Staff Recruiting

Although everyone would like to think that everyone is going to sign up for the broadcast journalism class, it doesn’t always work out that way. Most staffs need to advertise extensively to make sure that the staff continues to bring new, energetic students onto the team.

Here are FIVE IDEAS a staff can use to promote themselves and increase the number of students signing up.

1. Create a video – do what you know how to do best. Create a short advertisement that shows what staff members do behind the scenes. Make it light, fun, and short. Be sure to tell them how to apply as well.

PGTV Promo from PGTV NEWS on Vimeo.

2. Publicize the class in the halls with posters. Share what the video staff gets to do that no one else can.

 

3. Visit classrooms. Be sure to contact the 8th, 9th, and 10th grade teachers and ask them if you can stop by at the beginning of the period to present the class to them. Offer the classes opportunities to ask about the class and being on staff. Be sure to bring applications that you can hand out. Also bring some of the equipment you use and ways of explaining how you work in the newsroom.

4. Personally contact individuals. Consider asking teachers who they think would be a great fit for your staff. Rather than waiting on them to apply, send them a personally addressed envelope with a letter expressing how someone recommended them, and an application. This technique gives some students the confidence to apply that they might not already had possessed on their own.

5. Start early getting to know the rising freshmen and sophomores. Consider doing an outreach program where you offer to come down to teach a lesson on storytelling or interviewing. They will be impressed seeing older students and once they feel they know someone on staff, they will feel more connected.