In a recent story ideas item, we highlighted a national survey that suggests teenagers are consuming less news overall and particularly less news from newspapers. According to the report, only one in 20 teenagers relies on a daily newspaper and only 40 percent can be considered attentive to daily news of any kind.
So, how do you connect with readers if they're not reading? How do you get the uninterested, interested?
One possibility is to attract them with non-print outlets. Go virtual with your newspaper (see our recent items about why and how to take your paper to the web). If you already have an online site, Ellyn Angelotti, interactivity editor for Poynter Online, offers these suggestions:
- Up the interactivity with polls, comment boxes, discussion forums and multimedia;
- Create a Facebook community for your readers, a group page where they can interact with the goings-on at your school and with teen life;
- Check out the interactivity section at Savannah Now, the online venue for the Savannah Morning News, for ideas.
Offer ways for readers to get involved. Have them send in or upload pictures and video clips. Or allow readers to write blogs for your paper's web site.
These teens are your audience. You are a news source for them. Your job is to find ways to get them interested.
-- Jacky Hicks
