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April 28, 2006
First impressions
Who says young people are spurning newspapers?
Jan Smith’s combined class of kindergartners and first and second graders from Concord’s Kimball School toured the Monitor the other day with Managing Editor Felice Belman and Human Resources Director Tracie Wajer. Belman also helped them put out their own newspaper. The children wrote her thank you notes sharing some impressions of the day. Here are excerpts from a few of them, as written:
“Hooray we got to go to the Concord Monitor. It was the best day of my life. We saw a humungous stack of newspapers. And a truck that was carrying a box of newspapers. It was humungous, too. It was incredible.” – Sammy
“A factory! We went to the Concord Monitor. I saw a spinning wheel and people were putting magnets on it. Then we went down stairs and Tate and I saw a huge ramp that was connected to tanks. The paper went down the ramp and into slots and you put the advertisements in the slots and, TADA!, you have a newspaper.” – Jacob (This one came with a drawing of Tate and Jacob, the stairs and the inserting machine.)
“I could not imagine how much paper there was. I learned it took 7 rolls of paper to make one news paper.” – Peggy
“Bumpitety, bumpitety, bump. Down the roads we went. But then finally we got to the Concord Moniter. . . . Wow! Look at all those big machines and computers and print pressers. I learned that there are alot of different groups. Some are reporters, some are editers that look at the reporters writing to see if they need any corrections, others control the metal machines.” – Colin (This one came with a line drawing of a “print presser.”)
“I learned that it takes a lot of money to get the machines.” – Tyler
“Boy it is noisy. Machines made extreme amounts of noise. I could bearly even hear the teacher. . . . The printing press is very big and correspondingly noisy. The only thing that isn’t noisy is the computer. It’s really quiet.” – Eliot
“I was excited to see my writing in the newspaper. Thank you, Ms. Belman.” – Kaya
“Ms. Belman put all of the Veterans writing and Rookies illustrations on the computer and made them as a Concord Monitor Newspaper! It wasn’t the real newspaper though.” – Sophie M.
“The workers stay up until 3AM in the morning. I don’t think I could stay up that late.” – Samuel
“We made a funny news article on the fire at donkin donuts. I got (to) think up (a) headline. I choose Fire Stikes Back in bold letters. I learned about the six questions a newspaper reporter asks: who? what? where? how? when? why?” – Aidan
“We got to see the funnys which will come out on Sunday, and we were the only ones! I felt excited when I saw the news paper that Ms. Belman gave us. ‘Is my work in the newspaper’ I wondered. When I saw the first page I knew it was everybody’s work. I felt proud.” – Srilekha
“I was about to burst with excitement. I was amazed when I saw all the machines. . . . Ms. Belman gave us a tour. She worked so hard on printing and fitting our multi-age news on three peeces of paper. But don’t think it was easy and you could do it in 2 seconds because there were 24 news articles! Thank you Ms. Belman. I learned alot!!!” – Della
And thank you, tomorrow's readers . . . and reporters.
Posted by Mike Pride at April 28, 2006 08:34 AM
Comments
Mike - I know that newspapers are concerned about attracting young readers.
That was my thought when I got over my shock at seeing an article on the front page of the Concord Monitor announcing that a readers' panel had been formed to comment on the American Idol competition.
C'mon -- since when should the Monitor stoop to this kind of pandering?
The trivial column on the left side of the B section --vanity license plates, my ride, brushes with the famous -- these are irresistible tidbits and a good idea. But putting the American Idol readers' panel on the front page? I hope that you realize this was a misstep and don't continue that kind of misuse of your (our) front page.
Posted by: Dan Wise at April 28, 2006 10:44 AM