At School Papers, the Ink Is Drying Up

By WINNIE HU

The Clinton News used to be the source for everything that mattered to its readers in the northwest Bronx. It published 10,000 copies every other week in the 1930s and even circulated overseas among Bronx residents fighting in World War II.

It, like newspapers everywhere, has struggled to adapt as print costs soared, and Facebook and Twitter became the media of choice among younger generations.

The difference is that The Clinton News is a high school newspaper, written and read by the students of DeWitt Clinton High School. Now, as it marks its 100th year as one of New York City’s oldest student newspapers, The Clinton News stands as a testament to another ink-and-broadsheet legacy that is rapidly fading.

Fewer than one in eight of the city’s public high schools reported having a newspaper or print journalism class in an informal survey this month by city education officials, who do not officially track the information. Many of these newspapers have been reduced to publishing a few times a year because of shrinking staffs, budget cuts and a new focus on core academic subjects. Some no longer come out in print at all, existing only as online papers or as scaled-down news blogs.

If New York is the media capital of the world, “you wouldn’t know it from student publications,” said Edmund J. Sullivan, executive director of the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, which runs award competitions and workshops for high school journalists. He counts 7 of the city’s 560 public high schools as active members, down from about 85 in the 1970s. In comparison, 23 of the city’s private schools are participating.

Nationally, nearly two-thirds of public high schools have newspapers, according to a 2011 media study by the Center for Scholastic Journalism at Kent State University. But Mark Goodman, a journalism professor who oversaw the study, said a disproportionate number of those without newspapers were urban schools with higher percentages of minority children. “They tend to have fewer resources,” he said, adding that this divide contributed to a long-term problem of low minority representation in the ranks of the media industry.

The student newspaper has long been a cherished tradition at many of the nation’s top high schools, one that allowed students to take initiative and hone their writing skills while absorbing lessons in ethics and responsibility. It provided a public forum for debating civics with intellect and passion and, as a bonus, added a scholarly note on college applications.

But the decline of these newspapers in recent years is not a loss only for schools, but also for an industry that is fighting for survival. Students raised on a diet of Internet posts and instant messages may be unlikely to be future newspaper readers.

“If we don’t even have a newspaper at this level, how are they going to develop a love for it?” said Joshua Sipkin, who advised an online newspaper, now defunct, at Information Technology High School in Queens. “Most kids aren’t even aware of newspapers unless they’re handed a free Metro New York.”

At the High School of Telecommunication Arts and Technology in Brooklyn, “there was no prouder moment” than when the school newspaper came out, said David M. De Martini, an assistant principal. But the paper, The Statement, quietly disappeared this spring after an unsuccessful, multiyear online experiment to replace a printed version that had to be supported partly through bake sales and PTA grants.

Even the World Journalism Preparatory School, a public school in Queens that teaches its 600 students to use journalism skills to explore the world around them, has struggled to find a way to support the school paper, an experience the principal said provided a valuable real-world lesson about the industry. This year, the school eliminated financing for the paper after repeatedly telling students that it could not afford to indefinitely pay $10,000 a year to print it. The students, after failing to sell ads, opted for an online paper.

“This is how publications survive or not, and having some responsibility for the revenues that support it is crucial to understanding the business,” said Cynthia Schneider, the school’s founder and principal. “I don’t want them to go through their high school life thinking everything is handed to them.”

At many high schools, an even bigger factor in the disappearance of school papers is declining student involvement. Francis Lewis High School’s once robust newspaper, The Patriot, has struggled to continue as a modest online project after the school, in Queens, stopped offering a journalism class that produced most of the stories for the print edition. John Pagano, the former adviser, said that when students no longer received a grade for their work, “it was very hard to get articles.”

“It’s a war of attrition,” said Rob Schimenz, president of the New York City Scholastic Press Association, a group of newspaper advisers from 45 schools. The association stopped sending information to every city high school a few years ago because so few were responding.

Still, many newspaper advisers and journalism scholars caution against writing off student newspapers just yet. Some schools have brought back their papers after a hiatus. Boys and Girls High School in Brooklyn started not one but two newspapers for the first time this year to offer students more opportunity for expression.

Katina Paron, director of the New York City High School Journalism Collaborative at Baruch College, said she saw signs that some student newspapers were thriving. Since 2009, her program has provided professional development for 146 public high schools, at least 60 of which have indicated that they are running newspapers this year, she said.

In the Bronx, The Clinton News has published though the Great Depression, two world wars, school budget cuts and a spell in the 1990s when it looked as if it might go under. The school’s alumni have raised tens of thousands of dollars to help cover printing costs, buy new computers and software, and upgrade the pages to color.

“The News is part of our history and it would take a fistfight for it to end,” said Gerard Pelisson, a former social studies teacher who has led the efforts. Still, Mr. Pelisson said, alumni have not raised money for the newspaper beyond next year, because they have been focused on the survival of the school itself. DeWitt Clinton has received an F grade for the past two years from city education officials, spurring fears that it may be closed.

The News, which prints 3,000 copies every other month, strives to be a bulletin board for a school that is so big that classmates can go all four years without meeting. In its pages, students have offered their own school grade based on student surveys, and have published their views on gun control and, separately, Beyoncé at the Super Bowl. They have even criticized what their teachers wore to class — underarm stains and chalky slacks were no-nos.

Rebecca Dwarka, 18, a senior, said she was proud of the paper’s work and wished more of her classmates would take a look.

“Facebook is the new way of finding out what happened,” she said. “Nobody wants to actually sit down and read a whole article about it.”