I really love it when someone changes the way I view the world. In a recent interview I held with Alexander Heffner of Scoop08, he did just that.

Things I believed: journalism was on its way out, youth don’t really want to read about politics, entrepreneurs see themselves as entrepreneurs first. Actually, Alexander, a high school senior at Phillips Academy, showed me that those things just aren’t true.

Scoop08 is a student run and written online political daily covering this year’s election. Launched last November, the paper has covered a myriad of topics in a way that has proven to be interesting to young people. It has also created a dialogue among our youth. By using new media technology, Scoop08 is allowing for instant reporting and instant feedback. Its allow kids with a voice and real opinions to have a spot to air those opinions. It’s proving that just because you’re too young to vote or a first time voter doesn’t mean you are too young to care.

Heffner was motivated by a desire to unify young people around innovative media. He wanted a place for people to engage in topics that actually mattered. With co-founder Andrew Mangino, the two guys provided a place for youth to “operate as real journalists and to learn the tricks of the trade”.

He sees himself as both an entrepreneur and a journalist but avoids claiming to be too great of either. He places weight on the strength of the organization and the volunteers who comprise it, above his own role as a leader and an innovator. Through this online space, he is providing a learning venue and a ground-breaking way for people to test their chops in a competitive online newspaper.

More like the real world than any school newspaper could ever be he is allowing journalists a place to bite off as much as they can chew and in the end they are spitting out great, relevant and interesting fodder.

Heffner changed my view on what news media can do and where it is going. He also impressed me with his charisma and self-effacing nature. I hope to see him in the future take over for the likes of Rupert Murdoch and all the while bring up those around him who have the drive to bring good coverage because it is good coverage.

Tags: Alexander Heffner, Scoop08

This entry was posted on Friday, April 11th, 2008 at 7:45 am and is filed under Innovators. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.