DD13, my budding journalist (among other things) wants to get some editorials/articles posted in the newspaper. We come from a large city, so I imagine they would not be too likely to accept it. Unfortunately, I don't even know how to submit anything. Has anyone had any experience with this kind of thing?

Could be off base here, but if you look on the inside first page of most papers there should be some contact info/procedures to follow for publication.

Letters to the editor are a fun way to start, in response to something she's read. If she has ideas for her own articles that will be harder getting accepted, but certainly worth trying. I wouldn't volunteer how old she is unless they ask.

Wish her luck!

(Oh, also go online to some of the papers...there might be better opportunity there)

A letter to the editor is a great idea.

I might also suggest that even major newspapers usually have a "guest editorial" piece about some burning issue each day or each week. If she has a cause to write about, it's possible she could get that spot. They usually include a photo of the guest editor, too, and I have seen pieces by articulate kids published there in more than one newspaper in more than one city.

She could also offer to write a "kids around town" article once a month for the education editor. If she can find a human interest story and write it from a uniquely kid's perspective, it might be something that would interest them if she has the writing skills to pull it off.

Well, editing it isn't working, so I'll just post what I was going to say here: Is there a more common name for the "kids around town" article that you stated above? I don't recall our newspaper having that, but then again, I only glance through the more "filler" sections, (education, obituaries, comics, etc.)

What about starting a blog? One of the kids that I know went on an overseas trip with her family and had an educational blog the whole time about what she was experiencing.

Our paper has something similar (Young Voices or some such thing).

A blog is a great idea.

I had a column in a weekly paper for four years, about twenty years ago (gosh, I'm old). (It was fun, but be prepared for some funny phone calls from readers!) You might try a weekly, actually--they don't typically pay as well as the dailies (at least in my day that was true), and are sometimes more open to emerging writers. She might try writing a couple of pieces on spec, as samples, and send them to the editor of the section (arts, sports, whatever) in which she's most interested, and then follow up with a phone call in a week or two.

Hope that helps!

peace
minnie

Your newspaper might not have a kid's section, Bassetlover. If not, then your daughter would have to start it. If you could find a newspaper from another town that has a kid's section, you could submit that with your daughter's letter (and her writing samples) to show what you/she had in mind. If not, just a description of what she'd like to do would probably be sufficient.

Just remind her that everything she writes is going to be part of what they judge her on. It's all they'll know about her, so professionalism is vital. (Not to encourage perfectionism, but I suspect it's a longshot that they'd take her on even if she's a writing prodigy. Any little error will make it that much less likely.)

I worked with a woman who was trying to get herself published in the newspaper. She said her plan was to write frequent letters to the editor so they got to know her. Sometimes, frequent writers get asked to do the guest editorials someone mentioned earlier. It worked for her.

Our newspaper recently dropped it's section written by teen writers due to budget cuts, but other papers might have them. Also, our paper has a section that goes out to each local city/county, and they are much more likely to publish articles by regular people (rather than reporters).

I second keet's idea about the specialized sections. I know that our newspaper publishes twice-weekly supplements devoted to your specific suburb. With limited resources, these sections can be quite difficult for the newspapers to fill. Each of supplement usually has its own editor (you should be able to find the name published somewhere within the section). Contacting that person will be much easier than trying to contact a higher-up in the "downtown" office.

Every newspaper needs reporters.

Go to an event, take pics, write a story, and submit them.

Editors want someone they can rely on to deliver good articles within the publishing deadlines. Its better to do one good story on time with a good lead sentence than a great story late with a bad lede. And you have to do it every week or day.

A small local daily or weekly or alternative weekly is the place to start.

The other thing a good jr reporter needs, is a good editor - mom or dad or another adult to look the story over.

Its fine to focus on kid stuff, but the adult stuff is the bread and butter.

I think this is a great time to get into journalism. The newspaper and local news is in structural decline so a rebirth is due in a few years!!!

She submitted her 2nd letter to the editor on Monday, and was SO excited when she opened the newspaper today to find her letter in it! For over 1000 entries to the paper, I'd say getting one in on her second try is pretty good! Now she has to wait a month, and is going to try to go straight to the huge papers. We'll see how that goes! Anyway, for the 13th largest paper in the US, I'd say this is a good sign! I think the main thing she was happy about was that she beat out lots of people at least 2 times her age!

Thanks for your help everyone.

Congratulations to your DD! It sounds like she's on her way

Very exciting!

CONGRATS to your DD!

My DD16 and DD15 started their journalism career when they were in middle school. We live in a city of 50,000 people where a weekly community newspaper fills the needs of local information. They published a few news reports such as robotic competition in middle schools and commentary on school bounds, stuff like that. When they enter high school, the newspaper offered them a column. 500-600 words every two weeks. They don�t get any money for doing that. The free weekly newspaper is not exactly rich. But there is no limitation either. Any topic is fine as long as they deliver every two weeks.

They ran with opportunity. Now three years later, they are still writing the bi-weekly column for all kinds of topics. This year, they even won the best column of Greater Bay Area Professional Journalism Award (non-dailies) this year. My DD16, now in college, considered that this is the best job ever.

My son also did articles for the local free paper, starting at age 13. They were very happy to have the material, and he was able to build a portfolio. He did this for a few years, until he decided he didn't care for journalism.

Some newspapers have a column written by a high school student. I know I had a good friend of mine in HS who wrote a column for our local paper. Maybe you could contact them and see if they have something along those lines? Maybe also ask her school too (I believe my friend got her column through connections at our school's newspaper).