FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Washington, D.C. – The News Media Alliance and the National Newspaper Association (NNA) today sent a letter to President Joe Biden, on behalf of their more than 3,700 combined daily and community newspaper members, encouraging the Administration to use advertising in local newspapers to help build trust and acceptance of vaccines.

On May 4, President Biden announced the Administration was releasing additional funding for coronavirus strategies, including $130 million to improve vaccine education and information, and an additional $250 million to assist state governments with outreach efforts to encourage citizens to become inoculated – particularly in states with lagging vaccination rates compared to the rest of the country.

According to the letter, signed by Alliance President & CEO, David Chavern, and NNA Executive Director, Lynne Lance, “We appreciate [President Biden’s] strong leadership in addressing the public health and economic crisis presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. News publishers across the country stand ready to work with [the Biden] Administration to meet [their] goal of getting 70 percent of U.S. citizens inoculated by July 4.”

A trusted source of quality information that has been a mainstay in many local communities for decades, or in some cases, centuries, local newspapers are best positioned to counter misinformation and concerns about vaccines with positive messaging.

Chavern stated, “The Administration will need all forms of communication to reach this goal, and in this case, print newspapers are one of the most important. The reality is that many of the individuals they are trying to reach live in rural or distressed areas with little or no internet or broadband connectivity. By and large, the best way to reach these individuals is through the printed newspaper.”

Lance added, “The Administration, to date, has overlooked the reach that our member newspapers can provide, despite our offers to demonstrate our capabilities. Our members can deliver the audiences the government needs to overcome vaccine hesitancy and meet its inoculation goal. Newspapers have state advertising networks in place that can quickly and easily carry out a nationally coordinated, locally focused campaign.”

By using newspapers for their educational outreach, the Administration will build public trust and acceptance of vaccines, as well as provide much needed support for local journalism at a time when it has never been more important in our daily lives.

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Media Contact:
Lindsey Loving
Director, Communications
lindsey@newsmediaalliance.org
571.366.1009

The News Media Alliance is a nonprofit organization representing more than 2,000 news organizations and their multiplatform businesses in the United States and globally. Alliance members include print, digital and mobile publishers of original news content. Headquartered just outside Washington, D.C., the association focuses on ensuring the future of news media through communication, research, advocacy and innovation. Information about the News Media Alliance (formerly NAA) can be found at www.newsmediaalliance.org.

The National Newspaper Association protects, promotes, and enhances the community newspapers of America. NNA actively defends community newspapers through governmental relations programs targeting the issues those newspapers face. Furthermore, NNA advocates the value of community newspapers to policy officials and advertisers through education. The association additionally assists such newspapers by offering information, solutions, and strategies in regard to the issues impacting their businesses. Information about the NNA can be found at www.nnaweb.org.

The post Publishers Call on President to Use Local Newspaper Advertising to Help Reach Their Goal of 70% Vaccinated by July 4 appeared first on News/Media Alliance.

The News Media Alliance has partnered with the Ad Council to provide print and digital PSAs for newspapers to help provide important public education about the COVID-19 vaccine.

About the ‘It’s Up to You’ Campaign

The COVID-19 vaccines have the potential to transform life as we know it today and save hundreds of thousands of lives—but they can only be successful if millions of Americans recognize the urgency, safety and vital importance of getting vaccinated.

While many have already started the vaccination process, there is currently a general lack of confidence. Overall, 40% of the U.S. public have expressed concerns, ranging from “skeptical” to “open but uncertain,” about getting vaccinated.

The It’s Up to You campaign from The Ad Council encourages audiences to get the latest vaccine information—knowing that personal education is the first step in building vaccine confidence. It’s OK to have questions. We want to acknowledge Americans’ concerns, provide answers to their questions, and get us all on the road back to the moments and people we miss most.

