The Iowa-based Quad-City Times and Lee Enterprises pulled the plug on the print version of Your Mom, the local, much-publicized, teen-written publication. On YPulse, former Your Mom editor Hillary Rhodes reflects on her experience running the publication and the decision to cease printing it.
“For me, it’s a black spot on the grand experiment of youth journalism,” writes Rhodes, who now works for asap, the Associated Press’ new service targeting young people. “Not that Your Mom—weekly, 16-page, quarter tab—was an exceptional exhibition of flawless teen reportage, but it was trying…to reach large numbers of young readers, and to introduce them to the idea that newspapers play an important role in a community. What this decision proves to me, first, is that all this well-intentioned babble about ‘investment in future readers’ translates to ‘investment in winning youth-oriented advertising.’” Rhodes goes on to describe youth journalism as “one giant experiment, like trying to cure cancer.”
YPulse notes several other youth-produced pages that have recently been pulled from local newspapers.