E&P Quick Reads enthusiastically and approved the program. “We launched the monthly Kid Scoop publication in the northeast and north-central portion of the } Dennis DeRossett, state first,” said executive DeRossett. “We director of the partnered with Nebraska Press White Wolf Web Association printers, which prints most of the local newspapers in the region. It prints Kid Scoop and then delivers it with the local
newspapers, and the newspaper brings Kid Scoop to the schools.” Keya Paha County Schools in Springview, Nebraska is one of the local } Amy Johnson, publisher of schools receiving the Springview Kid Scoop for its Herald dual classrooms of third and fourth graders and fifth and sixth graders. “We take the monthly Kid Scoop package to the school, and with the very first edition, students and
teachers were excited,” said Amy Johnson, publisher of the Springview Herald. “Students enjoy Kid Scoop during their downtime at school, and they also take it home as a non-digital activity with parents.” According to DeRossett, the association plans to double the distribution of Kid Scoop by the beginning of the 2022-2023 school year to schools in south, southeast and south-central Nebraska, representing 9,000 students. The Kid Scoop program also includes a website with additional content for download, including a teacher guide.—BS
Getting to know Gen Z News publishers need to meet Gen Z where they are, according to a study by the News Media Alliance
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he point of naming and quantifying generations — Boomers, Gen X, Millennials and now Gen Z — is to better understand them, to wrap context around their collective experiences in the world. For news publishers, understanding generational nuances is essential to effective marketing and growing audience. An evergreen challenge they face is how best to appeal to younger readers, listeners and viewers. The ideal, of course, is to endear young audiences, to keep them engaged and informed, proving the news publisher’s value proposition, day in and day out. The goal is to earn trust so that the relationship between news source and subscriber is galvanized and lifelong. The Pew Research Center defines Generation Z as people who were born in 1997 and after, citing 1996 as “a meaningful cutoff between Millennials editorandpublisher.com
and Gen Z for a number of reasons, including key political, economic and social factors that define the Millennial generation’s formative years.” This is a generation that is “always on,” according to Pew, referring to Gen Z’s relationship with technology and social media. Gen Z is also a generation maturing during adversity. Though they seemed destined to inherit a strong economy and opportunity, the COVID-19 pandemic toppled those notions, Pew Research Center’s Kim Park and
Ruth Igielnick reported in their 2020 reporting, “On the Cusp of Adulthood and Facing an Uncertain Future: What We Know about Gen Z So Far.” A March 2020 Pew Research Center survey had shockingly reported that half — 50% — of Gen Zers (ages 18 to 23) said they or someone in their household had either lost a job or taken a pay cut as a result of the pandemic. But this generation — notably more diverse than the previous ones — still aspires. Pew Research reports, “They APRIL 2022
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