Targeting 'Tweens' in the Classroom

By: Jennifer Saba The idea started with 10-year-old Sophie Jacobson and her science homework. Every week Sophie has to report on the subject, and not unlike most kids, she turned to her dad for a little research help.

Dad is Alan Jacobson, founder and CEO of Brass Tacks Design. Jacobson went to the computer with Sophie and cherry-picked stories from various online sources. Then it hit him: "What if there was a news site aggregated for kids?"

Newspapers have been whining for years that young people can't be bothered with them. Newspaper-in-Education programs still exist, but ever since the circ scandals of 2004, NIE's light arguably has been fading. It's costly to produce newspapers that advertisers tend to shun ? and NIE copies won't even count toward paid circulation come April 2010, when the Audit Bureau of Circulations changes the way the other-paid category is listed.

Jacobson figured the best way to reach tweens ? that age group on the verge of full-on teen status ? was online and in the classroom, so he created a Web site called Tween Tribune. The founding principles behind the site to which Jacobson adheres are simple: Make it clean, make it easy to use, and make it open to comments.

Jacobson serves as content curator, posting stories that he thinks will be of interest to young audiences; Sophie was appointed Tween Tribune's executive editor. One day in late February the site linked to stories on the death of former White House first cat Socks; Microsoft's efforts on exploring the link between video games and education; and an Iraqi boy injured in a bomb blast who regained his hearing.

There's also a local component. The idea is to get newspapers to subscribe to the service so they can feed their content too. In classrooms, teachers can get students to register using the school, class and their first name only. Then those youths can comb the site for stories, share links, blog and comment.

There's also a feature allowing instructors to get the "print edition." A printer spits out a class' work on Tween Tribune for the day so the teacher can grade the assignments.

One convert is Kim Wright, a teacher at Smart's Mill Middle School in Leesburg, Va. She was looking for ways to incorporate news content in her English and communications classes, and blogging intrigued her. Wright learned of Tween Tribune through her father, who used to work with Jacobson. "I was just amazed, the whole thing is totally geared at their interest," she says.

The day she introduced Tween Tribune to her four classrooms, she says, students were hooked: "They were so excited. I found they were sharing what they found. I don't think I have ever seen anything like that before."

Wright helps the students blog and make comments. At first, she notes, their copy contained too much text-ese. She reminded them of their worldwide audience as well as some basic grammar rules, and improvements soon followed.

Tween Tribune discourages twittering by forcing every blog entry to be at least 25 words long. Wright says her classes keep the fires stoked by logging on to the site when they are at home, commenting and blogging.

Jacobson is no romantic ? there is a revenue component to all this. He plans to sell highly targeted ads on the site, as well as on the "print editions." Wright, for one, says advertising would not bother her, as long it was "appropriate."

The Virginian-Pilot is also keen on Tween Tribune. Says Circulation Director Mark Quan, "I have [tweens] that same age, and I can relate to their struggles with reading news. It makes too much sense from an NIE standpoint to go ahead and have this be the face of our program." He plans to be aggressive in monetizing the site and selling local advertisers the opportunity to reach the students. In his eyes, why just stop at tween students? "In the longer term, we have the ability to go after different segments ? high school and college," he observes. "In this market, there is a heavy presence of military [families]. We have the ability to go after that market, too."