How You Can Use the Ads

Below are the individual ad files for newspapers to use in their print and digital editions free of charge. Ads are available in English and Spanish, in full- and quarter-page sizes for print, and in banner and cube sizes for digital.

If you are interested in creating custom vaccine content and messaging, visit The Ad Council’s Media Playbook. You can request access to the ‘It’s Up To You’ logo and reference their brand guidelines.

Print Ads

English:

Download the individual ads using the links below.

Full-page (11.5 x 21″)

“Birthday Parties”

Vaccines Are Here
Getting Back

“First Haircut”

Vaccines Are Here
Getting Back

“Moments We Miss”

Quarter-page (5.7 x 10.5″):

“Birthday Parties”

Getting Back
Vaccines Are Here

“First Haircut”

Getting Back
Vaccines Are Here

“Moments We Miss”

Spanish:

Download the individual ads using the links below.

Full-page (11.5 x 21″)

Family “Vacunas Aqui”
Family “Volver a disfrutar”

Quarter-page (5.7 x 10.5″):

Family “Vacunas Aqui”
Family “Volver a disfrutar”

Digital Ads:

Link to www.getvaccineanswers.org

Access the tagging instructions here

Banner (728 x 90px):

Right-click and select “Save image as” to download JPEG file.

Cube (300 x 250px):

Right-click and select “Save image as” to download JPEG file.

Social Posts:

Click here to download graphics and suggested post copy for use on social media.

For more info visit getvaccineanswers.org

Back to top

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Arlington, VA—In the recently passed American Rescue Plan Act, which President Biden signed into law today, Congress included $1 billion in funding for an awareness campaign to build trust and acceptance of vaccines. The News Media Alliance recommends that trusted sources such as local news publishers be a top distribution channel for that campaign.

News Media Alliance President & CEO, David Chavern, stated, “A nationally organized and locally-focused government advertising campaign would build public trust around vaccines, particularly in hard to reach, diverse communities, which many of our members serve. It would also have the added benefit of providing much needed support for local journalism at a time of declining advertising revenue and business closures due to the pandemic.”

Over the last year, newspaper journalists have been on the front lines of the pandemic. Newspaper website traffic has soared during the pandemic as people look for the most up-to-date information from trusted sources about the impact of COVID-19 on their local communities to help keep themselves and their communities safe.

News publishers are arguably in the best position to distribute locally-focused, audience-specific messaging that will enhance vaccine acceptance. Newspapers represent the most trusted source of news in local markets across all platforms: print, digital and mobile. Recent research has shown that consumers trust in newspapers is more than double the trust in social media.

The overwhelming recommendation of global health officials for eradicating COVID-19 is for people to get vaccinated to stop the spread of the virus. Misinformation campaigns and vaccine hesitancy present formidable challenges in defeating this virus – but they are challenges that can be overcome through raising awareness and providing factual information about the benefits of the vaccine through reliable sources.

News publishers stand ready to work with the federal government and should be a high priority distribution channel for communicating with the public about this critical public health issue.

###

Media Contact:
Lindsey Loving
Director, Communications
lindsey@newsmediaalliance.org
571.366.1009

The News Media Alliance is a nonprofit organization representing more than 2,000 news organizations and their multiplatform businesses in the United States and globally. Alliance members include print, digital and mobile publishers of original news content. Headquartered near Washington, D.C., in Arlington, Va., the association focuses on ensuring the future of news media through communication, research, advocacy and innovation. Information about the News Media Alliance (formerly NAA) can be found at www.newsmediaalliance.org.

The post News Publishers Should be Top Distribution Channel for COVID-19 Vaccine Awareness Campaign appeared first on News/Media Alliance.

As we enter the second month of social distancing due to COVID-19, many people will be getting cabin fever (if you haven’t already), especially kids. With schools closed and remote learning taking up only a fraction of the day, many parents are struggling to keep their kids occupied while they deal with new responsibilities of their own at work. We know it can be difficult with everyone under one roof 24/7, so we’ve rounded up some fun “news”-themed activities your kids — or you! — can do when things get dull.

