier to recruit
- Sponsor renewals becoming easier and bigger
- Vacation donations increasing because explaining what teachers are doing with newspapers is easier.
Published
Oct 16 2008, 05:23 PM
by
Marina Hendricks
About Marina Hendricks
Marina Hendricks is manager of the NAA Foundation. She manages Newspaper In Education, youth content and scholastic journalism programs, oversees the development of print and online products, and coordinates the NAA Foundation Web site, www.naafoundation.org. Before joining the Foundation, Marina was a features writer and the teen editor at The Charleston Gazette in West Virginia. She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Marshall University.
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