STORY SIGN UP

After accumulating all the ideas, I filter through the ideas and remove any topics that are repeated, have been covered in the past, or aren't relevant and don't have an angle. I place all the ideas in our Story Sign Up spreadsheet on Google Drive. This is where staffers let me know that they want to write a certain story. The document can get a bit overwhelming, so I like to update it often to remove content that has already been published.

 

PREPLANS

I am constantly making preplans. Stories are always due on Thursday so I like to present preplans on the previous Friday so writers can plan over the weekend. Being weekly keeps us on a tight schedule, but it’s important that writers don’t feel too rushed. Creating the preplans for each issue is an intensive process. I look at the story sign up sheet to see what stories are being written and plug those into where they fit on each page. The tower runs this same structure every week:

 

Page 1-News

Page 2-Opinion

Page 3-News

Page 4-Entertainment/Reviews

Page 5- Feature

Page 6- Feature

Page 7- Feature

Page 8- Sports

 

Every time I’m organizing content, there always seems to be an abundant amount of news story’s and barely any features or vice versa. When this happens I think of story ideas myself. Usually, news stories are lacking so I just look on the school website to see what is going on in the community. This typically works. All lot of thought goes into deciding which stories go on which page. I think things like “I know this story will be long considering Sarah is writing it, so I’m only going to put one other story on the page” or “this story about human trafficking would make sense next to an alt copy about self-defense techniques learned at a boxing class”. 

 

ASSIGNING EDITORS

When content for the preplans are finalized and presented, I assign a copy editor and a page editor for each page. The page editor is responsible for designing the page and making sure all the photos and graphics for the stories are in. The copy editor is responsible for making sure the story is in on time and edits the story when it is complete. This process works well because I can delegate some of my responsibilities. I don’t have to go through to see if every story is in. Instead, my copy editors just update me on content issues.

 

EDITING PAGES
After being copy edited and fixing the mistakes, stories are ready to be put on pages. After editorial board meetings Monday morning (when pages are close to being done) page editors print their pages and post them on the board. Throughout the day, staffers go up to it and mark any sort of content or design errors. When deadline starts after school, the designer grabs the sheet and makes the changes.

 

The picture on the right shows the process the page takes after being completed and approved by leadership. The page editors mark the time they finished, then 2 copy editors will read through everything on the page, then a leadership member does the same, then our advisor, and then it can be PDFed. This process keeps us organized and efficient. Having many eyes look at the same page is important because it is easy to overlook a simple spelling error. Also, writing on this chart helps us keep track of what page editors struggled with their time management. Looking at the times holistically gives us a clear idea of who struggled or succeeded with their time management.