Newspaper Activity Sheets from ThoughtCo. will help keep elementary- and middle-school-aged children busy learning about the news business. The website, created by veteran educators to share learning resources for teachers and homeschoolers, has a lot of content, but we’re particularly fond of their newspaper printables. From vocabulary worksheets and crossword puzzles to newsy coloring pages, there’s a little something for everyone, from tots to tweens. Access them here.

FeltMagnet.com has nearly five dozen Newspaper Crafts to keep people of all ages, from toddlers to grandparents, from going stir-crazy during this pandemic. From super simple newsprint paper dolls to complex paper wigs and decoupage, you’ll make use of every page of your daily paper – after you finish reading it, of course! The 59 projects come from crafty bloggers around the world and will keep you crafting long after the pandemic ends. See the full list of crafts here.

Want something more educational? The Oklahoma Press Association has shared a Newspapers in Education Booklet that you can use to supplement your child’s at-home education. There are newspaper-based activities for elementary school, middle school and high school students, and they cover multiple areas of study. Whether you want your new homeschooler to learn about language arts, social studies or math, there’s a news-related activity here to help them learn an important lesson or skill. Download the activity book here.

If your child is studying English as a second language (ESL), Busy Teacher has rounded up 11 Newspaper Activities for ESL Students. The near-dozen activities offer ways to use the newspaper to help your child brush up on their English, from writing stories to understanding what headlines mean to playing word search games throughout your daily paper. Learn more here.

Looking for some creative ways to recycle your old newspapers? The Alliance previously rounded up Eco-Friendly Uses for Old Newspapers around the house that will help you as you tackle your spring cleaning and gardening.

Want more? We’ve got a free set of News-Themed Coloring Pages that will appeal to anyone in your household who just needs a break and wants to do something calming. Download them here.

The post Newsy Activities for Family Fun During Social Distancing appeared first on News/Media Alliance.

In Newton, Kansas, less than 3 percent of teachers are non-white, while the student body is 38 percent non-white. For reporters at The Newton Kansan, this discrepancy is an essential story for their community – and one they believe every community newspaper should be tracking.

The idea of writing about the racial breakdown of Newton was something reporter Chad Frey had long wanted to tackle, and that seed of an idea lived on The Kansan’s “grandiose ideas” board at the back of the newsroom. “I always wondered what it would be like if we looked at who’s teaching our kids,” Frey said.

Unsure of how to get started, Frey began attending racial justice meetings in the community and learning from his neighbors “what it’s like living in Newton while not white.” The stories he heard left an impression on him, and he realized that many of the stories about segregation and racial inequality in Newton were from decades earlier and people with firsthand experience of modern racism weren’t seeing their stories told.

When the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision approached, the state of Kansas reached out to newsrooms asking for stories about integration in the decades since the landmark case. Frey knew he had his hook – he partnered with colleague Kelly Breckunitch to tackle it. “It seemed like a natural fit when you talk about Brown v. Board of Ed.,” Frey said of the story.

Unlike other cities in Kansas, Frey explained, “Newton has a population of 20,000, so it didn’t have the money for segregated schools [in the 1960s]. But while we were never ‘segregated,’ there was segregation.”

When Frey and Breckunitch began digging into the situation, they found that during the 2018-2019 school year, 97 percent of the staff of the Newton School District was white, while more than 30 percent of the students were non-white. As they noted in their article, “There are 15 building administrators and only one of those is African American. Only one is Hispanic. Out of more than 300 teachers reported, only three are African American and two are Hispanic.”

Even with the obvious importance of the story, Frey said tackling such a big issue wasn’t easy. He turned to community members regularly for help understanding the various points of view in his town and how to cover such a hot-button issue. He looked to neighbors and friends to help him understand the institutional racism inherent in even non-segregated schools, and how he could tactfully approach these subjects as a person speaking from a place of privilege.

