Northwest Scholastic Press Website

A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.

Henry Brooks Adams, historian and philosopher and winner of a Pulitzer Prize in 1919, had that to say about educators, and although Adams lived at a time when educating was largely the business of men, his words could apply to no one more faithfully than to Alyce Sheetz Long, who died in Eugene on July 19, 1989 at the age of 72.

Alyce Sheetz, as she was known to hundreds of South Eugene High School students, as well as to teachers and students from throughout oregon, spent much of her life pursuing and achieving excellence in high school journalism. After a year of teaching journalism at Jefferson High School in Portland, she joined the South Eugene High School staff in the mid-1950′s, where she brought prominence to both the Axe, student newspaper, and the Eugenean yearbook.

Alyce joined and subscribed to the tenets of the National and Columbia Scholastic Press Associations. Nine times her students won Al-American and Medalist ratings for the Axe, and ultimately they claimed the Pacemaker Award, the highest award given to student newspapeers in the United States.

Likewise, the Eugenean yearbook received a string of national awards. In 1967, Alyce claimed the Gold Key Award from Columbia Scholastic Press Association.

As executive director for Oregon Scholastic Press from 1969 to 1975, Alyce continued her winning ways by receiving the National Scholastic Press Pioneer Award, a Journalism Education Association Medal of merit, and, in 1973, the Carl Towley Award for outstanding achievement in scholastic journalism. She was one of only three in the nation to be a Towley award winner.

While the awards gave Alyce the public recognition she earned, her real joy lay in her students, many of whom can point to Alyce’s guidance and inspiration as the turning point in their lives. In the summer of 1988, a reunion at South Eugene High School prompted a number of former students to contact Alyce, among them an editor with the Wichita Eagle Beacon and a bureau reporter for the Wall Street Journal in London. “Would Aluce and her husband-to-be, Douglas Long, join them for dinner at the reunion?” Doug, whom Alyce married on September 8, 1988, recalls thinking, “This must be some special lady. I don’t remember asking any of my high school teachers to join me at my reunion.”

At that reunion, Doug learned more about the very special qualities of Alyce Sheetz. Students came to her telling her that she had changed their lives. Alyce, in letters to friends afterwards, did not mention the accolades. She simply wrote that she had seen so many students and had had “such a marvelous time.”

Alyce’s untimely passing in the summer of 1989 is difficult for her many friends and former students to accept. But, if there is to be consolation, it is that she had a marvelous time in life. She lived every minute fully. One of heer husband’s favorite stories has Alyce rising morning after grey morning in Eugene to part the curtains, look out on the landscape and say, “Look at this — another wonderful day God has given us.”

All of us who knew Alyce, whether as students, teachers, family or friends, can say, “Look waht God gave us.” We were blessed by her prescence, her teaching and her zest and love for life. We cherish our memories of Alyce and know that another like her may not pass through our lives gain.

Editor’s note: This article was written by Mary Hartman who succeeded Alyce as executive secretary of Oregon Scholastic Press. Mary now lives in Colorado.

ImPRESSions, Fall 1989, Northwest Scholastic Press

J.D. McIntire, the publications adviser at Sandy High School, was named the latest Mary Hartman Oregon Journalism Teacher of the Year for 2012. The award honors McIntire’s dedication and tireless support to educators across the state over many years. He was nominated for the award by former and current students, his principal, and fellow advisers. Read their glowing recommendation letters below.

A past president of Oregon Journalism Education Association and a past co-chair of a national journalism convention in Portland, McIntire currently serves as Oregon’s JEA State Director.

McIntire taught adviser workshops and mentored many current journalism teachers.

The award comes with a $500 cash award paid from an endowment by the Hartman family.

Mary Hartman was the executive director of Oregon Scholastic Press at the University of Oregon, and her husband Barrie Hartman was managing editor of The Eugene Reigster-Guard. The award honors the can-do spirit and tireless support Mary offered Oregon journalism advisers for many years.

McIntire has been the newspaper adviser at Sandy High School for 14 years and the yearbook adviser for eight years. He has also taught a Beginning Journalism class and a Web Design class during that time.

During his tenure at SHS, the newspaper staff has won over 300 state journalism awards and three Sandy students have been named Oregon High School Journalist of the Year. Three other SHS students have been runner-up for that award.

Read the recommendations:

JD McIntire Lacy recommendation

JD McIntire Hampton recommendation

JD McIntire Principal Recommendation

JD McIntire student recommendation

Olivia Moore, a senior at Lakeridge High School, was named the 2012 Oregon High School Journalist of the Year. Moore is now a candidate for the National High School Journalist of the Year sponsored by the Journalism Education Association.

The winner of the national award will be named at Spring National High School Journalism Convention in Seattle, Wash. on April 15, 2012.

Moore submitted a binder that included samples of her work, an application, an essay, a transcript, and multiple letters of recommendation. Moore serves as the Editor-in-Chief of Content of The Newspacer, the Lakeridge student newspaper. Her work samples articles and photos published in the Newspacer as well as professional publications.

The selection committee was particularly impressed by Moore’s journalism work outside of her own school. Moore was a Youth Board member at the Lake Oswego Review and has been published in the Review as well as the Bedford Record-Review, a weekly newspaper in New York state. She plans on majoring in Communications at Stanford University, starting in the fall of 2012.

In her letter of recommendation, Lakeridge Publications Adviser Erin Schloetter called Moore “fearless” and “the best journalist that I have encountered in my career.”

“We are proud to award the title of Oregon High School Journalist of the Year to Olivia Moore. Her skill and dedication to both scholastic and professional journalism is extraordinary. She is an extremely talented young journalist,” J.D. McIntire, Oregon JEA Director said.

As winner of the JOY award Moore receives the Alyce Sheetz Scholarship of $1,000. The scholarship is co-sponsored by the Oregon Journalism Education Association and Northwest Scholastic Press.

Alyce Sheetz advised many award-winning publications produced by her students at South Eugene High School before becoming executive director of Oregon Scholastic Press at the University of Oregon School of Journalism. She was an inspirational leader and coach to an entire generation of successful advisers in Oregon before her retirement.

Justine Moore, a senior at Lakeridge High School, was named the first runner-up for the 2012 Oregon High School Journalist of the Year. She is the twin sister of the winner of the Oregon High School Journalist of the Year award, Olivia Moore. This is the first time siblings have been the top two recipients of this award. It’s only the second time the top two have come from the same school.

“Justine is a top-notch journalist as well,” said Schloetter. “She’s tenacious in tracking down sources, often calling until she gets just the right person on the phone.  She’s not happy just getting the same answers she could have gotten from a press release.”

