 We're going to continue with the writing and talk about Manor Inc. Library-based youth-led news with Peggy Johansson, director of the Limitston Manor Free Library in New York at Peggy. It looks like you're all good to go. Okay, can you hear me okay? Yep, coming through. Hello You're all set. Okay, great. Good afternoon. My name is Peggy Johansson. I'm the director of the Limitston Manor Free Library and Limitston Manor, New York. Our library service serves a district of 2,700 people. We generally have two staff members on in our three-room library located in the southern part of the beautiful Catskill Mountains, about two and a half hours from New York City. I'm very glad to present our library-based youth-led newspaper, Manor Inc. And as long as my screen will forward, I will do that. Okay, let's Let's, um, there we go. Okay, and I'm going to let our editors, our young editors, introduce themselves. The paper is a collaborative effort among the library, the Community Reporting Alliance, a regionally-based nonprofit whose mission is to support local news media and the residents and businesses of our area who have enthusiastically supported this project. We are online in social media and in print. We teach news gathering and presentation skills. Here, Jem and Tyler are interviewing the head of admissions of Sullivan County Community College. We set out to fill a gap. Our community newspaper was shut down in the poor economy of 2009. The high school newspaper was shut down at about the same time for the same reason, economics. In the process of developing the library's long-range plan in 2011, our visioning committee invited residents to discuss how they would like to see the library interface with the community. During that process, Jamie Helper, mother of three, and a frequent library visitor, stated, We need a town newspaper. Why not start a community-wide newspaper led by teams run from the library? Jamie felt that the young people in our community needed extra curricular activities outside of the school that would provide them with skills for future employment. The idea was embraced by the committee and written into the long-range plan. Work began on it last winter. Barbara Grapp of the Community Reporting Alliance came on board immediately and made contact with Carolyn Bivens, pictured here, publisher of the former town crier. They provided the knowledge needed to run a paper. Promotional flyers were put out in town and in the school to attract kids. It began with about eight young teens, and they helped spread the word. Soon we were getting 12 to 15 kids at each meeting. This flyer is one we actually used after we had printed a few issues, as you can see by the cover photos. Before we were in print, we had a website created by the staff, simple and to the point at a cost of $40. We used Weebly to make the website. We upgraded to Weebly Pro, and here's a screenshot of the website today. Our first print edition came out last June. This photo was taken when we distributed our third issue in August. We've covered triumph. We've covered tragedy. Unfortunately, both of these photos were taken within a block of the library over the past year. Following both flood and fire, the community realized the value of a local newspaper, and the kids involved with reporting and photographing these stories came to comprehend these tragedies on an adult level. In our first issue, we did a story called Imagine Manor, in which kids interviewed other kids and adults about what they would like to see in our town. Now, they are delving into that concept with stories on the community's process of envisioning a new future through formal planning workshops. This is the cover of our most recent paper. Staff members covered town and school board meetings. Brandon serves as liaison with the library board. John's mother reports that his English grades have improved considerably since he's been involved in Manor Inc., and we can see the evidence in his writing. But the kids also compiled a fun page of happiness for each issue, with puzzles, drawings, song lyrics, and reviews of books and movies. At each meeting, we have between three and five adult mentors. Mentors encourage, nudge, suggest, proof, and help in many other ways. As a librarian, I attend each weekly meeting, from often running out to care to take care of library business. I work closely with individuals on stories, oversee bookkeeping, provide library resources, submit library press releases and calendar listings to the editors, and coordinate activities as needed. How does this happen financially? More than 20 community businesses advertise regularly. Many people donate. Even more people buy our papers and our distribution sites on Main Street and beyond. Business cards size ads are $20 apiece. Kelly was a new member when I handed her the camera and said, let's go downtown and interview Maria. Now, you may notice the audio and video timing don't match in this format, but let's see. We can get it going here. I apologize if the audio and video don't line up, but I think it's a worthwhile video, so let's see. Let's give it a shot and get it back. How do you feel about Maynard Banking House? I think we're going to abandon that one. That was one of the women who works in the store downtown and she was speaking enthusiastically about the newspaper and the response she gets when she talks to her customers about it. That was Kelly's first time filming and doing a live interview like that. Actually, it worked out quite well if you could have seen the original video. So, Maynard Bank has empowered its young staff to find and use their voices. It has shown us that local news is an important part of the glue of a community. It has also been a vehicle to highlight library services. The staff and I would be glad to answer any questions you may have. Please send them to matterinkattheopening.com. If you would like to receive a paper copy of the next edition, please include your mailing address. Thank you. You might get a lot of them. That was great. We do just have a couple of questions. How many pages are in an average issue and where does it get printed? Who does the part is being printed by? Sure. We started out as an eight-page paper and after a couple of issues, we went to 12. And that's because we were selling enough advertising and the advertising proceeds cover the cost of printing. And it's printed at the same price that prints our daily paper in the area. I'm not sure if I mentioned that this comes out monthly. We'll be sure to get that video from Peggy and we'll post it on the website. Sometimes videos work through this system and sometimes they don't. Peggy, thank you very much for that. It sounds like a wonderful project.