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Freep's Paul Anger Hopes Paper Can Save High School Journalism Program

July 17, 2014, 11:33 AM

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Paul Anger

The Detroit Free Press says is not abruptly ending a high school journalism program for Detroit Public School students, as was reported in the Columbia Journalism Review.

Freep Editor and Publisher Paul Anger told Journal-ism, a blog published by Richard Prince of the Maynard Institute, that the paper is trying to save the 29-year high school journalism program.

"Need to clarify a few things," Anger said by email sent to Journal-isms.  "First, we are not ending our summer apprentice program, which draws from high schools and gives students a chance to get bylines in the Free Press as they are mentored. We intend to continue with that into the future.

"Also, we have not made an announcement on the program that runs during the school year, because we're hoping we might find a way to keep it. And if we cannot do it this fall, we are not saying it's gone forever. No one knows more than the Free Press what the program has meant."

He was responding to a report in the Columbia Journalism Review that the project is "abruptly ending" within weeks.

Journal-isms writes:

Aaron Foley reported Wednesday for Columbia Journalism Review that multiple Free Press employees "learned that the program would be discontinued on Monday but declined to speak for attribution before the paper issues a formal statement." These employees said "The Gannett-owned newspaper no longer has a financial interest in funding the program."

Foley's story continued, "'With (Detroit Public Schools) in such turmoil, this is the only newspaper outlet some of these schools had,' says Emiliana Sandoval, copy chief at Motor Trend, who ran the program while a [copy editor] at the Freep from 1999-2006 and then full time 2006-07. 'They (the students) can't express themselves. Part of the program is learning about writing, communication, interviewing — all things that can be used in any job, not just journalism.'

"Alumni expressed concern that budding Detroit journalists, particularly black ones — Detroit's population is 83 percent black — would be shut off from a rewarding career if the program shuts down. 'We've already seen newspapers are losing minority staffers at a fast rate. This isn't helping — there's no feeder system,' Sandoval says. The most recent American Society of News Editors census shows that about 12 percent of journalists in newsrooms are minorities, a figure that has remained stagnant for years. . . . "


Read more:  Journal-isms


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