Prizes/reward ideas for Jr. High & High Schoolers contributing to local newspaper?

First of all, good for you! What a great program!

I started out thinking about your question, really I did, and then I kinda "went off" on how to help fund it. (I've been involved in education/business partnerships like the one I'm laying out for almost 20 years, usually from the parent volunteer/education side, and these are things we've done that work on all kinds of programs.)

Here are a couple of things that can help you get the money to do this right:

1 - Find, create, or borrow a 501(c)3 designation and set up the Tyler Texas Junior Journalism Foundation. (Obviously, use the real name of your town, but I used to live near Dr. Hoggly Woggly's Tyler Texas Barbecue, and I loved the sound of it. :-) This makes it a non-profit, which gives tax advantages for contributing to it.

2 - Sign up other sponsors from your local business community (I know you said it's a town of 1,300 people -- makes my town of 22,000 seem like midtown Manhattan by comparison! -- but somebody's got to own a gas station, a feed store, a market, etc. -- who advertises in your paper?).

Once you're a 501(c)3, their contributions are tax-deductible. (Oh, and so are your paper's contributions, for that matter.) Put their names prominently in any (tax-deductible) advertising you do for the TTJJF. And don't overlook the fact that these contributions can be of goods as well as cash -- if somebody owns an electronics store or a photo shop, they can give you the Grand Prize of a Nikon digital camera setup (and it's deductible for them).

3 - Tie in with the schools. Work with your middle school/high school English and Journalism teachers and make sure that some of their curriculum content can dovetail with the goals of the TTJJF. Better still, at the end of the year, give the teachers some recognition -- give certificates and a nice pen and pencil set to the three teachers who have the highest student participation at the end of the year. (Oh, and of course, put their name in the paper alongside a picture of you handing them their award.)

4 - Have a year-end banquet (get sponsorship from a local restaurant) and give your awards there. Give EVERYBODY a certificate/pin/T-shirt/patch; give the top performers something special; give your sponsors special recognition, like naming rights to the grand prize (how do you think the Pulitzer got its name?)

But...

I went back and read your initial question, which is about gifts in exchange for points based on contributions. And I *did* have some ideas about your actual question, as opposed to telling you how to run your program. :-)

One of the most popular things at our school fund-raising auctions is "Principal For A Day" -- the winner gets to have breakfast with the principal, make the announcements, do some other "official" looking things, and in general pretend to be the principal. (We also offer a day with the fire department, which could be another big award for you -- have them ride along on accidents, fires, etc. and cover the story behind the emergency! Big insurance liability, but I'm sure the paper knows a lawyer who can write up the waivers, right?)

You could do something like this -- have the highest-contributing participant get to be "Editor For A Day." They can basically shadow you (or your editor in chief) for a day -- evaluating stories, working on layout, handing out assignments, whatever. It's free, and it's VERY cool.

You should also have cool awards for the year, provided by sponsorship from the TTJJF of course, with a really good digital camera as the Grand Prize. Other prizes could be digital audio recorders -- not MP3 players per se, but something the kids could use for recording interviews (a friend who's a motorsport journalist uses one).

Something else that doesn't cost a lot but which will be VERY much in demand: Press passes for specific events/activities. I run the press day for our round of the national rally championship, and we have a student-level pass to portions of our event. Because there's a very real danger in performance rally, we don't let the students into ALL the places that an experienced journalist or TV crew goes, but they DO get into some places that the average spectator doesn't -- for example, they can get a ride-along on the "press stage," when the drivers take people out for a short drive on the rally stage. It makes them a fan for life.

So, surely there's some event you can work with -- a state football championship, a rodeo, etc. etc. etc. Talk with the organizers, make up a special pass for your winners, and have them attend the press meeting, get into the press box to take good pictures, and all that. THAT is something that's SO much more meaningful than a $99 digital camera. The memory of the day my friend got to meet Chris Economacki at the national championships, because he was in the booth with the big-league professional journalists, is something he'll treasure forever.

I used to work for my HS paper, but my ideas of "cool prizes" back then probably don't even compare to the expected extravagance that kids want nowadays. Gift certificates to an office supply chain like Office Max or Staples will work well...that way they can get whatever they choose for a prize that fits in well with writing.

books, mp3 players they can be cheap, flash memory stick for storing stuff on, a day with a photo journalist, a day working in your offices this is invaluable if they want to do this for a living hope this is ok and its a great idea

Free newspaper subscriptions?

Gift cards/certificates to local store(s)?

Summer apprenticeship at newspaper and/or with local photographer?