| Topics: Civic Communication Portland Press-Herald & Maine Sunday Telegram
Education Roundtables In cooperation with the local ABC-TV affiliate, the Portland Newspapers and the Maine Council of Churches sponsored four weekly reader roundtables on education, focusing on primary and secondary schooling. More than 700 people from around the state participated. For five Sundays, the paper devoted 1A or opinion-section front coverage to backgrounders on education and reactions from the roundtables; stories also were carried by Guy Gannett dailies in Waterville and Augusta. WGME, the network affiliate, ran background features at least weekly before and during the sessions, and carried a live one-hour call-in with Maine educational leaders after the roundtables were over. The Maine Public Broadcasting Network broadcast a 2-hour radio call-in and a two-hour TV piece on education toward the end of the roundtables. A case study by Project on Public Life and the Press
New York University, Department of Journalism,10 Washington Pl.
New York, NY 10003, (212) 998-3793 © Project on Public Life and the Press,1994 The Project is funded by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Portland Press-Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram (newspaper)
P.O. Box 1460
Portland, Maine 04104
(207) 780-9000, x. 2258 (phone)
(207) 780-9499 (fax) Ownership
Guy Gannett (pronounced GAN-et) Communications. (Private, Maine dailies; Minnesota weeklies; TV stations nationwide)
No. newsroom employees: 117 Circulation
72,913 (daily)
137,555 (Sunday)
Circulation Area (pop):
Cumberland and York Counties (427,000) Initiative
Reader Roundtables: Education Dates
January and February 1994 Lead Editor
Lou Ureneck, editor and vice president When and how did the initiative get started?
Familiar with study circle projects established in other communities, and of news media partnership in some, the Council of Churches initially asked the foundation affiliated with the Guy Gannett corporation to fund a similar effort in Maine, focused on education. Corporate officials suggested a newsroom partnership instead. At about the same time, Editor Ureneck began working with the Project on Public Life and the Press, where he learned more about other cooperative efforts. MPBN was not initially a partner in the initiative, but added programming around the effort as it developed. What were the goals of the initiative?
To bring citizens together to discuss what public education in Maine should accomplish and what needs to change. What did the initiative entail?
The Council of Churches took primary responsibility for logistics, including facilitator training for the roundtables and assigning citizens to groups in their neighborhoods. Facilitator-training background was provided by the national Study Circles Resource Center. The newspaper ran house ads, a column by Ureneck and a 1A story announcing the initiative before the roundtables more than 100 inches of background material each week, focusing on employment, citizenship, lifelong learning and traditional basics. WGME ran public service announcements and news-program ads in addition to their broadcast and call-in features. MPBN promoted its special programs on education for more than 10 days. How many people are working on it?
Three reporters were responsible for most of the paper's coverage. The promotions department at the papers helped design materials for recruitment and process applications for roundtables. At the network television station, one reporter did most of the coverage; a news anchor hosted the call-in special. One reporter coordinated the programming for MPBN, though others were involved in call-in programming. What does it look like in the newspaper?
The series kicked off with an 1A news story and an accompanying coupon two weeks before roundtables began. Another story highlighting the state's lack of cohesive education reform ran one week before the roundtables. Massive background features (with graphics and photos), occupying most of two open pages, ran for the next four weeks. Roundup stories ran periodically during and at the end of the series. Response to the Initiative In the newsroom:
It was somewhat difficult to explain to reporters the nature of the background material, Ureneck said. Rather than backgrounding a breaking news story, the reporters were asked to write lively copy that gave a broad overview of a subject; the transition was in some cases difficult. In the community:
Seven hundred people around the state represents a very large turnout for Maine in winter, but participation remained high despite several big blizzards. Facilitators said roundtable participants were eager to discuss the subject in common, though some wanted more background material than news stories provided, and others asked for more lead time with the stories. (Topics covered on Sunday were discussed in that week's roundtables.) Among non-participants, there was some skepticism in the community about the project; media critics on MPBN's "Media Watch" complained that the series seemed to be a marketing ploy and that stories rehashed old material. Among political leaders:
Negligible. Overall lessons - successes and failures:
Various logistical elements will be handled differently next time. For example, house ads in the newspaper drew little advance enrollment for roundtables; enrollment did not really take off until the week the roundtables began, when the first set of backgrounders ran. Efforts to match participants to roundtables that both fit their schedules and were in the neighborhood were too time consuming; next time, participants will be given a couple of options and asked to fit roundtables into their schedules. Case study written by Lisa Austin, Assistant Director of the Project on Public Life and the Press, February 1994. Lisa is also a member of the CPN Journalism editorial team. More Information Project on Public Life and the Press
New York University
Department of Journalism
10 Washington Pl.
New York, NY 10003
(212) 998-3793 Back to Communication Index | 
