Young readers are crucial for the future John Sturm, President and CEO, Newspaper Association of America The quest to attract young readers to newspapers is crucial to the future -- "and I’m talking about much more than the success of one industry," says Mr Sturm. "If we lose young newspaper readers, then we lose a generation of readers. If that happens, the prime engine of global news and information is damaged," he says. Mr Sturm’s opening address focused on the importance of young reader research and training, and on the importance of newspapers no matter what platform, electronic or print, that is used for news delivery. "While the means of delivery of news, information and perspective is undergoing a revolution, the creation of content remains centered in the newsrooms of the world’s newspapers," he says. "In those newsrooms resides the experience, expertise, commitment and depth to provide the unbiased, accurate and, increasingly, even courageous flow of fact and perspective on which healthy societies depend." "In an age where anyone can reach a large audience without any special regard for quality, motive or even truth, the newspaper information gathering and processing function has never been more important," he says. Newspaper reading improves student performance Bo Jones, Publisher, The Washington Post and Chairman of the Newspaper Association of America In his opening address, Mr Jones focused on recent research conducted for the Newspaper Association of America Foundation on the impact of young reader programs. These include:  A nationwide study by the University of Minnesota comparing the performance on standardized tests by students using newspapers in classrooms as a teaching tool with students that were not. Students using newspapers score better, and the improvement is greatest with more frequent newspaper use.  A survey showing that two-thirds of people who remember using a newspaper in school continue reading newspapers as adults.  A study conducted last year that found higher young adult readership among students who read in-paper content specifically written for, by and about teens. "It is too early to tell what impact this research will have on the editorial content in newspapers," says Mr Jones. "The point here is that the research to date has advanced the level of understanding but leaves many questions for further research." New Guides for Newspapers in Education Aralynn McMane, Director of Young Readership Development, World Association of Newspapers "If you treat Newspapers In Education as a circulation dump, the results will be simply rubbish." Dr McMane won a round of applause with that statement, and went on to highlight the need for quality materials to help teachers and newspapers create better NIE programs. "As we have known for some time, newspapers must take NIE seriously and create quality programs if they want to see the benefits such a program can accomplish," she says. To that end, Dr McMane announced the publication of three new guides "that help create a quality NIE program that strengthens the community while it builds new readership." "Reading & Learning," a ground-breaking series that targets diversity as a core element of NIE, includes guides for newspaper executives, NIE coordinators and teachers. The guides, in English or Spanish, are available by request to nie@wan.asso.fr. WAN is also providing newspapers world-wide with an original serial, The Monkey King, for publication around International Literacy Day on 8 September 2007. The serialized story, provided through a partnership with Breakfast Serials Inc., will be published in 17 chapters accompanied by illustrations and a teaching guide. "We’ve known for some time that the parent-child link plays an unbeatable role in developing a new generation of newspaper readers, and is harder and hard to assure," says Dr. McMane. "We also know that a very powerful form of such early exposure involves the simple activity of a parent and child reading the newspaper together. The serialized story is a proven tool to help make that first connection." Committing to young readers Paul Stensaas, Corporate Communications Manager, Norske Skog, Norway Newspapers and magazines have attributes that other media cannot match, Mr Stensaas said in his opening address. "Their utility is obvious, and you don’t have to do your own editing. You are served it every day - both the expected and the unexpected. Reading printed publications forms part of the good life," he says. Mr Stensaas explained why Norske Skog, a partner in the World Newspaper Association’s Young Reader Development Program, is committed to supporting young readership initiatives. "On the social side, we want to contribute to helping children and young people learn to read, to be critical to what they read - and to develop into good citizens. They will help to secure democratic and socially equitable progress for the world, regardless of continent, regardless of country," he says. "And for Norske Skog, as a listed company with shareholders who want value for money, Young Readers and Newspapers in Education represent an important way of achieving our targets," he says. "They help us to secure a good future for the newsprint and magazine paper we produce. Young readers are the future of Norske Skog and the future of the publishers. We are in the same boat. Together, we must navigate in a way which brings new generations of readers on board. " Speaking the language of youth Anne Kirah, Dean, 180° Academy, Denmark There is a strong generation gap today between "digital natives" -- the young people who have never known anything but a digital media world -- and the "digital immigrants," those who have remember the analog-only world. The digital immigrants are generally today’s