Newspaper & Mailroom

TheMash? Here! New Teenage Newspaper Present and Accounted for as School Year Begins

Thursday 04. September 2008 - Verizon, Nike lead roster of supporting advertisers in Chicago weekly

Chicago Public Schools began distributing to its 100,000 high school students today the inaugural issue of TheMash, a new weekly newspaper produced by the Chicago Tribune and largely written by the students themselves.

TheMash will cover a broad range of news and entertainment areas relevant to Chicago teens. Student contributors will be trained and guided by Chicago Tribune professionals, and will be given access to interview public figures and celebrities. Tribune will distribute 100,000 copies of TheMash across all 130 high schools within Chicago Public Schools, the nation’s third largest public school system.

“We are thrilled to bring this unique opportunity to Chicago public high school students,” said Brad Moore, general manager of TheMash. “Developing new and targeted media choices furthers our goal of an informed and engaged community.”

Already, the newspaper has attracted several advertisers, with Verizon and Nike signing on as presenting sponsors.

“Verizon Wireless is excited to see the Chicago Tribune publish a product that reaches the youth market in Chicago, with the launch of TheMash,” said Carol Damit, director / marketing communications for Verizon Wireless.

“Currently this demographic can be a challenge to reach through print media,” Damit said, “but we are hoping this vehicle distributed in the Chicago Public schools will help promote younger newspaper readers and present a new resource for information which can help young readers make sound life decisions, while providing participation and a voice in the community for the students.”

A companion website, at http://www.themash.com/, will host much of TheMash editorial content and will allow students to post stories and photos and interact with one another between editions.