Issue two has been another issue for us to test out new things. We tried some different methods for getting our content done and on the pages in a timely manner.  Instead of having the staff stay until 9 p.m. on a Monday night in order to finish the pages, we got everything done by 7 p.m. and were able to leave out the sweat, frustrations and tears (yes, there are often tears) that come with a normal worknight. Placing everything on the pages the week before the issue came out not only gave the incentive for people to get their work done earlier, but also eliminated the stress of stories being too long or too short, pictures being the wrong orientation and captions having misspelled words. This issue has definitely been a good example of things to continue in future issues.

Sarah speaking:

Last week, I felt a little like a broken record for the number of times I told staff members they would be required to come in to work on the paper outside of school hours. Every year, our staff seems to get into a routine of getting the majority of work done for the paper in the final hours before the paper must be sent to press. We always finish but such rushing leads to silly errors that end up in print. Still, nothing is done to prevent the inefficient process. For this issue, we mainly had staff come in at other times to work because we knew our paper had to be send the night of work night (usually the paper is finished on a Monday and then Jill and I take home printed pages and come back on Tuesday to fix errors). However, I think from now on we will require staff to work on their pages one extra night other than our worknight Mondays. I am excited that Jill and I have been able to not only discuss progressive ideas, but also implement them. With so much change the type of media our paper produces, it makes sense to change some of our old processes too.

Jill speaking:

Issue two was a trial and error issue as far as the process of putting it all together went, and for the most part, there was no error. Sarah really pushed everyone to have their stories finalized the week before the issue went to press, and it might have been the smartest thing we have ever done. I felt lost on worknight without the familiar stress and panic, thinking about all of the things we still had to get done. This is definitely a system we will use for the rest of the year, because not only did it help with the stress level on worknight, it also made the issue look better as a whole. I am incredibly proud of this issue and all of the hard work that the staff put into it. We’re only two issues in to the year, but already we are improving off of what was already an awesome first issue.  The staff is catching onto Sarah and I’s ideas for what we wanted our newspaper to look like this year and it’s coming together better than I think both of us even expected.   

Lesson of the week:

 1. Getting things done early never hurt anyone.

Lesson 10 of being an editor-in-chief: Check.