Filling the gap left byHighwired:

ASNE offers free web hosting to high school newspapers

by Gary Clites

Originally published in the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund's Adviser Update, Spring 2002

Those involved in scholastic journalism have long wished that the professional press would get more involved in secondary education.  Over the last year, the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) has taken up the cause through a strong educational presence on the World Wide Web.  Their site (www.highschooljournalism.org) has quickly become a clearinghouse for information and assistance to both journalism teachers and publications advisers.   

If you’ve never been, highschooljournalism.com offers sections for students, editors and teachers.  It includes extensive downloadable lesson plans from communications educators across the country, perspectives on the field from professional journalists and tools students and teachers can use in the classroom and the newsroom.

Now, ASNE has gone beyond supplying information to directly assisting student publications through the creation of a companion site (my.highschooljournalism.org) designed to provide a safe, easy way for school newspapers to get online.  The newly created site offers free web space and an easy-to-use interface to allow publications to set up and then update their own web site within the larger ASNE site.

Sound familiar?  Until early 2001, Highwired offered a similar service to hundreds of publications on their for-profit site.  The death of Highwired (at least in its original form) left a huge hole in the online services available to the student press.  Now ASNE has jumped in to fill that need.  Craig Branson, the online director for ASNE, noted, “ASNE is trying to improve high school journalism in any way we can, and we certainly see that there is a gap there.” 

There are a few crucial differences between Highwired and the new service offered by ASNE.  While Highwired’s site was advertiser-sponsored and driven by a clear profit motive, the ASNE service is non-profit and is being funded through a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.  Good news since that means the site will not suddenly disappear as Highwired did when it became unprofitable, taking its student created pages with it.  Further, while Highwired limited the amount of student material that could be posted on the site at one time, ASNE offers unlimited space to schools and plans to archive all back issues:  A terrific feature never available from Highwired and one which caused many school newspapers to avoid the service.

Like Highwired, my.highschooljournalism.org operates using a series of templated pages.  Once registered, the publication staff sets up their initial pages using the program, choosing colors, placement of a school logo, etc.  Then, when material is ready for an issue, students simply upload stories, photos and art to the site which automatically builds the material into templated pages.  

Although the use of templates will appeal to the more techno-phobic adviser, many of us prefer to teach our students to create their own pages using HTML-code or (more logically these days) through the use of the many fine web-authoring software packages available on the market.  Although an entirely templated site at the moment, ASNE hopes to address this issue in the future.  “The system will work off of a series of templates when schools sign up.  That was one of the goals of the program,” said Branson. “The goal long-term, though, is to allow schools to post their own HTML code and to offer web space to schools that need it.  At this point we are not supporting that yet but we hope to in the future.” 

While the web-hosting service is free, ASNE is charging schools a one-time $25 registration fee to sign up.  Branson indicated that the fee is intended to make certain that only schools which are seriously interested in the service sign up.  For their fee, schools will receive full access to the site, plus two books, a copy of the Associated Press Stylebook and a guide to scholastic press law.  In addition, ASNE is asking that participating schools update their site at least once a month.  “We want this to be a viable service so that every page and every link on the site is active, “ Branson explained.  “We are trying to get people to keep their sites current during the school year.”

The absence of advertising on the site removes the fear of inappropriate content showing up on a school’s site.  ASNE promises to keep censorship of student material to a minimum.  According to Branson, inappropriate language will not be permitted on the site, but there is no plan to censor subject matter.  “We don’t intend to control the content on the site,” he explained.  “We don’t see ourselves as publishers, but as a service like AOL.”

The program promises to be particularly valuable to schools where journalism programs are underfunded or not supported at all.  Branson noted that while most schools that go online will republish their print publication on the ‘net, some schools which lack a print newspaper or whose newspaper has closed will be able to publish a paper entirely online.

ASNE has prepared a free CD-ROM they will send out to introduce schools to the program (e-mail Branson at cbranson@asne.org), and a clear explanation of the service is available on the site.  The organization’s resolve to work in support of high school communications has been backed up by both time and resources.  Their web site is a terrific asset, and the new offer of free web hosting is a tangible service that will be welcomed by student publications nationwide.

© Gary Clites, 2002