Austin speaking:

Every year, both the JagWire and JAG staffs must reach a given quota by selling advertisements for either of the publications. This money is used to fund the journalism department and is what allows us to print our publications. This year, because both staffs are smaller, each staffer’s quota is a bit higher than last year’s. Typically, the paper is a 20 page publication, but because we’ve struggled to sell as many ads as we usually do, our previous two issues have been cut down to 16 pages. For the third issue, which we are working on now, we’ve also decided to only publish 16 pages because, not only are we on a super short deadline, but the poor empty spaces on our ad pages are still begging to be sold. It’s such a disappointing thing to have to do, and us editors have definitely realized how important it is to emphasize to our staff the importance of selling the ads. Being so wrapped up in the responsibilities required of being an editor, I haven’t quite made selling the advertisements my top priority this year. However, having to cut pages for three consecutive issues has really motivated me to be more proactive in selling my ads. Hopefully our fourth issue will be a beautiful 20 page read.

Kristina speaking:

At the beginning of every school year, the yearbook and newspaper staffs have an “ad day” where everyone goes out and sells ads to local businesses for the newspaper and yearbook. For some reason, selling ads has been like pulling teeth this year. It has been so difficult to get everyone on staff to make their quota. Usually our issues are a full 20 pages. However, all of our issues this year have been 16 pages since we do not have the funds. Hopefully issue three will be the last issue that is 16 pages, because we have so many articles for the paper. It’s always a sad feeling when we cut pages, but it’s something we have had to do in the past. If all goes well and the staff reaches their final ad quota for second quarter, the newspaper will have 20 pages and the yearbook won’t have to cut pages either.

Hanna speaking:

While we have been spending so much time focusing on the quality of the paper, ads have been largely ignored. We took for granted the fact that last year’s editors were so good at emphasizing the importance of selling ads. From now on, we are stepping it up. I’m tired of having to cut pages for the paper because we haven’t been putting enough effort into ads. Our goal for the rest of the year is to publish a 20-page paper. In order to do that, we need to be checking up on every person to make sure they are doing their best to make their ad quota. We’d better not end up with another 16-page paper. If we do, well, let’s just hope it doesn’t happen.