But Frey also wanted to be sensitive because he lives and works in a very small community. “I have three kids in the school system, and I would lay awake at night wondering how a story like this would impact them,” he said. “Stories like this are tough when you really are part of the community.”

Frey worked through his anxieties by spending extra time working on the story – he started showing up to the office 10 minutes earlier and set aside time whenever the opportunity presented itself. It also allowed him to break up the emotional drain of such a complex story.

“I’ve covered a mass shooting, and while that was emotionally draining, it wasn’t hard because people wanted to talk,” Frey said. This story, he noted, was harder because “I knew people didn’t want to talk about this.”

Still, Frey and Breckunitch worked until they had more than 100 inches of copy for their editors to review. The Kansan’s editors were so supportive of the story that instead of putting it on the front page of the paper, it was published in full on the paper’s website and shared in the state’s special education section for the Brown v. Board of Education anniversary.

When The Kansan story was published, the response was immediate. People from the Newton Community for Racial Justice, with whom Frey had worked closely in order to understand the experience of people of color in Newton, “were glad [The Kansan] was having this conversation.”

A neighbor of Frey’s who is part of a mixed-race family said she was “happy someone would stand up for her son]” and represent his experience.

But the biggest impact, for Frey, was seeing an 18-year-old black community member decide to run for a seat on the school board. “The story made him mad and he wanted to do something about it,” Frey said of the candidate. “I don’t think you can ask for a bigger impact than that.”

“I have done stories where people vandalized my car, threw things at my house – stories where I didn’t want to live here anymore,” Frey continued. “But I love my community. I fell in love with this place when I came here to go to college, and I feel like every story [I write] helps make the community stronger.”

You can read the story, “Mismatched demographics: Newton district’s staff not reflective of growing student diversity,” here.

The post Newton Kansan Demonstrates Why Representation Matters in Schools appeared first on News/Media Alliance.

With an abundance of sources for news, not all of which are reliable or trustworthy, many people today may feel a disconnect with the media and the people who report it. And while adults may cite reasons such as media bias, children and young adults simply don’t understand the media – according to a 2016 Stanford University study, 82 percent of middle-schoolers cannot distinguish between an ad labeled “sponsored content” and a real news story on a website. Providing the right tools for young news consumers will help them learn how to spot fake news; how to tell the difference between ads, blogs and news reports; and how to draw their own informed conclusions.

We’ve rounded up several age-appropriate books to help kids at home or in the classroom learn how to navigate the news, just in time for back-to-school.

‘Fact, Fiction and Opinions: The Differences Between Ads, Blogs, News Reports, and Other Media (All About Media)’ by Brien J. James

This book is a good starting point for young news consumers. James defines the primary concepts of media using simple, informative text for emerging readers who are yet to learn the important differences between the kinds of information and stories available to them through the media.

Key quote: “You need to think carefully about news reports you read or hear. Sometimes stories that appear to be news reports are really ads. Other times news reports won’t include all the facts or both sides of a story.” [p.18]

Age range: 6 – 8 years old

What your kids will get out of it: By learning basic concepts of the media and the difference between fact and fiction, as well as the difference between blogs, news reports, advertisements and more, young children will have the tools to be knowledgeable media consumers and become more engaged with media in general.

‘Viral News on Social Media (Young Citizen’s Guide to News Literacy)’ by Paul Lane

Social media is a nonstop content generator that moves as fast as we can scroll through our feeds. We now experience a 24-hour news cycle that can be as beneficial to readers as it is harmful. At a time when clicks and shares are frequently valued over accuracy, readers face an additional challenge – and responsibility – of identifying false sources.

Key quote: “Many times, a picture or a headline that misleads about the actual story is all it takes for a story to be shared, regardless of whether the user reads the article. This helps news spread like an actual virus would spread between people (…)” [p.10]

Age range: 9 – 12 years old

What your kids will get out of it: Students will learn what fake news is, how to identify and respond to it, as well as how to identify reputable sources. Kids will also learn about the power of social media and how viral content spreads, regardless of whether it’s true.