Justine Moore’s entry included extensive work she has published in the Lakeridge Newspacer as well as work she had published on the website associated with the American Quarter Horse Journal.  Her work has also appeared on a national scholastic news website as well as in the Lake Oswego Review.

As first runner-up, Justine Moore receives a $500 scholarship. The scholarship is co-sponsored by the Oregon Journalism Education Association and Northwest Scholastic Press.

It’s time to enter your staff’s best work of the year in the new, improved Student Media Olympics, now in its 30th year. Deadline for submission of entries is April 10, 2012. Work from March 1, 2011 through the deadline is eligible for consideration.

You must be a member to participate, and you may submit up to three entries per category per medium based on your membership (video broadcast, audio broadcast, website, newspaper, magazine, yearbook). To become a member, visit our Membership page. Membership runs from September 1 through August 31 of each school year.

We recommend setting aside time each day over a week to allow students to reflect, debate and discuss and decide which pieces represent the staff’s best work of the year. Reflection is one of the most important growth activities for writers and creators of content. You may want each student to keep a string book of their work to review or submit for the student media Olympics. Deciding the top three in each category — and the discussion that gets you there — is another valuable process that helps you and your students articulate what’s important and what is good and what is valued in the work your staff does.

Also don’t forget to enter the annual critique service for your student media, also included with your membership and new this year. Now on with the show. The nominees this year are….

Student Media:  __Video  __Audio  __Web  __Newspaper  __Magazine  __Yearbook

News:
1. Straight news
2. In-depth/analysis news: single article
3. In-depth news package: multiple articles/artwork/graphics/video/audio

Features:
4. Personality profile
5. Human interest
6. News feature

Sports:
7. Sports news
8. Sports feature
9. Sports opinion

Opinion:
10. Editorial–Staff opinion
11. Column: single story 12. Column, same author: set of 3
12. Editorial cartoon
13. Review

Photography:
(Send published photo, captions if available, and print)
14. News photo
15. Human Interest/Feature photo
16. Sports photo
17. Photo Story (Also use this category for Video Story/Radio Sound Story/Web Story packages)

Design:
18. Page 1 layout
19. Inside page layout
20. Double page layout

Advertising:
(Professional logos okay; no agency slicks or prepared slicks. Also use these category numbers for Video, Audio, Magazine and Web advertising.)
21. Single ad, student-produced: single
22. Series ads, student-produced: set of 3

Art:
23. Illustration, with story
24. Infographic

Issue:
(One issue per editorial staff; maximum 3 issues per school)
25. Single issue
26. Single issue web page

Broadcast:
27. TV/VIDEO: News broadcast program (submit link on youtube or on DVD)
28. TV/VIDEO: Human Interest Package (submit link on youtube or on DVD)
29. TV/VIDEO: Sports Package (submit link on youtube or on DVD)
30. RADIO/PODCAST: News broadcast program
31. RADIO/PODCAST: Human Interest Package
31. RADIO/PODCAST: Sports Package

Web:
32. WEB: news portal/HTML
33. WEB: news portal/WordPress blog

How to enter:

➤ Select the best articles, photos, ads, cartoons, page layouts, illustrations and ­single issues from your school newspapers and magazines; best videos produced, shot, and edited; best radio podcasts; and best web site links that have been published since March 1, 2011

➤ Submit no more than three entries per category. 

Prepare your entries:

➤ Cut out each entry, including headline from each story; mark the issuedate of the entry; and mount it on an 81/2 x 11 sheet.

    For layout categories (18, 19, 20) and single issues, clearly label the page(s) you want judged – entries for all other categories must be cut out and mounted.

➤ Web Page/HTML site, and Web Page/WordPress blog categories: To enter, please print out a copy of your homepage, attach an entry form, and print the web address below the entrant’s name. We will review the web sites over the course of three weeks following the April 11 deadline.

➤ Attach a Publications Olympics Entry Form with a staple (no paper clips) to the front of each entry so it is clearly visible, on upper left hand corner. If story is longer and/or wider fold story so no piece hangs over the edge of mounting paper. Copy forms from the other side of this poster.
The name on the certificate will be taken from the entry form. Print perfectly, or better yet, email nwsp@nwscholasticpress.org and we will send you a PDF version into which you can type the information.

➤ Completely fill out the school submission form and include it with your packet.

➤ Video categories: All entries must be produced, shot and edited by ­students. Videos must be submitted on VHS tape with a Publications Olympics Entry Form listing student’s names and their role in the ­ pro­duction of the video. Copy forms from other side of this poster. Include a stamped
self-addressed envelope to cover postage if you want your video returned.

➤Question? Call 503-244-2247

Awards to be made:

➤ Judges will evaluate entries and award Superior, Excellent, and Honorable Mention certificates. All entries will receive comments, highlighting
strengths and noting suggestions for improvement.

➤ Judges will select the best entry from each category to award a Best of the Northwest for each category in each divisionwithin each student media

➤ All entries, evaluations and certificates will be returned to your school in mid-May in time for special presentations.

Further recognition:

➤ Principals of schools with certificate winners will be notified and ­commended by Northwest Scholastic Press for this evidence of excellence in their journalism program.

Review your newspapers, magazines, yearbooks, videos, podcasts, and websites for your best journalistic work this year and mail your entries by April 11!

What is this contest? Publications Olympics is a mail-in contest of student journalists’ work published since March 1, 2011. Entries in 33 categories include web-based journalism, video-based journalism, audio-based journalism, and print-based journalism, including news, feature, sports and ­opinion writing, photography, design, advertising, art, single issues and video, podcast.

How much does it cost? You must be a member to enter. Your three entries in each category are included with your membership .

How many entries may each school submit? Up to five entries in most categories. The single issue category (on-line and print) is limited to one entry per editorial staff, three maximum per school.

Who judges the contest? Journalism professionals, college-level advisers, and award-winning student media advisers who are retired or work in other states.

What feedback is provided? All entries receive critiques listing strengths and areas ­needing improvement. Award certificates for Superior, Excellent or Honorable Mention entries will be mailed to schools by mid-May. Certificate winners are announced in may on the NW Scholastic Press website and in our email newsletter. Principals of schools earning certificates receive a letter commending their journalism program. Press releases will be send to school boards and professional educator organizations.

Please copy the entry form
Entries must be sent by first class mail by April 10, 2012.

~ Please copy these entry forms and display the classroom poster. ~

=======================================================================
Publication Olympics
Entry Form
Attach a copy of this form to each entry.
Please print name clearly.

Media________________________________OSAA Class____________________

Category number_________Category name_________________________________

Entrant’s name(s)____________________________________________________

School____________________________________________________________

=======================================================================

Oregon’s scholastic press association returns to the UO School of Journalism headed up by the newest duck on the block, Dr. Karla D. Kennedy. A journalism teacher’s teacher, Kennedy is delighted to join Northwest Scholastic Press as its new executive director in addition to her responsibilities as the UO’s new Scholastic Journalism Outreach Coordinator.

