Columbia Scholastic Press Association

Newspaper Page Editing (section 1)

The major goal of instruction in this sequence is to provide page editors strategic skills to lead staffers to work effectively and efficiently to produce quality writing, design and photography for publication.

Sequence Objective

Writing

• Students will review interviewing strategies and attribution techniques.
• Students will use interviewing skills to write news and features pieces
• Students will write feature leads and develop appropriate transitions to frame the story.
• Students will integrate quotes gathered in interviews to create substance within news, features and sports stories.
• Students will develop a quality editorial and understand the difference between the editorial and a column.
• Students will practice peer editing strategies to revise writing.
• Students will learn strategies for handling controversial or sensitive issues.
• Students will write high impact captions for news and feature photos.

Design

• Students will employ horizontal modular design techniques using approaches in Tim Harrower’s The Newspaper Designer’s Handbook.
• Students will set up an “Items to Include” lists for a news, editorial, feature and sports page.
• Students will learn appropriate photo placement in design for maximum impact.
• Students will evaluate student newspapers to determine strengths and weaknesses in design.

Photography

• Students will review what makes a good/bad photo.
• Students will review appropriate cropping for maximum impact.
• Students will set up a photo file management system to manage both print and digital images.
• Students will select photos with news value.

Editing

• Students will develop beats to gather news around school.
• Students will develop story lists for the first issue of the year.
• Students will develop a features idea file for the year (50 story ideas).
• Students will develop strategies for training new staffers assigned to pages.
• Students will develop strategies for critiquing each issue by critiquing previous issues and other student newspapers.
• Students will set up a page deadline schedule for the first month of production.

Ethics and Press Law

• Students will discuss current press law, the impact of prior review and censorship, and handling sensitive issues.

Staff Motivation and Morale

• Students will develop staff motivation and recognition strategies for the year.

Sample Assignments 

Writing: Write one each of the following types of stories:

• Personality profile.
• News story.
• Feature.
• Unsigned staff editorial.

Photography

• Set up a photo file management system for the staff.
• Select and crop photos.
• Set up a photo events calendar for the year.

Design

• Design a News/Front Page for the first issue of the school year.
• Critique one issue from your school or another school newspaper.
• Set up a production calendar for page production for the year.
• Set up a page deadline schedule for the first month of production.

Editing

• Set up a system for editing photos.
• Set up a system for editing stories.
• Set up a system for editing pages prior to sending to publisher.
• Create Feature Ideas file with 50 story ideas.
• Set up a beat system for the year.
• Plan a staff morale booster strategy to use during a stressful time during the year.

Sequence Instructor

Jane Blystone, North East High School, North East, PA, has advised student publications, including newspaper, yearbook and literary magazines since 1973.  Blystone serves CSPA as the nominations chair and is past Region 7 director for JEA, past president of PA School Press Association, and judges for Columbia Scholastic Press Association and several press associations.  She has received the CSPA Gold Key,  JEA Medal of Merit, JEA special recognition yearbook adviser award, and MJE certification, NCTE 2004 recipient of the English Leadership Quarterly Best Article of the Year, and the 2005 recipient of the James Frederick Paschal Award from CSPA.

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