Newspapers and Magazines

The editors of school newspapers often prove to be the journalists of tomorrow. The newspapers they produce are becoming increasingly professional, with high quality photographs and an appealing layout. At times, their contents are controversial enough to provoke conflict with the school's head.

A young tradition – 10 years of school newspaper competition

Since 1996, the German weekly SPIEGEL has been awarding prizes for the best German-language school newspapers. The magazine's seasoned pros have been most impressed by the young authors from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Egypt, Belgium, Brazil, Italy, Japan, Namibia, Portugal, Romania, Spain and Hungary. "60,000 participants, 20,000 articles" was the magazine's proud headline, referring to the 809 school newspaper editors who submitted their magazines, newspapers, reports, interviews and photographs to be judged by the media professionals. The jury certainly had their work cut out: "In 2005/2006, the jury once again listed the Top Ten for each of the nine categories, awarded special prizes and wrestled to determine the 'correct' ranking. At the end of the rounds of discussion, a total of 89 prizes were awarded, and 47 students were invited to a presentation ceremony in Hamburg", writes the Hamburg-based weekly in its online SchulSpiegel school magazine.

Spongo, the newspaper published by the Hölderlin Upper School in Nürtingen in the state of Baden-Württemberg, was awarded very good contents, best layout, best and fifth-best of all articles submitted, fifth-best photograph and seventh-best interview by the jury, earning it overall first place. As their prize, five members of the Spongo editorial team will now be flying to Moscow in the autumn holidays to have SPIEGEL correspondents talk to them about their work and take them on a tour around the city. However, the awards are more than simply a great honour for all the competition's participants and prize-winners – they also mean genuine support and recognition in the form of financial subsidies, material prizes, attractive work experience placements and long-distance travel.

Contents and topics

"The Mr Nice Guy approach is a thing of the past. Today's school newspapers in Berlin are critical, witty and cheeky. They (…) are sometimes given to sharply criticizing teachers, politicians, and themselves. The topics they concern themselves with are anything but trivial. They write about the general elections, about Europe, about questions of faith – and in some cases highlight problems in their schools or local area" reported the Berliner Morgenpost newspaper in January 2006. Another excellent example is the Baden-Württemberg school newspaper Spongo whose 104 pages feature quite a bit about German politics, though, as the SPIEGEL jury was quick to praise, "not in the form of a general election analysis, but as a satirical guide to how to become German Chancellor in 20 steps." Teachers, too, are the target of the newspaper's wit: Spongo featured a sumo game which involved making the teachers into sumo wrestlers. Today's school newspapers don't just shake up the adults and establishment, however – the central focus are almost always the students themselves. For instance, Spongo not only interviewed the school representatives, but also impressed the jury by including a portrait of a fellow student who had opted out of his neo-Nazi group.

Controlling the makers

Students don't only make their own headlines, but sometimes even end up in the headlines, like Sophies Unterwelt (i.e., Sophie's Underworld). The school newspaper ranked second in the 2005/2006 competition of the SPIEGEL. It is published by the private Catholic Sophie Barat School in Hamburg, and is currently out of favour. "Last year, the 'underworlders' ended up in the headlines because of a conflict they had with their headmistress. Because the editorial team was not willing to bow to the censorship requested by the school's head, sale of the newspaper has now been banned on school premises" wrote SPIEGEL-editor-in-chief Stefan Aust. This is an example of a young editorial team fighting for the freedom of the press – while at the same time winning a competition in 2006 to find Hamburg's best school newspaper. This, however, does not make the problem go away. "Censorship is the norm", says Sebastian Olény from the Hamburg Young Press Association. "However, school heads don't do it simply out of malice, but believe that they share some responsibility for what appears in print – yet this is in fact not the case, as the general press law applies."

This is true of all state schools. In all of Germany's federal states, censorship fell victim to new school laws in 2005. Under the new laws, students are free to distribute their newspapers without needing to seek the permission of the teachers. As a result, school newspapers have become a force to be reckoned with, attracting an increasing volume of advertisement business, from financial institutes to driving schools and radio stations. Even so, the total number of newspapers is on the decline – the Internet and other electronic media are tough competitors for the home-made publications. For example, while there were still 200 school newspapers in Berlin in 2003, the number had fallen to around 150 by 2006, according to the umbrella association Young Press. It is hard to calculate the exact number of publications nationwide, but the Federal Youth Press Association puts the figure at approximately 2,000.

The school newspaper today, SPIEGEL tomorrow

The editors of school newspapers often prove to be the journalists of tomorrow – a quick look at the competition's jury is all that is needed to confirm this: half of its members used to be involved in making a school newspaper. "In 20 years I will be Günther Wallraff's successor, a journalist and actor at the same time", replies a 16-year-old editor of pfeil-magazin.de. Even media pros like the SPIEGEL's Martin Doerry agree: "School students often have such interesting views on matters of local and regional politics that the local press should really be falling over themselves to recruit the editors of school newspapers".

Young journalists are recognized and promoted by the Conference of Ministers of Education of the German "Länder" (KMK) and the Federal Youth Press Association, which each year stage the largest nationwide school newspaper competition. With the support of the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, they provide an Internet forum and lots of useful tips and information for school newspapers. Apparently, the young newspaper makers are taking full advantage of this, as their newspapers are becoming increasingly professional, with high quality photographs and an appealing layout. This costs money which the editors generally raise themselves to avoid being dependent on the school. This is highly valued by their readers, a fact which is reflected in the relatively high circulation of the school newspapers and the declining circulations of those of their professional colleagues. As a result, SPIEGEL editor Doerry gives his colleagues the following advice: "These young people are hot on the heels of many interesting stories. Their views and take on things can also give us food for thought, especially as regards our young readership."