The Orange County Register, Santa Ana, Calif., sends newsroom staffers to a school journalism program it has adopted for lectures, training, advice and mentoring and provides computers and the technical support necessary to make them work. Teen pages and sections The popularity of teen or youth pages with content geared for youth readership continues to grow. These efforts offer a method for spotting talent, and have the added benefit of wide reader appeal. Attitudes, the teen page of The Californian, in Salinas, Calif., has been around for 10 years. Many students who worked on the page now work for the paper or elsewhere in the industry.
Some newspapers encourage high school reporters and editors to venture into community journalism.
The kids do a wonderful job for us, says Editor Tony Dearing. In Vero Beach, Fla., the Press Journal s weekly section, School Zone, has an added enticement for its young reporters. High school students can earn dual enrollment credit with a local community college for their work with the paper. The Tribune Chronicle in Warren, Ohio, provides a yearlong series of workshops, called Explorers Post, to help high schoolers decide if journalism is for them. Those who are interested become members of the Page One staff, reporting, taking photos and preparing illustrations for the weekly teen section.