Diana Mitsu Klos and Craig Branson are the first appointments to a team working on the initiative, funded by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

The program seeks improve the waning health of high school journalism, with emphasis on the importance of the First Amendment to the strength and vitality of a democratic society. Knight and ASNE hope that by building a larger group of students with experience as journalists, they can help broaden and deepen the pool of prospective newsroom professionals.

Klos, formerly project director for ASNE, will become senior project director on May 1. She will oversee all of ASNE’s major projects, but will spend the bulk of her time providing strategic direction for the high school project. Prior to joining ASNE in 1996, she was managing editor of the Poughkeepsie (N.Y.) Journal.

Branson, who has been ASNE’s publications director since 1996, will become online director, leading the project’s extensive Web site. The site will be a resource for journalism educators, students and editors working with the program. He begins June 1. He was formerly a copy editor at The Ledger in Lakeland, Fla.

ASNE is seeking replacements for both Klos and Branson.

Klos’s replacement will supervise programs such as the Institute for Journalism Excellence and the International Journalism Exchange, as well as complete work on the Journalism Credibility Project.

The new publications director, who will be responsible for supervising the production of The American Editor and other ASNE publications, will also serve as its public relations contact.

With more than 900 members, ASNE is the principal organization of newspaper editors throughout the Americas. It is active in a number of areas, concentrating on improving the diversity, readership and credibility of newspapers.