The School of Journalism began a nation-wide search last fall after UO School of Journalism Dean Tim Gleason, a member of the NWSP Board of Directors, agreed to sponsor NWSP and to move it to the Journalism School’s third floor space at the UO Turnbull Center in downtown Portland. Interviews were held in November and December, and she recently settled in to her new home at the UO Turnbull Center in downtown Portland.

A Miami native, she graduated from the University of Miami in 1988 with a degree in Communication and joined the Miami-Dade County public schools as a language arts and journalism teacher.

She has taught a variety of subjects, including journalism, television production, language arts, drama and creative writing. She has advised student publications for 17 years.

Her former students work for The New York Times, the Tampa Bay daily, MTV, and other media outlets. She is still in contact with most of them.

She understands the unique challenges and needs of journalism teachers, having walked in those shoes. She has been a mentor to many teachers in Florida, where she became a strong advocate for the freedoms and rights of the student journalist.

In 2004, she earned a Masters degree in Student Media Advising from Florida International University, and in 2005 was an American Society of Newspapers Editors’ fellow at the University of California, Berkeley.

In 2007, she was recognized as the Teacher of the Year at Miami Norland Senior High and became a Florida Region 3 finalist. She went on to be named Florida Journalism Teacher of the Year by the Florida Scholastic Press Association. Her research interest is in student speech with an emphasis in First Amendment Rights for student journalists.

She is ready to travel anywhere in Oregon to meet you, answer your questions — even teach a journalism class. She is as close as your phone, and you can reach her at 503-412-3664 or email kkennedy@uoregon.edu.

She recently completed her dissertation for her doctorate degree in journalism from the University of Florida. She explores the effects of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Morse v. Frederick (2007) on school board’s student speech and student publications policies. In Morse, a school speech case, the United States Supreme Court held that the First Amendment does not prevent educators from suppressing student speech, at a school-supervised event, that is reasonably viewed as promoting illegal drug use.

In 2002, high school principal Deborah Morse suspended 18-year-old Joseph Frederick after he displayed a banner reading “BONG HiTS 4 JESUS” across the street from the school during the 2002 Olympic Torch Relay. Frederick sued, claiming his constitutional rights to free speech were violated. His suit was dismissed by the federal district court, but on appeal, the Ninth Circuit reversed, concluding that Frederick’s speech rights were violated.

Chief Justice Roberts, writing for the majority, concluded that the school officials did not violate the First Amendment. To do so, he made three legal determinations: first, that “school speech” doctrine should apply because Frederick’s speech occurred “at a school event”; second, that the speech was “reasonably viewed as promoting illegal drug use”; and third, that a principal may legally restrict that speech—based on the three existing First Amendment school speech precedents, other Constitutional jurisprudence relating to schools, and a school’s “important—indeed, perhaps compelling interest” in deterring drug use by students.

To Kennedy, the case underscores the importance of self-realization among teenagers as a key step in understanding their First Amendment freedoms and acting as an individual in a democratic society. As we talked about the case, she passionately and expertly discussed the real lesson that should be learned from this case.

Kennedy is smart, fun, energetic, talented and ready to help you and your journalism students.

Note: You can download the podcast files (in .mp3 format) directly from our Web site to listen to on your computer or MP3 player. You can also sign up for a free subscription to the SPLC Podcasts via iTunes. Simply open iTunes, click on “iTunes Store” and search for “Student Press Law Center.” You will then be given the option to subscribe to the podcast. Once you click “Subscribe,” iTunes will automatically check for and download new episodes each time you open iTunes. Downloaded episodes will then be available for transfer to your iPod. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Feed address: http://www.splc.org/podcasts/podcast.xml

Listed below are just a few of the Sunshine Week 2012 events we’ve heard about. To have your event or other plans listed, please send an email to dghernandez@rcfp.org and include a complete description of the event, as well as a link or email for people to register or get more information.

Court holds that Tinker applies to off-campus speech
March 15, 2012

When you join JEA, you receive the quarterly Student Press Law Center Report with your membership. Never miss a story. Click this link to visit the website.

MISSISSIPPI – A federal judge sided with school officials Thursday in a free speech lawsuit brought by a student disciplined for posting a song on Facebook and YouTube.

Taylor Bell, then a high school senior, produced a rap song, “PSK The Truth Need to be Told,” criticizing two Itawamba Agricultural High School coaches and their interactions with young female students – which allegedly included flirting and inappropriate contact, according to Bell’s lawsuit.

Bell produced the song and posted it to the Internet while off of school property. After one of the coaches learned of the song, Bell was suspended and then sent to an alternative school.

U.S. District Court Judge Neal Biggers ruled in favor of the school district, citing Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District and calling the song a disruption.

“The U.S. Supreme Court in Tinker specifically ruled that off-campus conduct causing material or substantial disruption at school can be regulated by the school,” Biggers wrote.

Bell’s attorney, Scott Colom, said he would appeal the decision.

“We believe the judge, in all due respect, was wrong on the law and wrong on the facts,” Colom said. “I think that interpretation of the Tinker standard is wrong and I don’t think the decision was meant for schools to regulate and punish students for speech out of school.”

Frank LoMonte, executive director of the Student Press Law Center said the ruling could allow schools to punish “whistleblowers” who claim misconduct by teachers. LoMonte said the ruling is “outlandishly wrong” in quoting Tinker.

“In the first place, Tinker was about on-campus speech,” LoMonte said. “It in no way, shape or form addressed school jurisdiction off campus…. There’s not the barest hint in Tinker that school jurisdiction could follow a student off campus.”

Itawamba County School Board attorney Michele Floyd said the song caused a disruption in school because students were talking about the song and the teachers testified it affected their learning style. Floyd said the district is pleased with the court’s ruling.

“When a student expresses themselves off campus and that expression is reasonably foreseeable to cause a disruption at school, schools will be better equipped to punish the students for the off- campus speech,” Floyd said.

Colom said students signed an affidavit affirming the allegations made against the coaches. Floyd said she had not see the affidavit.

“Pertaining to the allegations made against the coaches, there had been nothing to substantiate those allegations,” Floyd said. “I want to be adamant about that. Nothing to substantiate.”

The judge referenced several cases where student speech was considered violent or a “true threat,” but Colum said Bell’s rap didn’t constitute a threat.

The song did include the lyrics, “fucking with the wrong one gonna get a pistol down your mouth,” and “middle fingers up if you wanna cap that nigga.”

