Foundation

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.

September 2009 - Posts

• Welcome to the NEW Foundation Update

  This new e-newsletter from the NAA Foundation is designed to provide you with timely information about our young-reader and diversity initiatives. Watch your in box for regular updates about Foundation programs and products - research reports, curriculum guides, case studies, grants, training and more. You also can read Foundation Update on our blog. Join Our NIE and Youth Editorial E-forums The Foundation offers e-forums for Newspaper In Education professionals and youth editors. Both e-forums operate as part of NAA Community, a social network that lets users interact in a variety of ways. Pressed for time and just want the e-forums? Simply register for NAA Community and participate through your personal e-mail system. Once you're registered, e-forum messages come straight to your in box, where you can read and respond. However, note that signing into Community allows you to share and download files, check the e-forum archives for past posts on multiple topics, read the Foundation blog and see what's in our photo gallery. "The Foundation's forum for NIE has been a true go-to source for information about our industry," says Dana Plewka, educational services manager for The Denver Post. "This ‘old grey mare' had some difficulties getting through the learning curve, but now I can truly appreciate the robust features that the forum can offer, such as file sharing, blogs and the photo gallery. The ability to search past topics is a gold mine of ideas and support." Note These Dates Nov. 30, Youth Content Contest deadline: This contest recognizes original stories, artwork and photographs by students ages 13 and up who work with their local professional newspapers to produce youth content. March 1, Young Reader Awards deadline: Designed to recognize, showcase and disseminate new and noteworthy ideas in NIE and YEA programs, this contest features seven award categories. U.S., Canadian and international newspapers and newspaper associations are eligible to enter. Winners receive travel stipends to attend the Young Reader Conference. March 1-5, NIE Week 2010: As always, the Foundation will provide a free teacher's guide for this annual celebration of NIE. The 2010 guide will include lesson plans linked to national learning standards on financial literacy, nutrition, environment, character education and information technology. Each of the five units will contain lessons for three levels: grades three to five, grades six to eight and grades nine to 12. Teachers will be able to use all five lessons or just one. The guide, written by Hollister Kids, will be ready for download in early January. May 6-8, Young Reader Conference: A full slate of programming for NIE and youth editorial professionals will be offered at the conference facility next door to the Foundation's office in Arlington, Va. Sessions will begin on Thursday afternoon and end at noon Saturday. The emphasis will be on new media technology as teaching tools, U.S. Department of Education trends and how to implement and lead change in young-reader programs. Watch our Web site for details about these and other events. Posted Sep 30 2009, 12:42 PM by Marina Hendricks with no comments Filed under: Newspaper In Education, youth editorial alliance, NIE week, foundation update, contests

• The Digital Appetite

  Are newspaper journalists hungry for online? That's the question addressed in a new study from the Media Management Center at Northwestern University, which looks at the digital attitudes of nearly 3,800 people in 79 U.S. newsrooms. Results of "Life Beyond Print: Newspaper Journalists' Digital Appetite" reveal that most respondents are "eager to compete in a digital world." And the move from print to digital is not going fast enough for nearly half of them. Specifically, the study offers six profiles of journalists:    Digitals (12 percent) - "spend most of their time working online" Major Shift (11 percent) - "the most dissatisfied with their current state, more pessimistic about staying in the business long-term and want the most pronounced change" Moderately More (50 percent) - "want a roughly equal split between online and print" Status Quo (14 percent) - "believe the 30 percent of effort they contribute to online is sufficient and expect little disruption to the way they work now" Turn Back the Clock (6 percent) - "just wishes it would all go away" Leaders (5 percent) - "publishers, editors and managing editors ... their roles are primarily print-focused but want to shift to online." The top two predictors of "digital appetite," according to the study, are "heavy Internet use outside work and having knowledge of online audiences and their preferences." Other predictors are: "openness to change at work and adaptability; proactive pursuit of the training necessary to learn online skills; [and] keeping up with company initiatives and industry developments." Interestingly, researchers say that age is not a factor in digital appetite. Neither are experience and encroaching retirement: "[O]lder employees are just as likely to want to shift online as younger ones." The key is Internet usage beyond the office. "... [T]he more engaged journalists are with the Internet on their own, the more eager they will be to transition to online at work." Researchers advocate a more lenient attitude from management toward employees who surf the 'Net. "Leaders who want staff to be ready to go online should not punish them for frittering away a little down time at work online. In fact, they should be encouraged to edit video, tweet, upload mobile photos to Facebook pages and otherwise keep current in online trends." They also urge managers to "educate staff about who [your] users are and what they want online. In doing so, you will develop employees who desire to do more online and will meaningfully bridge the gap between your print and digital staff." Moreover, leaders should avoid "equating happy employees with those ready to change" and "devoting inordinate amounts of time to print loyalists." Posted Sep 25 2009, 05:46 PM by Marina Hendricks with 1 comment(s) Filed under: online, print, digital, newsroom, journalists

• Foundation to Offer Free Webinar

  Career development these days calls for different tactics. Success involves identifying pockets of opportunity and strategically developing new skills. With that in mind, the NAA Foundation is presenting a free webinar on reinvention. "Launching Your Reinvention Game Plan" (2 p.m. EDT Tuesday, Sept. 29) covers: Networking strategies, including building a network outside the immediate realm; How to get the momentum going; How to put together a reinvention budget and assemble an informal advisory board; and How to sustain the reinvention effort despite the demands of life. This is the final installment of Foundation's "reinvention" webinar series with Pamela Mitchell, founder and CEO of The Reinvention Institute and a noted career reinvention expert. She has appeared on NBC's "Today" show and has been quoted in top media publications, including The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, More and Black Enterprise. Prior to starting TRI, Mitchell spent nearly 15 years in senior-level roles for media and entertainment companies. Again, the webinar is free but registration is required. Sign up here. If necessary, cut and paste this link into your browser: http://www.naa.org/Events/EventWebinarDetails.aspx?sitecoreID=%7bEA7502A1-0C8C-4695-94F4-00D0D41794A0%7d . Posted Sep 21 2009, 01:57 PM by Marina Hendricks with no comments Filed under: foundation, webinar, career development

• Back to School With Newspapers

  John Sturm, president and CEO of NAA, reflects on the educational value of newspapers in his latest message to industry executives.   "It's one of the surest signs of approaching fall - scores of school buses on the streets as America's children head back to school," he writes. "Perhaps it is seeing those buses as I step outside to retrieve my morning paper, but this time of year also reminds me of the deep connection between newspapers and education. Daily newspapers are not only a valuable resource for information on local school issues and school sports. From reporting and editorials to investigative journalism, the newspaper medium is engrained in education curricula and remains a fixture in many classrooms across the nation." Sturm's "Above the Fold" message appears in full on NAA's Web site, along with a column by Jay Mathews of The Washington Post. This portion of NAA's site is open to all. Remember, the Foundation's site is open to all 24-7.  Posted Sep 17 2009, 03:22 PM by Marina Hendricks with no comments Filed under: Newspaper In Education