Kids play when producing a real newspaper

Denmark’s Ekstra Bladet helps youngsters make their own newspapers with an online editorial system. It is the only offer of this kind in the world, writes Henrik Schou of the Danish daily.

Most students produce their newspapers in classes. With a new platform from Ekstra Bladet, students plan and produce their newspapers online and finally they receive 1000 printed copies for free.

The platform is called Redaktionen and has been developed in a joint venture with VerticPortals, a digital advertising agency based in Copenhagen.

Redaktionen has been awarded this year by the INMA with the 1st place in category ”New Product/Audience Development” and the 2nd place in ”Best of Show” category.

Watch a video describing the project:

This educational tool is in fact a kind of a sophisticated editorial system that allows pupils to work in groups, allocate tasks and responsibilities, plan, make mind maps, take notes, send in photographs from the field and ask for advice professionals at the newspaper.

Students decide the contents of their paper. They may dig deep into local issues or deal with European or international politics. By distributing as many as 1000 copies the class will be able to introduce and discuss agenda-setting topics of importance to the local community. With this project Ekstra Bladet aims at demonstrating the continued importance of the newspaper in the media landscape.

Here are some screenshots that show how the paper can be planned, photo-edited and designed online:

Redaktionen has been launched in October 2007. Since then 130 newspapers have been produced. 130,000 copies have been distributed among children, their teachers and parents and in some cases the newspapers have been even distributed to the general public in cities across the country.

Ekstra Bladet estimates that 300 papers will be produced in 2008. That means a total circulation of 300,000 locally published versions of Ekstra Bladet in a country with approximately 2000 schools. It means that 10,000 students aged 12 to 18 years will experience the production of their own newspaper.

Here is an example of a school newspaper in an e-reader format. And here are some other examples in PDF.

Ekstra Bladet gets very good reviews from users of Redaktionen:

• 100 per cent find the application very good or good.
• 91 per cent of teachers that have been using Redaktionen are satisfied with the educational value of the programme.
• 80 per cent of teachers find Redaktionen much better than other newspaper literacy projects.

Redaktionen application can be adapted to other newspapers. You can learn more details in this e-book.

(A case study submitted to forum4editors.com by Henrik Schou, an editor of Denmark’s Ekstra Bladet responsible for the Redaktionen project.)

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