“If the lyrics were so violent, is it reasonable to believe that the school reassigned him to another school instead of calling the police?” Colom said. “They never called the police and never treated Bell like he was dangerous. After he heard the song, the principal drove Bell home.”

Colom is asking for $1 in damages and said this case isn’t about money but about vindicating Bell’s First Amendment rights. He said Bell has since graduated and is attending classes at a local community college.

In regards to the appeals process, LoMonte said the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is not known for being friendly when it comes to students’ freedom of expression.

“Obviously this particular student’s speech has some very raw offensive language that I’m sure judges find troubling, but they have to be careful about the lines they’re drawing,” LoMonte said. “There is no way that this decision will uphold under scrutiny.”

© 2012 Student Press Law Center

What does it mean to be the Messenger in today’s new news ecology where the people we used to call the Audience are now equally participants, competitors, colleagues, arbiters and sources?

In a recent blog post, a Canadian newspaper executive strips away the myths that surround the establishment news business. In its place, he outlines the heart of the business and the values upon which to rebuild the business: Trusted Messenger, shared accurate content, readers helping make sense of the constant stream of information.

As scholastic journalism organizations look to find their place in the mix, his thoughts are food for thought. He could just as well be talking about your organization. Community, collaboration and trust is at the heart of effective media of the future.

Posted on February 18, 2012

(Speaking notes for an address to the Canadian Journalism Foundation, Toronto, Canada, 2/16/2012)

Good evening.

I’m old media.

This is my 36th year as a newspaper man – apologies – my 36th year as a multi-platform news executive.

It’s a career I started as a copyboy on this same street about a dozen blocks east of here.

I was hired for taking a picture of a belly dancer fooling with a drunk columnist. I was given the job of a guy who had just been fired for being a drunk. And I ended my first night on the job, taking home – dead drunk – the guy who hired me.

In my career the only reprimand I have ever received – if you don’t count the odd suspension for insubordination – was about expenses, specifically it was about booze. It read: “You are no longer allowed to order an Armagnac, digestif or any other after dinner drink that is older than you are.”

This is commonly referred to as the Golden Era of journalism.

And now, like many of you, I am struggling hard to teach this old dog new tricks.

Struggling to accept that much of what we know is no longer valid.

And trying to come to grips with the fact that crappy newspaper executives are a bigger threat to journalism’s future than any changes wrought by the Internet.

All of us have been subjected to the annual spectacle of a gaggle of print publishers gathering on a panel – Doug Knight, our moderator this evening, has officiated over a couple of these – to declaim they are not dead yet.

It’s an embarrassing display played out time and time again at conferences where our industry heads look like aging ingénues at Stratford declaring they can still play Juliette. And nobody has the heart to break it to them.

Or worse still, mediocre journalists, wrapping themselves in the flag of long-form journalism, to deride the value of social media as a reporting tool. A tool they don’t understand or care to understand.

And then having to watch them use that ignorance to dismiss the phenomenon of participatory journalism.

When I hear these hacks cry out that their work can’t be reduced to 140 characters I always think – if only – and pine for the useful hours I could get back in my life if spared their thumbsuckers.

And while these false, zero-sum arguments play themselves out, Rome burns.

And in the United States of America, where I work, the fire is burning faster and fiercer than ever before.

Since 2005, the U.S. newspaper industry has lost more than 60% of its advertising revenue and so many jobs no one can accurately count them.

And while this is not yet the story in Canada, I would say the only difference between here and where I work in New York City – is time.

It’s not like the Internet isn’t coming to your town.

The Journal Register Company – the Company I took over two years ago – and, more recently, MediaNews Group –which we now both run under Digital First Media – could be the poster kids for what ails the US newspaper industry.

We count our products in the hundreds.

Our employees in the thousands – ten thousand actually.

Our audience in the millions – 57 million actually.

And our revenues are counted in the “Bs” as in billions.

And, it is profitable. With better margins than an average Dow Jones listed company.

We have titles pre-dating the American Revolution and can stretch our lineage back to at least one predecessor title co-founded by Benjamin Franklin. Well, just about stretch if we stand on a high stool.

Another title was around to publish George Washington’s obit.

And our core mission is enshrined in the nation’s Constitution.

And none of the above will save it or other companies like it – unless we and our industry profoundly change how we do business.

You can’t fix what you won’t admit is wrong.

So let’s start with this one: Print’s coming back.

A show of hands please if you think that’s true – heads up people this is a trick question.

In America from 1985 to 2005 – the very peak of print newspaper advertising revenue – the average annual growth was 2.7%. Again, that was the Golden Era.

And for those of you wrapping the daily sheet in heavyweight glossy stock betting on a return to the Golden Era – at that rate of growth -it will be more than a quarter of a century before we are back to – 2005 levels.

But that is not going to happen as advertising gets ever less share of marketers’ dollars.

And newer, sexier platforms are targeting customers in such terrifyingly precise ways that we print folks are effectively taking a knife to a gunfight.

In 2012, in the US, it is expected there will be more advertising on the web than in newspapers and by most estimates more Americans now access their news via the web than print.

The customers have spoken.

But are we listening?

I would argue not nearly hard enough.

The debate rages on where that news starts – largely print – rather than how people access it – largely the web – and how it might be blocked.

And so, for awhile, we were treated to spectacles like the online copy enforcer RightHaven pursuing stay-at-home bloggers obsessed with their cats who happened to pick up some online news copy for a post. RightHaven died a deserved death.

Now we have the Associated Press playing around with NewsRight – the word Right is used a lot by print people. This time, we are told, NewsRight is out to nail companies who are not bloggers – it would seem – and to gather data on how our copy is used. Okay. We’ll see.

In the meantime, where are the industry efforts to understand and act upon how news is actually created and consumed?

Where are the industry efforts on understanding how professional journalists can come together with the people we used to call the Audience and who, armed with laptops and broadband access, are in the same business as us?

I meant what I said earlier when I used the word struggle.

I am not a Net native. I’m a newspaper man. My father was news photographer’s assistant and then a printer. The first hands that ever held me had ink under the fingernails.

And it’s tough enough struggling with concepts such as open publishing and participatory journalism and to let go the control we used to have on copy because of our control of the means of production, without print’s knuckle-draggers refusing to acknowledge we need to change at all.

Because change we must.

And if we are going to change we are also going to have to admit that the Print model is broken. Don’t believe me – then read any of the newspaper company Chapter 11 filings in the United States or Clay Shirky.

If you haven’t read Shirky’s essay Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable and you are in the newspaper business then brother let me tell you – you are not paying enough attention.

His message is simple:

“If the old model is broken, what will work in its place? The answer is nothing. Nothing will work. There is no general model for newspapers to replace the one the Internet just broke.”