‘Understanding the News (Cracking the Media Literacy Code)’ by Pamela Dell  

Children usually perceive news as foreign and unrelated to them; some choose to ignore news simply because they were never given the tools to understand it. Dell’s book highlights the importance of being media literate and gives readers access to the essential skills they need to really engage with the news.

Key quote: “Telling the difference between fake news and reals news takes the skill of an investigator. You must follow the clues that lead to the truth.” [p.28]

Age range: 8 – 10 years old

What your kids will get out of it: Children will learn the importance of media literacy, as well as the many ways news is presented and how to know if they’re using a reputable source. They will also learn how to identify fact from fiction and quality news websites from those that might be biased or fake.

‘Choosing News: What Gets Reported and Why (Exploring Media Literacy)’ by Barb Palser

News is virtually everywhere – practically everything e do is informed by the events that make up “the news.” But how do news producers decide what events should be part of the news we’re presented, whether online, on television, or in print and digital newspaper media? Is news just limited to major national stories about plane crashes and kidnapped babies, or are road closures and malfunctioning traffic lights in local communities news, too? Palser offers a simple and informative guide that answers these questions and helps kids identify real, high-quality news.

Key quote: “Call it the Awareness Instinct. We need news to live our lives, to protect ourselves, bond with each other and identify friends and enemies.” – Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel [p.4]

Age range: 10 –13 years old

What your kids will get out of it: Preteens and teens will learn how to identify what is a potential news story, and on which news platform(s) they would find it. They will learn about journalism standards, types of bias, and how blogs and aggregators work compared to traditional news outlets.

The post Teaching Kids About Media Literacy appeared first on News/Media Alliance.

I had a writing class about the power of news that turned into a heated discussion about how we categorized “fake news.” Turns out, none of us were certain. No matter how many articles we read — How to Identify Fake News, or What Makes an Article Credible? — at the end of the day, when a class of 30 junior writing college students could not come up with one straight answer, I realized that the problem was much bigger than I expected.

For the next class, our professor asked us to post five news articles we knew for certain to be true in our discussions board. Only seven completed the assignment. I’m ashamed to admit I wasn’t one of them. The truth is that I spent hours scrolling through articles in search of the right ones, and I was never certain. Most were biased, not by blatant opinions, but the words they used to describe the event. I had to get out of one site and search for another regarding the same topic to make up my mind. None seemed real enough. The easiest to pick apart were the ones messily crafted — with multiple spelling and grammar mistakes — and resurfacing old stories under a different headline or context – those were the red flags that I began to recognize after reading several articles.

But what about those who don’t like reading as much as I do? Do they ever get the truth of the specific matters they are interested about?

A new initiative by the News Literacy Project (NLP), Newsroom to Classroom, made me consider it. According to Suzannah Gonzales, Associate Director of Education at NLP, the organization was founded after Alan C. Miller visited his daughter’s middle school and realized how overwhelmed these young students were by content, and how little they understood about the practice of journalism. By taking a day of students’ school education — the last day, when not a lot of information is likely to be taught — journalists could clear up these foggy topics that not only middle-schoolers, but a large majority of us, are still unfamiliar about.

As a volunteer with NLP’s Newsroom to Classroom program, award-winning radio and print journalist and CBS Professor Emerita of Professional Practice at Columbia Journalism School in New York City Ann Cooper “visited” via video conference fourth graders at the Carl Von Linné School in Chicago on their last day of school. While Cooper only discussed why freedom of the press is important and how a student should cover a story about bullying, NLP offers other resources that address matters like fake news, and how to successfully spot the difference between professionally-crafted journalist reports and misinformation. According to Gonzales, “The Newsroom to Classroom program is a return to News Literacy Project’s roots, when journalists made in-person visits to classrooms.”

