Craig Verley

As a former news guy, the recent round of news-related layoffs at many publications and newspapers has been somewhat depressing. While print publications have been closing shop for many years now, the news deserts it is creating in many areas of our state and country are bad for our democracy and bad for school districts.

Good journalism is vital to our communities, keeping everyone informed of what is going on, and keeping elected officials accountable. If you still have newspapers within your school district media market, I encourage you to make sure your district communications and marketing plans support your newspapers.

My previous district was served by two main newspapers: a daily (at the time), more regional newspaper; and a weekly, more local newspaper. While we would send news releases, stories, and photographs to both, I made sure we sent as much as possible to the “local” paper. Long before I had any real budget for doing any traditional advertising, I knew the importance of getting district news in the local paper. Perhaps I was just lucky, but the publishers I had the pleasure of working with over the years at that newspaper would run a great deal of what we would send them. They understood that parents, and to a lesser extent, the general public like to see pictures of their children doing well in their school competitions and activities. In turn, that helps drive readership and supports subscriptions. Decent readership and subscriptions translate into stronger advertising revenue for the publication, and that helps keep them in business and keeps more local folks employed.

If you are only sending your local newspaper bigger news stories and releases, you are missing an opportunity. As you have teams and students advance to regional, area, or state competitions, make sure you are sending a little announcement with a photo to the newspaper. Don’t just celebrate those milestones on your district website and social media. These announcements are quick to write, especially if you are already doing something about it on your social media. Now, think beyond just the athletic and academic competitions. If you are not already doing so, check in with your high school principals and counselors for items that are a little more academic in nature, like AP Scholars Awards, etc. Those are usually announced in the early to middle part of the first semester. The College Board also usually sends the school a template news release that you can use in creating your own stories, etc. Band and choir competitions start in the first semester through groups like the Texas Music Educators Association, followed quickly by UIL-related competitions for band and choir students. Visual arts, Career Technical Education organizations (CTE), robotics, E-Sports…and so many more, are all opportunities for quick items to send to your local newspaper that do a little bragging about your students and give your newspaper more possible content that parents love to see and keep.

There can be many other ways that you can support your local newspaper and they can support your district. Have a chat with the publisher and/or editors. That chat can lead to some fun brainstorming of ideas that can result in mutually beneficial projects. This can even include a regularly occurring piece of some sort. Think about regular editorial pieces, thought leadership style pieces, student of the week/month, etc. Now if your local newspaper serves an area with several school districts, like mine did, they may not want to give up the free space to your district as that would then open the door for them to give away valuable space to the other districts; and that would probably hurt the paper financially. But the publisher might be open to cutting you a major discount on the space for the regular item. That would allow them to cover costs, and then provide them with a way to do the same with the other districts. Once the other districts served by the newspaper see your item regularly, they will probably feel the pressure to do something similar.

If you are not already doing so, support your local newspaper with easy-to-use, quick success stories. This can lead to them also supporting your efforts to highlight the successes of your students and district, with minimal additional work on your part.