And his message is clear:

You don’t tinker or tweak a broken model. You start again anew. And I would add build upon our foundations.

To do this you have to let go of those things we once held true. Like:

• - We are the gatekeepers of information.
• - That we are the agenda setters and that we decide what news is and what is not.
• - And that we keep the Outside world outside and only let in the chosen few – people like us.

So, if we can admit the Print model is broken what else must we recognize isn’t working anymore.

I think it is this:

As career journalists we have entered a new era where what we know and what we traditionally do has finally found its value in the marketplace and that value is about zero.

Our traditional journalism models and our journalistic efforts are inefficient and up against the Crowd – armed with mobile devices and internet connections- incomplete.

Our response to date as an industry has been as equally inefficient and in many cases emotional.

“You’re gonna miss us when we’re gone” is not much of a business model.

The French philosopher Roland Barthes argues that when culture becomes nature we are in the presence of myth.

In our blustering for self-justification we have created a myth of our value. Without ever establishing its economic value, we have argued our value as journalists and journalism itself is self-evident and unassailable.

This has been one of the most gut-wrenching struggles for me to deal with because clearly journalism is not without value but, for sure, how it is largely practiced in print today – particularly “he said last night journalism” – nearly is valueless.

Today news organizations that do not embrace how news is now created and consumed – Digital First and Print Last – are ignoring not only how their customers desire to get news but how they understand it as well.

We ignore this at the risk of killing our business but worse we ignore it when the solution to our future is sitting under our noses – the power of our brands – if we would only let go of the past and embrace the future.

The University of London professor Celia Lury argues in her essay “The Brand as New Media Object” that brands themselves are platforms for content.

Dr. Melissa Aronczyk at Carleton University argues, with co-author Devon Powers, in their work “Blowing Up The Brand” that “the relationship between consumers and brands become less about the consumption of the product than about social relations, experiences and lifestyles such consumption enables.”

In an industry that has been hidebound to its production process – printing – but equally wedded to the belief that its brands stand for something, I think the professors’ arguments point to a way forward for newspaper companies as news companies.

Just as the printing press divorced the reader from the writer with the pen and created a whole new world of scalable audiences and techniques of communication, the new digital platforms demand journalists use each platform to its utmost advantage.

The first steps in this transition have been our Digital First strategy but clearly it is also a case of Digital Right – the right uses for the right platforms on the right occasions. And not just the simple re-purposing of content from one platform to another in order of priority.

Online stories today that do not link are now considered inferior by consumers. News companies, as brands, cheapen and destroy themselves if they do not allow the social interaction that society now demands of the new digital tool set.

Marshall McLuhan knew this when he said the Medium Is The Message.

In the news business, particularly a legacy business like newspapers, if we don’t understand this and take advantage of the Medium’s potential we will cease to be the Messenger.

And it is in this role of Messenger that we have tied up our ideas of brand values.

Such as:

• - A Messenger the community can trust.
• - A Messenger known for its accuracy, integrity, etc.

But what does it mean to be the Messenger in today’s new news ecology where the people we used to call the Audience are now equally participants, competitors, colleagues, arbiters and sources?

At Digital First Media we have started to answer that question by first unlocking our brands and sharing our content into this new eco-system for all to use. And where we, in turn, aggregate the Audience’s content, curated under our brands.

The Audience – at the Journal Register Company – has responded to this initiative by doubling in about a year.

Letting go of control is a very hard thing to do. And allowing the Audience – or the outside – in is even harder.

Often when I talk about bringing the Audience into the news conversation, the aforementioned aging ingénues respond sharply, reminding me:

• - “We have always connected with our communities.” Read: letters to the editors or streeters.
• - “Our readers are part of our process.” Read: surveys and citizen members of editorial boards.
• - “We hear and act on their complaints.” Read: the ever-ineffectual Ombudsman.

When I worked at the Toronto Sun, as both a reporter and an editor, we said the same things usually wrapped up in this tidy little phrase:

“We produce a newspaper for the guy who rides the Queen St. streetcar.”

I bought into that, even though as a guy who actually did ride the Queen Street streetcar to work it was obvious about half of the riders – men and women of color; non-English speakers struggling to find their way in Canada’s largest city – looked nothing like the self-satisfied white guys – me included – who sat around the rim deciding what was news.

The web ensures that doesn’t happen anymore. Or at least it doesn’t happen for a long period of time for a news company trying to survive.

Extending Professor Lury’s argument that brands are platforms, at Digital First Media we have taken our initiative to unlock our brands and share our content one step further.

In Torrington, CT we have literally extended our brand, the Register Citizen, by using the newsroom itself as a platform.

At the Register Citizen we have established an Open-to-the-Public newsroom and all are welcome.

They are welcome to work at blogging stations set up right in the newsroom. They are welcome to use the community meeting rooms and they are welcome to attend the news meetings themselves. For those who can’t make it the news meetings are also live-streamed.

In Torrington we have tried to embody the basic values of the web – transparency, inclusiveness and interactivity.

Placing online fact-checking boxes on every story is our direct request for help to correct any mistakes we may have made. I believe this is an act of transparency that is bonding us closer to that community.

To be clear, we have accepted we are no longer the old-fashioned agenda-setters or gatekeepers of information for our communities. Clearly communities know what they want and can organize themselves around issues and activities.

What we can do, however, under the power of our brands, which are still trusted, is help organize relevant information out of the river of content now available in each community.

Vint Cerf, Chief Evangelist at Google and called by some the Father of the Internet, is very clear about this:

“People’s trust in journalism has always been about branding.”

And as the community has become even a physical part of the newsroom we are building a better connection with that community than we have ever had before.
In Torrington, the community has responded by driving the newspaper’s digital audience to more than five times its print audience and it has taken the Register Citizen from a loss to profitability.

Along with the Community Media Labs at all Journal Register Company dailies and which are now being rolled out at Media News Group, Torrington’s Open-to-the-Public newsroom is becoming a new model of community engagement that works and enhances the news organization’s brand value.

This is a brand value being built by the community itself as the community takes ownership in what the local news organization does and helps to establish its key values of community involvement.

The gate is forever open now. There is no longer a gatekeeper on community news. Communities will now value those institutions – like Twitter – that help the flow of news and those – like us – that add context and reflect the values the communities themselves set.

Adding value to the new free-flow of news requires a new news organization.

Our journalism tied to the power of participatory journalism is in my opinion an unbeatable combination as we help communities make sense of the river of information on the web.

In New Haven, CT we have created what we believe is a local newsroom that adds value.

It has four key components: Breaking News; Investigative Reporting; Audience Engagement and Widgets.

Audience Engagement and Widgets are the new no-brainers. Newsrooms must share content and they must engage their audience as demanded through the new digital tools that are powering social media.