And who says that it must stay between middle school classroom walls? I could use a lesson like the one Cooper taught to the students at Carl Von Linné School to inform my college class discussions about fake news, and I’m sure other students who question their judgment about the news could use it to become more confident news consumers outside the classroom.

The Newsroom to Classroom program needs journalist volunteers who are willing to visit their local schools and teach middle school and high school students about these important topics, as they are not currently included as part of standard lesson plans in schools across the U.S.

Journalists who are interested in volunteering for this program just need to email journalists@newslit.org.

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As the school year ramps up once again, it’s a good time to focus on one of the most important subjects students at all levels can study: media literacy. With fake news and distrust of the media making it harder for many people to know what to believe, there is ample need for news literacy lessons targeted at each and every student in America, from elementary-aged kids to university coeds.

The best place to get started is with the Alliance’s own Support Real News resources. The Journalism Glossary video will help every news consumer, old to young, understand what journalists mean when they start speaking in media lingo, while our Fake News Quiz, geared toward a more mature audience, guides participants through some truly insane headlines to show that you can’t always tell the real news from the fake just by looking at a headline or photo.

Below we offer media literacy resources organized by age group to help you start the school year off on the right foot.

Ages 3 – 6

In the book Tap, Click, Read, authors Lisa Guernsey and Michael H. Levine discuss how to share digital media with young children and begin to teach them the fundamentals of media literacy. Guernsey and Levine walk parents through exploring the digital world with young children, as well as helping them to navigate the tricky process of explaining the difference between real and make-believe.

Don’t have time for a full book? The C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital has a handy guide that explains how to introduce and explain news media to young children. From setting a family media plan to making sure parents get familiar with all the information and technology their kids are accessing, this simple cheat sheet makes it easy for even the most beleaguered parents to help their children learn early media literacy.

Ages 6 – 12

With Checkology, teachers of young students can create an interactive and engaging lesson plan that helps kids understand the difference between quality information and junk. With a game-like design and easy-to-understand examples, kids are encouraged to take the driver’s seat in their news literacy education.

Ages 12 – 17

For students in junior high and high school, the Newseum offers guided classes to help explain the complex matter of media literacy to teens. Through the “Believe It or Not” class (offered in-person in D.C. or virtually), students are given the opportunity to discuss how journalists sometimes make mistakes, and what the proper ways of handling those mistakes can be. By learning how responsible journalists handle errors, students are taught how to determine not only if the news they’re reading is factual, but if the outlet it comes from is trustworthy.

In the Newseum’s “Fighting Fake News” class, students take a closer look at fake news and propaganda in order to learn how false stories spread online and how to spot fake news or opinion articles on social media. Through a careful examination of the differences between real and fake, opinion and news, students will learn the skills needed to help them determine whether a source is delivering quality news, no matter where they find it.

Ages 17+

Stony Brook University’s Digital Resource Center offers a complete course pack on news literacy for use in college classrooms. Over the course of 13 lessons, Stony Brook’s media literacy class takes students on a journey from the basics of media literacy and what it means to be news literate, through the steps of determining the source and quality of information, to knowing how to read the news like a journalist. The free to download course includes PowerPoint lecture aids, media to study and suggested exams to ensure students are truly absorbing the lessons.

Extra Credit

If you’re not looking to teach a full course but still want your students to have a basic understanding of news literacy, Johns Hopkins University Library’s CRAAP Test is a quick and easy way to share the key points. Through the catchy acronym, the test explains five important elements of quality news and how news consumers can use those factors to determine the trustworthiness of the information they’re receiving.

If you’re an educator teaching media literacy in your classroom, tell us what tools you’re using. You can reach the Alliance on Twitter at @NewsAlliance, or by emailing jennifer@newsmediaalliance.org.

The post Support Real News with Media Literacy Tools for the Classroom appeared first on News/Media Alliance.

