‘Unleashed’ staffers cope with finality

By ALYSSA PATRICK
UNLEASHED STAFF
Mia Walsh isn’t ready to attend her last Unleashed meeting.
She’s been on the team for three years and had considered following in the footsteps of her two older sisters and applying for next year’s student editor position.
She won’t have that opportunity. Unleashed — the award-winning youth program at the Yakima Herald-Republic — is ending.

“When I heard, my heart stopped, and even now I can’t fully accept it,” said the Davis High School junior who turns 17 today. (Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2009)
The struggling economy and a newspaper industry in transition have caught up with the Herald-Republic and its 10-year-old teen program, according to newspaper editors.
“It was a hard decision, but when asked to look for areas to cut in the newsroom budget, the next biggest expense outside of staffing and wire services was Unleashed,” said Interim Editor Barbara Serrano.
The Herald-Republic isn’t alone. Newspapers across the country are re-evaluating their budgets.
“What we’re seeing across the industry is downsizing, and sometimes the (teen) section’s demise is a byproduct,” said Sandy Woodcock, director of the Newspaper Association of America Foundation in Arlington, Va.
Regionally, the Vox, the monthly teen publication at the Spokesman Review in Spokane, is slated to publish its last print edition in June.
“It’s a shame these programs are going away. Our communities need them,” said Erin Daniels, who runs The Vox program.
Adriana Janovich, who has been coordinating Unleashed for the last six years, will continue working as a reporter for the Herald-Republic once the teen program concludes at the end of this month.
“It’s a cutback like you’re seeing in larger area papers and is not reflective of the success or failure of Unleashed or its staff,” said Herald-Republic news editor Jeff Garretson, a co-founder of the program.
Downsizing in the newspaper industry is twofold, Serrano said. The first issue is the current economic recession. Another major factor is that more people are getting information from the Internet. Faced with declining advertising revenues, many newspapers are reassessing their budgets, and often teen sections are considered a luxury.
The expenses for Unleashed include a part-time student editor, correspondent pay for student reporters, photographers and illustrators, pizza and pop at monthly team meetings, and movie passes. The Herald-Republic also dedicated staff time from Janovich, a staff photographer and assignment and copy editors.
While Serrano assured the Herald-Republic isn’t in “crisis mode,” the newspaper still needs “to make cuts so we can stay healthy and nimble and expand our reach.”
When Unleashed staffers learned of the cutback earlier this month, students and their families expressed disappointment.

“My heart just sank,” said Andy Carroll, an 18-year-old senior at La Salle High School and a three-year Unleashed reporter and columnist. “I had just turned in a column the day before, and it crushed me that (Unleashed) could just be done.”
Yvana Iovino’s three daughters — Elizabeth, Diana and Mia Walsh — have all worked on Unleashed.
“I realize the economic problem for journalism and newspapers, but I still think you need to raise a future generation to do that work, to cover stories, because we will always need the exchanging of ideas,” Iovino said.
Unleashed, started in 1999, was published as its own section on Tuesdays until last September, when teens’ work was integrated into the main pages of the newspaper.
Unleashed’s roughly 30 team members were selected in May and were two months shy of finishing their yearlong commitment.
“The sooner you make these difficult and often disappointing decisions the more quickly you can move forward to implement those savings to meet today’s economic reality,” said Herald-Republic Publisher Michael Shepard.
The last team meeting takes place Wednesday night and the program is slated to wrap up by March 1. Students will have a couple of weeks to complete stories and other assignments.

• Alyssa Patrick is the student editor of the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team. She is a senior at Eisenhower High School.