Voices Accepting New Reporters

Have you ever wanted to write and be published in a newspaper? Have you ever wanted to be paid to do so? If so, Voices is the newspaper segment for you.

Voices is a section in the Reading Eagle that gives the high school students of Berks County a chance to voice their opinions about various topics. Not only that, but Voices offers any Berks County student in grades 9-12 the chance to apply for the Voices team.

How do I join Voices? you may ask. For one thing, they only take applications twice a year, January and August, because the position is paid, and there is paperwork involved after joining. They will also need a 200-word paper on your thoughts of Voices. Be honest and open about what you do and don’t like about the Voices section in the Reading Eagle.

All of these items can be sent to the following address: Voices application, Reading Eagle Company, P.O. Box 582, Reading, Pa. 19603. Or, you can email it to them at voices@readingeagle.com

The deadline for the first application is 25 January 2016.

For new writers, photographers, and illustrators, you are invited to attend a meeting on the first Saturday in February, after they receive your application. Nobody is turned away. Once you are a correspondent of Voices, you should make yourself available the first Saturday of every month at 12:00 p.m.

Stories will be assigned and important issues about upcoming events will be discussed at these meetings. Writers volunteer for stories they would like to write. All correspondents who want to write a story that month should attend the meeting. If you don’t attend, you may request a “call-ahead,” but those are very limited.

There are deadlines set by the editor, and they must be met. For all the work that you submit, (writings, photographs, drawing), you will receive up to fifteen dollars. Not only that, but you will receive as much feedback about your work as you want.

If you have any additional questions about applying, or about Voices in general, you may contact the Voices editor, Stacie Jones, at 610-371-5026 or sjones@readingeagle.com.