Austin speaking:

When you’re running a newspaper, it’s important to avoid letting staff members sit around and deliver mediocre work. It’s not that we’re having this problem with all of our enthusiastic staffers, but it’s surely something we want to avoid. To ensure they are all putting forth their best effort, we came up with a little incentive. After each issue, the staff votes on that issue’s best story, design and photo. It’s interesting to see how the staffers vote, and I definitely think they all enjoy seeing their work hanging up on the walls of the journalism room.

Kristina speaking:

To show our appreciation for our staff member’s dedication, we implemented a system that showcases each issue’s best work. After an issue comes out, the staffers vote for top design, photo and story. We tape each newspaper page on the back wall to display the winners of the issue. Although it seems small, I think the staff really enjoys seeing the winners of each issue. It turns into a mini competition among staff members. This is also a way to use the competition aspect to make the designers, writers and photographers to try their best and deliver their best work. With this new addition, I this it makes the winning staff members realize our appreciation for their devotion and dedication.

Hanna speaking:

We got the idea of creating this competition from last year’s Section of the Month award. When Kristina, Austin and I talked before school started about whether or not we would continue the Section of the Month, we decided to change it up a little bit. We thought that only acknowledging one section didn’t highlight the work of each individual person. Essentially, only the section editors had a motivation to win the award. This year, because we are rewarding a designer, writer and photographer, everyone on staff gets the opportunity to have their work singled out and displayed. I think the competition has been really successful, and it’s fun to see different people stepping up and winning the awards each time.