Welcome to NewsStand NYC!
Welcome to the first New York City high school journalism website! We’re a website for high school journalism students, high school journalism teachers and anyone who wants to know what’s happening in the NYC schools.

Take a tour through the site. There are areas for students, there are areas for teachers and there are sections of the website that you both may want to read. Here’s a description of all of the areas:

In Our Papers: You will find some of the outstanding articles that have appeared in NYC high school newspapers. This way you can read what other students are writing about and taking photos of in other parts of the city. How do we find the articles? Send us your newspapers and/or nominate articles that you think are outstanding by sending them (and graphics to go along with them) in a Word document to: info@newsstandnyc.org

In the News: An area where you’ll be able to report on, comment on, react to what’s happening in the news in the larger world. This time we have President Obama’s press conference after his first 100 days where you are asked to come up with questions to ask him if you were a reporter at the press conference. Who knows what we’ll have next time?

What’s New: Just that! News of interest to both students and teachers.

• Students: We’re having a contest on writing a profile of a famous alumnus/alumna from your school. Check out the articles two reporters for the Stuyvesant High School Spectator wrote on two famous alums: Obama advisor David Axelrod and Attorney General Eric Holder. Submit a profile on a famous alum from your school and the best one will win a $25 gift certificate from Barnes and Nobles.
• Teachers: make sure you fill out the online survey for our forthcoming report on high school journalism in NYC. If you never were interviewed, please fill one out. We want as close to a 100% response from all high schools in NYC. If you were interviewed previously or handed in a survey, bring us up to date. How has the 5% cut the schools have gotten affected your program/the newspaper? Get friends at other schools that don’t have h.s. newspapers to fill it out—we want to hear from them!

Great Stories: Learn what to do by reading what the pros are doing. We select outstanding stories by professional journalists. Read them for ideas of how to stretch your skills.

For Students: Here’s your chance to collaborate with students from other schools and to share ideas and experiences. Right now it’s a chance to share what the year was like writing for your paper, what you learned from it and what more you’d like to do next year. Over the summer, you will be able to start to collaborate online about stories for your paper in the fall. What ideas do you have? Is there a way you can share information and reporting or even work on an article together?

For Teachers: Teachers have a private list serve for you to share experiences, ideas and materials online. Only you have access to it. It’s a chance to break down the geographical barriers we all have and share concerns and issues.

Contact Us: f you have suggestions for the website, want to send along articles for “In Our Papers,” or want to get in touch, email us at: info@newsstandnyc.org

New Report on H.S. Newspapers in NYC is out—But We Need Your Help!:
We’re Not Dead Yet: The Fall—and Potential Rise—of High School Newspapers in New York City’s Schools is out. The report, based on a year-long survey of the nearly 400 New York City high schools, answers the questions—How many high school newspapers are there in NYC and why aren’t there more? Download the Report »

Funded by the McCormick Foundation, a small team of interviewers spent the year tracking down the answers to some questions--which schools have newspapers? How often is it published? How many students are involved? What challenges do they have? And for those schools that would like to start newspapers, what barriers do they see in getting them off the ground?

But we need your help. If you haven’t filled out a survey, download the attached survey and send it back to us at:info@newsstandnyc.org. If you did already, bring us up to date about what’s happening. Any changes? How have the budget cuts affected your program/the newspaper? Email us at:info@newsstandnyc.org. If you know teachers at other schools that don’t have newspapers, get them to fill it out. We want to hear from them! Send them the link and have them Fill it out.

Famous Alum Profile Contest
What person graduated from your school and went on to be famous or infamous? Stuyvesant High School’s newspaper, The Spectator, profiled two Stuy grads who are now top people in the Obama Administration, Senior Advisor David Axelrod who ran the president’s campaign and Attorney General Eric Holder, who is the first African American attorney general.

Spectator reporters Sarah Kaplan, who profiled David Axelrod, and Andrew Chow, who profiled Eric Holder, didn’t just do a quick cut and paste job from Wikipedia. They did real reporting and interviewed other alums to find out what Axelrod and Holder were like when they were at Stuy.

What famous alum can you profile from your school? The best profile wins a $25 gift certificate from Barnes and Nobles.

Photo-Tour of Journalism Classes
Come with us on a photo-tour of four journalism classrooms. Our photographer, Fran Antmann, visited Edward R. Murrow High School, The Performing Arts and Technology (PATHS) High School, Frederick Douglass Academy III, all in Brooklyn; and Townsend Harris High School in Queens. Send us photos of your journalism class or club. view photos »

5th N.Y.C. High School Journalism Conference, Mon. Dec. 8th
Over 400 high school students and their teachers filled Baruch College’s 14th floor conference room and scattered into 12 breakout rooms for the 5th New York City High School Journalism Conference held December 15th. It was the largest assemblage of high school journalists and their teachers since the event started in 2005.

Entitled “Times Change, Media Changes” the event brought together students and teachers from 56 high schools from the far reaches of the city. They gathered at 40 workshops including:

• Michael Powell of The New York Times describing what it was like covering the recent Presidential Election
• Chloé Hilliard of The Village Voice explaining how to tackle print, web radio and video
• Josh Mills of the Baruch College Journalism Department filling in high school editors on “How to Use Your Power Wisely”
• Kori Lynch of WNBC-TV showing students “How to Produce a Feature Segment for TV”
• David Handschuh of the Daily News leading participants through “Photo 101: 10 Tips to Improve Your Images”
• Jennifer Medina of The New York Times sharing secrets on “How to Cover the Department of Education and Your School”
• Raqiyah Mays of Hot 97 and Kiss FM talking about how to be a radio DJ

Advisors met separately and shared challenges and issues at sessions led by Ilsa Cowen and Rob Schimnz of The New York City Scholastic Press Association.

Diana Mitsu Klos from the American Society of Newspaper Editors spoke about the challenges that journalism faces right now and how important young journalists are to journalism’s future.

If you went to the conference, write your comments about what you thought the highlights were. What was your favorite workshop? Why? What would you like to see next year at the conference, which is already scheduled for Nov. 20th? Fill us in.