Often run with financial assistance from foundations and under the direction of an adviser with a professional journalism background, these newspapers have the advantage of being free from the censorship that may afflict a newspaper published as part of a high school s curricular work. The Teen Appeal is published in Memphis, Tenn., in a partnership with The Commercial Appeal, the journalism department at the University of Memphis, the school system and the foundations of Scripps Howard, the Newspaper Association of America, the Tennessee Press Association and Plough. Some 84 percent of students in Memphis schools are minorities. Before the Teen Appeal was started, few of the city s high schools had newspapers. Not only has the Teen Appeal given these students a voice, it also has been a good way to develop future journalists of color.
Students begin with a weeklong summer training camp.
During the school year they produce a monthly tabloid newspaper, working with faculty and journalism students at the university and a full-time paid coordinator. The Teen Appeal is printed by the Commercial Appeal and delivered by its district managers to all high schools in the city. We have about 12 or 13 kids in college in journalism now who worked on the Teen Appeal, says Otis Sanford, deputy managing editor of the Commercial Appeal. I m already seeing the effects. Two students who worked on the paper now work as interns in our newsroom.