Football Reading Passport encourages young to read newspapers

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on May 17, 2010 at 11:27 AM

The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) and the International Association of Sports Newspapers (IASN) have launched a new World Football Reading Passport, which will be offered to children by newspapers worldwide during this year's World Cup.

The passport is an educational tool that uses sports, and notably football, to encourage young people to read and learn about journalism, sports, geography, language and character. Though it gets young readers into the newspaper through the sports section, it encourages them to go into the rest of the newspaper to seek out related editorial content, through a series of exercises that can be used in schools or at home.

WAN-IFRA and the IASN are providing the passport to newspapers world-wide, which can offer them during the World Cup in South Africa in June to readers and their families, through in-paper or insertable formats. The materials can be found at WAN-IFRA's Young Reader page in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

The Football Passport is supported by French football legend Emmanuel Petit and by Norske Skog, the Norway-based paper producer, as part of its partnership in WAN-IFRA¹s Newspapers in Education Development Project. Newspapers are encouraged to find local sponsors to make the passport as widely available as possible.

WAN-IFRA conducts young readership development activities to support the development of literacy and civic values among the young and to help newspapers worldwide better engage this crucial audience. Activities include training, research, resource creation and networking. Key areas include: putting youth at the core of a newspaper¹s strategy and encouraging innovation in newspapers in education, editorial and marketing practice and youth journalist programmes.

The IASN, which represents the leading voices in the international sport press and acts as the sport arm of WAN-IFRA, exists to defend and promote the values of sports and the interests and freedom of the sports press. French legendary media group L'Equipe, with which Petit currently collaborates, is among the founding members of the IASN.

More on the WAN-IFRA Young Readership Development Programme can be found here.

More on the IASN can be found here.