L.A. youth partners with the Los Angeles Times: its experiences offer valuable guidance for attracting younger readers.(Young Readers)

Nieman Reports, December, 2003 by Myrow, Donna C.

There aren't many cities where teenagers have their own newspaper to write and read, but in Los Angeles they do. It's called L.A. Youth and, since 1988, it has given teens more than a voice. With it, they have had a megaphone.

I made my decision to publish a newspaper for teenagers in Los Angeles on the morning of January 13, 1988, the day when the United States Supreme Court struck down student press rights in Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier. That decision gave school officials broad powers to censor student newspapers. That afternoon a dozen teenagers sat around my kitchen table talking about issues that affected their lives. Together we wondered how we would publish our own newspaper with no money. We didn't even have a computer.

But we found some...

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