TELEVISION: HOT NEWS IN CLASS

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Most of Channel One's staff of 200 have little professional experience, and about half are still in school. "We look for people who can connect to our audience," says David Neuman, a former NBC programming vice president who took over Channel One's news operation in 1992. "We don't want jackets and ties. No pretensions, no poses. That arrogance that you usually see in the news business doesn't work here. If you start acting that way, some 14-year-old out there will see right through it and say, 'You make me sick.'"

Apparently, the strategy is working. Two independent studies have shown that more than 90% of teachers in Channel One schools approve of the show and find it useful; the program has a 99% renewal rate. In one of the studies, the University of Michigan's Jerome Johnston found a 6%-to-8% increase in awareness of current events among students who watch Channel One regularly.

More established news organizations are starting to take notice. Channel One has been involved in a joint reporting project with U.S. News & World Report and 60 Minutes and has an ongoing relationship with abc News. "We are very impressed by their product," says ABC News vice president Bill Abrams. "They do serious stories that are credible, well produced and as good or better than most TV stations." Indeed, the network earlier this year paid Channel One perhaps the ultimate compliment: it hired away Cooper, Channel One's man in Rwanda and Haiti, to become ABC's youngest correspondent.