No social media connection. No news organization.

While the crowd can be as fast or even faster on breaking news, adding the context we have through our community connection and professional newsrooms is both vital and additive to brand value.

However, it is the re-establishment of an investigative reporting unit – a victim of cutbacks in local newsrooms a long time ago – which can add the greatest value.

Finally, again, and using the new digital toolset, we are asking questions that others are not asking.

That virtuous circle is complete when the news organization’s engaged audience pick up those questions and demand answers.

From a business perspective we are getting closer to the Holy Grail of value alignment with our communities.

Trust me when I say all of this is easier to say than do and it takes a commitment from the entire organization. If you are not fully committed the community will know it in a heartbeat.

And then you are dead because a thing of value has to earn its value – constantly.
I strongly believe sharing content will mean more prosperity not less in the future.

One of the reasons I am so stern on paywalls and other walled gardens is because I firmly believe that in the future content will go the audience and not the other way around.

Smart, original content, tagged with advertising will gain value by being shared through networks.

Shared content equals influence.

And influence in the new eco system equals engagement.

And engagement equals value to those advertisers and others trying to reach that engaged audience.

While online news start-ups here in Toronto like OpenFile understand this intuitively too many newspaper publishers do not.

And they continue plow on by slashing editorial, research, marketing and even sales resources – our only core competencies – to meet profit expectations.

An aside, newspapers get the investors they deserve.

In the US with many newspapers either in, coming out of or threatening to go into bankruptcy, newspaper managers appear to be equally bankrupt of ideas as they seek to please investors by slashing costs and driving short-term gains.

Investors, being no fools and recognizing newspaper managers have no plans to truly transform their business, are simply doing their jobs when they keep management focused on producing short-term gains.

Investors don’t buy into myth. They buy into math.

If you want investors to take a long-term view on our industry or our companies then you better give them a long-term plan that works. Give them a plan they will back.

And I would add it should be a plan built on the editorial floor where the core of our business lies.

The rest of transformation is mechanics.

If it is not core to your business- and in newspapers core means content and sales – then reduce it, stop it, sell it or outsource it.

And for God’s sake stop listening to newspaper people. We have had since the mid-90s to get this right and clearly we are no good at it.

Put the digital people in charge – of everything.

They can take what we have built and make it better.

It is so very important we get this right – not just for the industry and investors – but for our communities.

“The newspaper is the place where communities are formed,” writes New York University professor Aurora Wallace in her book Newspapers and the Making of Modern America. Dr. Wallace continues: “Newspapers are … the engine behind the construction and maintenance of strong communities … when they falter, we must ask what else will suffer as a result.”

We owe it to the communities who have sustained us not to falter just because we are afraid to change.

Finally, I would say to newspaper execs learn to let go and love the ‘Net.

I am here to tell you, you can teach an old dog new tricks.

Metaphorically, I still chase cars down the street and bark at cyclists but I’m picking my marks better now and for old dog I’m starting to catch some of them.

Thanks.

The Journalism Education Association has scheduled Feb. 19-25, 2012, as Scholastic Journalism Week. How you help promote this week is entirely up to you. It is hoped that your involvement and that of your students will serve to raise community consciousness regarding the benefits of scholastic journalism. Your students will learn from both the promotion and their celebration of an event holding major significance for them.

Use this resolution template, created by Stan Zoller, MJE, to encourage your school board, city council, county board or even student council to declare the week Scholastic Journalism Week in your area.

Click here for the Microsoft Word version of the resolution template.

Student Partner Miranda Leung of Chantilly High School designed this great poster you can use to celebrate Scholastic Journalism Week.

Schedule of events

Monday: Media Day
The foundation for the week and what student publications do. Spend some time looking at the history of journalism. Give students a list of journalists through history, have a WikiRace to see who can find information about them and their impact on journalism today. If you have more time, have students complete a poster assignment about Journalism History (there’s a great assignment in CJET 2010, contributed by Carolyn A. Brown, CJE, adviser, Tiger Times, Seoul International School, Seoul, Korea). Have a conversation with your staff about the purpose of journalism throughout history and now, talk about the role of scholastic journalism in the community, attend a school board meeting to highlight the importance of journalism at all levels. Give the students the assignment of researching the history of your publication. How long have you been around? Have you changed names?

Tuesday: Take it to the Community Day
A day to promote yourself and what your publication/staff does. Conduct a readership survey if you are a newspaper, have a booth set up at the lunch tables to promote your program and recruit, wear shirts promoting your program, One cool idea might be to assign each of your staffers to take a portrait of themselves that displays their personality. Take the portraits and get frames for them from a dollar store and then display them in a trophy case at your school with the SJW poster.

Wednesday: WE CAN!
What does journalism mean to you? Have each of the staffers sit in a circle and talk about what being a student journalist means or has meant to them. Spend time goal setting as a publication, what can you be, what can you do? Take the TAO of Journalism pledge during Scholastic Journalism Week this year. Last year more than 1,000 student journalists took the pledge to be Transparent, Accountable andOpen in their practice of journalism, and they now carry the TAO of Journalism Seal on their work. TAO of Journalism is endorsed by JEA.

Thursday: Thank you!
Take some time to thank those that have helped your publication. Send out thank you cards to advertisers, your publishing company, your administration, the teaching staff. One idea might be to hold a “Meet the Press” event for a half hour to an hour after school. Buy cake (everyone loves cake!), send out invitations to the teaching staff and administration, and have your entire publication staff in attendance. It gives your sources a chance to put faces to the publication for when they are approached for interviews in the future.

Friday: Free Speech Friday
Stay tuned for ideas and information from the Student Partners (45words) and Scholastic Press Rights Commission.

Other ideas

More time consuming/may take more than a little effort

1. Take some video of your upcoming deadline. Post it online, via Facebook or Twitter to show your community what a scholastic publication goes through to share all the news that’s fit to print, or record the memories that make the year.
2. Portrait project: Draw attention to the week and your staff. Assign students a portrait project. There’s great lessons in the Spring 2011 issue of C:JET that gives 20 ways to take stunning portraits. Depending on access to photography equipment, students could check out cameras for a day with a partner or group and head out on campus to get their portrait taken (you could even specify that their portrait be taken with a cell phone camera for additional challenge). They then come back to the lab, upload their photos, and chose one portrait of themselves that they feel encompasses their personality and who they are. Share them as a staff and then share them with your community. Mount them and put each staffer’s name on their portrait. Then use a wall outside your publication office or an empty trophy case to display the photos.
3. Have an Amazing Race-style First Amendment scavenger hunt. Students are having clues related to each of the five freedoms scattered around the school (eg. “speech” clue hidden on the speaker). Kids have to find, then go on to the next clue. Prizes are given to the first three to complete.
4. Pass out “Newsies Night” movie tickets. Show Newsies after school on your school’s big screen and buy popcorn to give away. The “tickets” are just quarter fliers…but the kids will have to say one of the freedoms of the First Amendment to get in as well.
5. Hold a “Meet the Press” event at your school. Send out invitations (either tangible ones or e-mail) and invite your school’s staff and administrators to a short afterschool get together. Buy some cake at Costco, have some pop available, have your entire publication staff in attendance and schmooze it up. Send out “thank you” cards after the event letting those who attended how much you appreciate their support.
6. Promote yourself. Use this week as a special way to recruit. Send out a celebration packet to your feeder schools, send some of your staffers down with it. Create a brochure to advertise your program and easy ways those in your community could get involved.
7. Send out thank you notes to advertisers and/or other people in your community who consistently help you out.