decision makers, and they just don’t understand the needs and aspirations of the digital natives. This has great implications for newspapers trying to capture the attention of young people, says Ms Kirah, a cultural anthropologist and former Microsoft design advisor. "Innovation begins when we take the blinders off in our own businesses and think of the aspirations and the motivations of people in their everyday, and not-so-everyday, lives, " Ms Kirah says. "We need to speak the same language and culture of the people we are innovating for -- in this case, youth." In a wide-ranging keynote address, Ms Kirah offered some advice for learning about, and working with, young audiences. She sums up the approach this way: "Embrace change, learn to see things through new lenses, observe people in their daily lives, be willing to build with these people, be humble and practice humility, and take risks." "We need to understand this new world if we are going to create newspapers that are relevant to the youth today and the adults of tomorrow," she says. "It’s all a matter of seeing the perspective from their side, and not our side." Cracking the code: What do young readers want? Robert Barnard, Founder and Partner, D-Code, Canada As part of a global study for the World Association of Newspapers, Mr Barnard and D-Code have analyzed 60 studies on young readership and have conducted their own investigations into what young people want from media through panels of 10 14- to 25-year-olds in 10 countries. What they found shatters some of the accepted wisdom about young attitudes. The youth participants in the United States, United Kingdom, Spain, Sweden, Serbia, Lebanon, South Africa, Colombia, the Philippines and Japan were asked to keep a daily diary, submit to interviews with the researchers, and participate in an on-line dialogue involving all participants. Here are some of the discoveries:  Free newspapers are not taking young readers away from paid-for titles.  Trust in newspapers is not waning among young readers. "There is still trust in the newspaper format, what seems to be waning is trust in news overall," says Mr Barnard.  Youth content need not be different from adults. "Young people want to be part of the main paper, not ghetto-ized or pandered to in some other form. They see the youth section as something for a much younger group," says Mr Barnard. For more information about conducting the Youth Media DNA in your country, please contact Aralynn McMane, amcmane@wan.asso.fr, or Robert Bernard, robert@d-code.com. Media consumption by children: an economic divide Roxana Morduchowicz, Director of Media Education, Government of Argentina It will come as no surprise that media consumption habits are influenced by income. But there are some things that transcend wealth. Rich kids might have a room full of computers, telephones, video games and poor kids might watch a lot of television, but given the choice they would abandon all their toys for the opportunity to go out with friends and socialize. That was one of the findings in a survey of media consumption habits of 11- to 17-year olds in Argentina. When asked, "what constitutes a fun day, " two-thirds of the respondents said, "going out with friends," a far higher percentage than any other activity. Some other results:  The average time spent on all media was six hours per day.  Access played a big role in consumption habits and was influenced by economic status. Three-quarters of higher income families had computers, while one in 10 of the lower income respondents had one.  TV and radio were the most democratic media, with no social differentiation.  Six in ten wealthier children would hate to lose their computer more than other media; for lower income children, eight in ten would hate to lose their televisions. Unsurprisingly, the most-used medium is the one they would hate to lose the most.  Chatting (65 percent) and games (55 percent) were the most frequent computer activities. Half the respondents used them for seeking information, 45 percent for e-mail and to download music, 40 percent to do homework and 5 percent to download and watch movies. "Anything that catches my eye" Michael Smith, Executive Director, Media Management Center and Readership Institute, USA Ask a teen-ager what they look for in a news story, and they are likely to respond, "anything that catches my eye." "We believe there are enormous implications and opportunties for newspapers in that phrase;" says Mr Smith, who unveiled a new study of teen-agers in which "anything that catches my eye" was how many of the participants described what it took to get them to click on a news story on-line. "Teen-agers are "grazers", they don’t go anywhere for news, but if it catches their eye, they will look at it," says Mr Smith. "They are placing enormous value on something newspapers hold dear -- the value of serendipity, of reading stories we don’t know we’re interested in until we see them." "Right now, the big portals are fulfilling this need, not newspapers", he says. Mr Smith presented preliminary results of a survey that brought 65 teen-agers to the Media Management Center, where they participated in focus groups and interviews and were observed using the internet. One of the most important findings was that their favorite news sites were those that placed everything in one place -- something the portals and news aggregators are doing better than newspapers, says Mr Smith. But he believes newspapers can compete for the young audience. "We think any strategyy for reaching young people should be built around aggregation strategies, which some newspapers in the US are starting to do," he says. "We suggest you take the ’it catches my eye" phrase and make it the center of any strategy to reach a young audience."