We all have a family member or a close friend who’s a teacher. They are the ones who you just knew from a young age they would go into the field.

They wanted to share their love for knowledge, reading, history, math or other subject close to their heart. They had an affinity for helping youngsters, or maybe those who needed special attention or care.

On May 5, 2022, we thanked those teachers for the work they do to prepare the next generation for the future, and life. We thanked them for their long hours of work after the school day ends, or for sometimes dipping into their own pocketbook to make sure a student has lunch money or a jacket on a cold day.

Thank You, Teachers was our way of recognizing the value of these educators in our lives.

And we had more than 300 advertisers who were either a market’s Title Sponsor of this project or played a role in supporting our community educators with a special thank your of their own.

During this day, each of our dozens of websites were taken over by more than 172 stories about and photos of teachers in our neighborhoods. These stories were market specific and many of these stories were suggested by school principals, superintendents, parents and teachers’ colleagues.

And please also see the more than 600 notes students wrote about their favorite teachers. Each of these student letter writers was entered to win a $100 prize, provided by our Title Sponsors.

How this project was received by the community:

Our readers responded with record analytics to our 237 new posts on May 5, including these results all in one day:

  • 21,000 social media interactions
  • An increase of 102.8% of new users
  • An increase of 69.8% in new sessions
  • A 52% increase in page views

And our advertisers were also enthusiastic over Thank You, Teachers, with 311 advertisers generating $129,000 in new revenue. They, too benefited from the outstanding traffic and community engagement the project received.

Market Title Sponsors benefited from:

  • Email blasts to thousands of Newspapers In Education teachers.
  • Marketing promotion boxes on each digital site.
  • Promos on newsletters, emails and social media posts directing readers to Thank You, Teachers content.
  • Digital display ads running stream of voice on Thank You Teachers websites.
  • Sponsorships to the 606 students notes to their favorite teacher.
  • What was so encouraging to us were the letters to the editor, emails and social media encounters we received from readers about how much they enjoyed Thank You, Teachers.