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July 21, 2003 Update

BCYCNA scholarship winner tells community newspapers how to target youth

Danielle Fancher of North Vancouver won the 2003 second place scholarship for employees of BCYCNA member newspapers and their children. Here, she shares her suggestions for attracting young readers to your newspaper.

How to make your newspaper more relevant to youth

By Danielle Fancher

Young people today are not easily convinced something is worth paying attention to if it isn't glamorized or popular. It is fair to say that a large percentage of my peers believe that anything that cannot be purchased is uncool. Unfortunately, recreational reading is seen as "uncool" by a lot of kids and for this reason community newspapers will simply line tomorrow's wastepaper baskets instead of stimulating young minds.

I, as most of my peers do, will look at the front page, see if anything interests me, and then flip through the paper to see who made "athlete of the week."

If youth do not care about the issues in their communities why would they read the community newspaper? Not caring, or more so a lack of interest in community issues, are what keep young people today away from community newspapers.

In order to draw young people away from their computers and their TVs, you need to make the paper relevant to them. A way of making this happen could be by making youth directly involved in the paper.

By starting a weekly or bi-weekly section in community newspapers dedicated to youth and youth issues, you are guaranteed to draw a younger audience to your newspaper. There are so many young, talented writers who would love the opportunity to have a piece of their writing printed in a newspaper. The same goes for artists and photographers, who would appreciate some recognition for all of the time they put into their passion. If they knew that they may be in the newspaper, chances are they may pick it up and read it.

The pressures of school and life can become a lot to handle and a chance to voice one's opinion to an audience of peers, parents and teachers would be ideal for those who have something important to say.

A section dedicated to youth and youth issues would allow students from different schools to see what is happening outside their school, inform them of events geared towards youth that would otherwise rely on word of mouth advertisement and allow advertising space for stores and companies that would like to have young people read their ads and profit from the copious amounts of money that young people waste on worthless items each year.

A section in community newspapers dedicated to youth may encourage young people to pick up a newspaper and read it every once in a while. Youth can find many reasons to avoid doing the activities that they see as boring, and some action needs to be taken to draw young people towards the written word.

By encouraging youth to read community newspapers you would be benefiting not only the youth in your community, but also your newspaper. Write about issues facing young people today, become a reliable source of information for an age group that needs to be informed, but most importantly, allow young people the chance to speak out on issues that concern them and you will gain their respect.

It is this respect that will guarantee you their readership and support.