The World Association of Newspapers (WAN) has created a new category in its 2008 World Young Reader Prize awards to encourage the use of newspapers to help people learn to read.
The Newspapers & Literacy award will honour a project that helps improve basic reading and writing skills. Projects can target a wide variety of audiences, including parents, families, immigrant populations and young people in or outside of schools.
The World Young Reader Prizes, sponsored by the international paper manufacturer Norske Skog as part of its support for WAN’s young readership development work, are given annually to the newspapers that devise the most innovative projects to develop young readership.
Other categories include editorial strategy, newspapers in education, public service, brand building, and an overall Young Reader Newspaper of the Year.
The literacy category was added for 2008 in recognition of the role of newspapers in helping people learn to read and to improve their reading and critical thinking skills.
"We are offering this prize not only to honour newspapers that are certainly excelling in this kind of work, but also to spread the word about how to start such programmes and, for families and teachers, how to make use of them," said Aralynn McMane, Director of Young Readership Development at WAN.