 Medium effort

1. Take a few minutes of your day during the week to share an issue of Superman #706 which focuses almost entirely on Daily Planet editor Perry White and the problems he faces with eerily modern day problems like decreased readership and fewer people reading newspapers. The effort in this is to find the actual issue.
2. Have your students tweet about the First Amendment and moments during the week they think about those freedoms. Use the hashtag #sjw2012 so we can all follow your tweets!
3. Celebrate the week by conducting short lessons on each of the Five Freedoms, one each day.
4. Have your students take each day to conduct polls of the student body about those freedoms, what they know, but more importantly educating them on what they don’t know. Culminate the week with a penny drive for the Student Press Law Center.
5. Change your profile pic on Facebook to the SJW poster.
6. Invite your friends on Facebook to “like” the Scholastic Journalism Week 2012 page in order to get more ideas from other advisers around the nation.
7. Write a status update during the week about why you consider Scholastic Journalism to be essential to your school, or why you continue to be a part of scholastic journalism. Share your passion, share your inspiration. What keeps you going?
8. Encourage your students to do the same as #7.
9. Celebrate yourself, at the end of the week, treat yourself to something special (whether it’s a cup of your favorite coffee, a pedi/mani, maybe a massage). You, as an adviser, do so much to support what your students do, you deserve to take some time to yourself.
10. Take the TAO of Journalism Pledge. www.taoofjournalism.org. Then, when your staff takes the pledge, take a photo to commemorate (of the event and a group photo after) and send it to coyers@gmail.com, or post it to the SJW 2012 Facebook site yourself.
11. Have your staff attend the school board meeting during the week. PACK THE HOUSE! Maybe even be proactive and attend the meeting but also address the board about the value of journalism in the curriculum and of free and responsible student news media serving the community.
12. Print off posters from this page for the week and put them up all over your school the Friday evening before so students could come in to school and see them at the very beginning of the week.

Small effort

1. Set up morning announcements for each day (available at the SJW website from JEA). Have them either read over the intercom or broadcast via your television broadcast class (if possible).
2. Have your staffers wear their staff shirts, J-shirts, or anything and everything related to journalism at least once during the week at the same time.
3. Have your students take a day to write a letter to your local paper about the importance of journalism to them, the school, etc.
4. Do Something! Don’t let the week slip by!
5. Hand out business cards with the First Amendment on them on Monday. Then, have your staff members head out into the cafeteria during lunch one of the days and pass out candy to every kid who can correctly recite (without their card) the five freedoms of the First Amendment.

Some ideas for the week
from Tom Gayda, MJE

1. Guest speakers. Invite a local pro or former student made good to come and speak to your classes.
2. Party. During class or after school, have a party to celebrate the week.
3. No work worknight. Like a party. Plan to stay after school for fun only, no deadlines.
4. PR. Send nice notes to faculty who help you out a lot. Leave them candy or snacks in the lounge.
5. Hang out with other area schools. Invite them to your party or challenge them to some kind of competition.
6. Write letters to the editor. Have students write letters to the local paper detailing their love of scholastic journalism.
7. Have a press conference. Have a local politician, athlete or school administrator come to class and let students ask questions.
8. Exchangeapolooza. Send your publications to other schools or spend time looking through the ones you get for fresh ideas. Celebrate others.
9. Try something new. Live it up. Break from the norm. Do something cool you hear other schools always talk about. I’m going to try to get my students to sell ads!
10. Clean. It is almost spring…
11. Participate in SPLC Penny War. Raise money for a good cause!
12. Clip stories/ideas/designs. Create a visual library from your favorite publications.
13. Visit feeder schools. Get to know the middle schoolers who will one day take over.
14. Compete! We’re kicking off a contest next week, everyone can play!
15. Decorate. Make sure people know it is SJW by decorating your hallway area and classroom.

Student Partner Miranda Leung of Chantilly High School designed this great poster you can use to celebrate Scholastic Journalism Week.

More about Scholastic Journalism Week

The Internet is vast but can fit each of us. Our news can be precisely what we are interested in reading, and “The Office” is on when we’re ready to view it.

A challenge for this made-for-consumers medium is the need to locate the information. Some day, literally every bit of information produced will be posted on the Internet. Wading through the mass of information becomes crucial.

So where do journalists fit in? The answer is to play by the new rules and adapt to today’s news consumer. One way to accomplish this is to write with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in mind.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE WHOLE STORY

SEO Background
Search Engine Optimization was born shortly after search engines. It is the process of “optimizing” Web content so the information can be organized and located by search engines like Google, Yahoo, Ask.com, etc…. A significant amount of the Internet is invisible to search engines because its content producers do not adhere to Web standards when uploading content to their Web sites.

The Writing Process
News stories begin with an idea, often developed by research. Before a story idea passes the lips of a good reporter, substantial work has already been done to identify such factors as angles, sources and new developments.

Often this research includes looking at other stories, online. This entails typing basic keywords into Google, Yahoo or LexusNexus.

For example, I wrote a story about motorcycles and college scholarship athletes during the summer of 2006. This was after Pittsburgh Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger crashed his motorcycle and would miss a significant part of the season. Riding the bike was a violation of most NFL contracts, including his. It was possible that Roethlisberger’s ride could have cost him millions in fines.

As a reporter for the University of Iowa Daily Iowan, I decided to write a feature on the relationship between dangerous activities (such as riding a motorcycle) and scholarship status. Universities significantly invest money into athletes. Were there rules about motorcycle riding and other high risk activities related to college athletes? I Googled it. I couldn’t find a related story, but found some useful information. I learned about a few similar cases, but my story clearly had a niche.

Many story ideas begin this way. A little time online using search engines goes a long way. Eventually, you write the story, it runs, you’ve got your clip, the end.