The News Literacy Project’s classroom program brought journalists into the classroom to talk about how news is reported. Damaso Reyes, Director of Partnerships at NLP, says students as well as teachers enjoyed that process, and NewsLitCamp sprung from a desire to reach a larger audience of educators.

The first camp will feature several staff from The Washington Post: national politics reporter, Robert Costa (also the host of PBS’s Washington Week); political investigations editor, Matea Gold; media columnist, Margaret Sullivan; assignment editor, Krissah Thompson; senior regional correspondent, Robert McCartney, who covers politics and policy in the greater Washington area; Wesley Lowery, who covers race, justice and law enforcement; and Eugene Scott, who writes about identity politics for The Fix.

The morning will start with a greeting, introduction and video from Marty Baron, Executive Editor of The Washington Post. From there, educators will learn about the misinformation and fake news landscape.

Reyes says they want teachers to understand the challenges students face when receiving information on social media.

The morning will be spent in break-out sessions where teachers can pick sessions that interest them. In the afternoon, the group will come together and have a free-range discussion about challenges they face and how to build a curriculum that develops the next generation of informed, engaged participants in civic life.

The NewsLitCamp can accommodate up to 150 educators. Reyes says the program is targeted at middle school and high school teachers around the District, but that the conversation about misinformation should start with elementary students.

“We have seen, especially after the 2016 election, a real weaponization of misinformation,” Reyes says.

While social media is still a relatively young tool, school-age children have grown up with it and it has permeated their entire lives.

“We feel the need for news literacy education has really increased,” he says.

There will be two more D.C.-area NewsLitCamps, one on June 18 at NPR and the other on August 28 at Bloomberg in Arlington, Virginia.

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News Media Alliance announced the winners of its first “Top 30 Under 30” Awards program at mediaXchange 2016 in April, which honors young leaders working in every aspect of the news media who are contributing to the future success of the industry. Over the next several weeks we will feature profiles on the winners, highlighting their work and ideas, and how they’re helping the industry grow and evolve.

Mark Pan is a teacher.

He is a partnership strategist at education technology startup Newsela.  Prior to joining the news media world, he taught for a few years in Hong Kong and Malaysia. But his passion remains education. While teaching, he realized that there was a huge pool of resources that students and teachers didn’t have access to.

He says Newsela fills the critical space in childhood education. At work, he decides what content to break down and put in front of school children.

“I have the luxury of working at the very beginning,” he says. “I’m really excited to see where the synergy between media companies and education companies is.”

He decides what the content should be, and what would interest students. Then he works with content providers to acquire rights to that content. Pan scaled the partnership model and conducts analyses to guide Newsela toward areas of content outside of news. There are partnerships with AP, The Washington Post, The Guardian, and Scientific American.
At Newsela, the mantra is “teachers first.” He says every decision he makes is evaluated by that mantra. His goal is to unlock the written word for everyone.

“I love how immediately applicable and tangible [my decisions] are on students,” he says. “It’s a pretty neat feeling.”

Pan is one of News Media Alliance’s Top 30 Under 30 award winners. He was only four months on the job when he was nominated. Before Newsela he worked at online college education provider Coursera. He says the market for adult education materials and children educational materials is very different.

“The adult learning market is much more homogenous,” he says. He says childhood education isn’t one-size-fits-all.

Pan is analyzing which article traits interest students most and inspire them to finish reading an article. He says content about animals does well, but he wants to find a certain way to build an article that it is interesting, regardless of the topic. He is drilling down into what makes students tick. Is it about including greater or fewer quotations, or greater or fewer facts and numbers?

At Newsela, the content’s vocabulary and sentence structure is modified, a process called “leveling.”

“There’s no such thing as a student being more of a science guy or math girl,” he says. “It’s all about how we make it interesting to them. If you take a news article written for an adult audience, that content could be made interesting to someone of the second or fourth grade reading level as well.”

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