But now that more readers are going online for their news, another element needs to be considered while writing stories. In addition to being about interesting topics, they need to attract eyeballs. This requires compelling headlines as well as all of the elements that will get it through the editing line and to production. Online news stories also require another element. The story must live on online, and be found by those who do not yet know that a story contains the answer to what they are searching for.

SEO and the News
Using my example, the motorcycle story, it first ran in 2006. But it remains online in archives and may be of interest in the future. Further, as long as it’s online, it has the potential of producing advertising revenue. Stories attract potential customers to ads.

Advertisements run next to online stories, and the great advantage of this arrangement is that ad revenue from a story never stops. A findable story lives on forever. But what if a story cannot be found (is not in the results of Google, Yahoo! or other search engines)? Then the advertiser isn’t paying for its views.

The larger question then becomes does the story really exist if it can’t be found?

When articles can’t be found on initial queries into search engines, it begs the question of how did the search engine choose the results? The World Wide Web contains billions of unique pages about everything. Search engines dissect the queries and spit back answers in milliseconds. How engines rank results is one of the great marvels and currently the puzzle of the SEO industry.

Writing to be Found
All is not lost! There are some basic strategies to help ensure a story “works” and can be found online. The first step is determining the story’s “keywords.” Keywords represent the story’s topic, and are how readers will find the story while searching. For my motorcycle story example, I could’ve used keywords such as “college athletes and motorcycles,” or “motorcycle violations scholarship money.” By using these words in sentences throughout the story, its overall theme is declared.

While deciding on keywords, use resources such as Google’s Keyword Tool to discover how often people use your keywords. You may learn that a synonym under consideration for use as a keyword is 10 times more popular than another. In my example, instead of “college athletes,” “NCAA athletes” is how people may view them. Knowing what people are looking for is an essential step to selecting a story’s keywords.

Possibly the most important element to SEO is the Title Tag, which could be the same as the story’s headline. Cute, ironic, or cliché headlines that catch attention at newsstands may not work online. Newspapers often craft dual headlines: One for the newsstand and one for the Web site. Use keywords in the headline and keep online searchers in mind.

Another element to consider is sub-headlines throughout the story. Search bots scan the HTML (Hype-Text Markup Language) of Web sites to “see them.” Sub-headlines written in bold scream to these bots “these are important words right here!” Use this opportunity to insert the keywords that represent the main point of the article.

A word of caution: Search engines are becoming sophisticated and an outdated strategy known as “keyword stuffing” will be recognized and punished. If a story doesn’t read well because of an overuse of keywords, it will most likely be recognized as trying to game the search engines and be devalued. A keyword rate of about 2 to 4 percent is considered to be “natural” and is a good rule of thumb while writing a story.

NY Times Approach
Today, a few major newspapers are utilizing SEO for their Web sites, including The New York Times. Marshall Simmonds, chief search strategist at The Times, oversees all of its elements related to SEO. Simmonds divides the SEO work into two “buckets” – one that deals with the technical side such as crafting HTML Tags, and another with the writing and editing.

“Without well-written, researched headlines that reach to both endemic and search users, our content is effectively invisible. We train, set strategy, work with editors, producers, designers, IT (information technology) folk, and measure results,” Simmonds said.

Linking Sites
It’s abundantly clear, this is important work. Here’s another tip: Search engines factor in a story’s relevancy not only by the keywords on the page itself, but by its popularity. The engines can tell if other Web sites link to the page. A good analogy of a link’s value is a “vote.” If site A links to site B, site A is essentially “voting” for site B; it must contain quality and useful information, otherwise why would site A send its readers there?

Many social media sites such as blogs, Facebook, YouTube and Digg allow Web site owners to promote their sites. This is very important as their sites can relay viewers to stories. Also a link to sites raises their “authority” in the eyes of search engines, thus rewarding them with higher rankings on search results.

An important component to keep in mind about links is the “anchor text” of a link. The anchor text is often blue and underlined; it’s the words that are clicked on to reach another page. The wording of the anchor text should give a clear indication of what the linked page is about. A colossal wasted opportunity occurs when a site links to another with the common anchor text “click here”.

Looking Ahead
Many news organizations are beginning to teach writers to create their stories with SEO in mind. Today the process is still in its infancy as our news consumption shifts online. “Writing for SEO” could soon be a class taught in journalism schools, and its elements standard practice for every piece of content submitted to the Web.

Tyson Braun is a search engine specialist with EngineWorks, a Portland, Ore., search engine Internet marketing firm. Visit www.engineworks.com for more information.

The Helvetica coffee mug is available from veer.com

Every week we scour the web for the latest and most interesting material for use in scholastic journalism classrooms. Then we post it in our NWSP Lesson Library  just for you. There is a lot of good stuff out there on the web now, and we’re out there searching so you don’t have to. If you’ve found something interesting, we’d like to know. We’ll pass it on to others, as well as bring our own original content to you, too.

Have an idea you’d love to see developed for the classroom? Post your ideas here and we’ll see what we can do. In the meantime, drop in with your cup o’ joe every week and see what we’re up to now!

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE CURRICULUM LIBRARY.

QUILL AND SCROLL INTERNATIONAL HONORARY SOCIETY PROGRAM DEADLINES
WRITING AND PHOTO CONTEST entries should be postmarked no later than Feb. 6. Categories include news, sports, editorial, review, column, in-depth and feature writing; editorial cartoons, news feature and sports photography, and advertisements. Work must have been published in news magazines, newspapers or online. For more information, visit the Quill and Scroll websitewww.uiowa.edu/~quill-sc/ under the Quick Links column (on the right). The contest is open to Quill and Scroll members and to non-members. The annual International Writing and Photo Contest is sponsored by hsj.org and my.hsj.org.

WRITE AND WIN $5,000 to support education in your community! Now through Sunday, Feb. 5, the Olive Garden is asking first through 12th-grade writers in the U.S. and Canada to submit an essay of 50 to 250 words answering the question:  “If you were given $5,000 to support education in your local community, how would you use it and why?” Entries to this annual Pasta Tales contest may include students’ essays from writing assignments. For more information, visit https://www.olivegarden.com/PastaTales.aspx. Quill and Scroll coordinates the contest judging.

KEEP THE DRIVE HIGH SCHOOL JOURNALISM AWARDS entries should be submitted via its website by day’s end March 1. Student journalists may enter either the Print Category or Broadcast Category, but not both. Print Category submissions are articles written and published by students in high school newspapers. Broadcast Category submissions are video segments in journalistic style written and produced by students and aired within the high school.
The entries should address the importance of stronger teen driving laws at the state or national level, and include the website www.KeeptheDrive.com. A total of $7,500 will be presented through six awards (three in each category). For more contest information, visit www.allstatefoundation.org/HSJ. Quill and Scroll coordinates the contest judging.