Columbia Scholastic Press Association

Newspaper Page Editing

So you're a page editor, and you want to really make your newspaper pages sing. How exactly to you do that? How do you coax all the different elements to come together? How do you coax your staffers to work effectively and efficiently to produce quality writing, design and photography that will make your publication an agenda-setter on your campus? How do you coax reluctant readers to stick around for a while? As a page editor, you're the maestro - giving you the skills to pull it all together is what we'll be all about during your week in the CSPA Newspaper Page Editing seminar.

Group Objective

Writing ...

• review interviewing strategies and attribution techniques; practice interviewing skills;
• practice feature leads and transitions;
• review techniques for writing editorials/columns;
• learn strategies for handling sensitive stories;
• practice writing effective, high-impact captions.

Design ...

• review modular design techniques using approaches in Tim Harrower's "The Newspaper Designer's Handbook;"
• set up design criteria for news, op/ed, feature and sports pages;
• practice using dominant photos in page design;
• study other student newspapers to see what works and what doesn't.

Photography ...

• review what makes a good/bad photo;
• review/practice cropping;
• develop a photo file management system for digital images;
• practice photo editing/selection.

Editing ...

• develop beats to gather news around school;
• develop story lists for the first issue/issues of the year;
• create a features idea file for the year;
• develop training strategies for new staffers;
• create a strategy for constructively critiquing issues of your newspaper;
• set up a deadline schedule for your newspaper's first cycle.

Ethics and Press Law ...

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

Staff Motivation and Morale ...

• discuss and develop strategies for staff motivation and recognition.
  
  

What you'll do... 

Writing ...

• Write a personality profile, a news story, a feature, an 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;
• create and save an InDesign Library for future use of your staff;
• conduct a design critique of one issue from your school or another school newspaper;
• set up a calendar for page production for the year;
• set up a page deadline schedule for the first month of production.

Editing ...

• create a photo editing check-off sheet; set up a story editing check-off sheet;
• set up a page editing/proofing check-off sheet;
• create a file of feature story ideas to share with your staff;
• set up a beat coverage system for the year;
• plan a staff morale booster strategy to use during a stressful time during the year.
  
  
  

Stuff to bring...  

You need to bring a LAPTOP computer with Photoshop and InDesign already installed! (A decent-sized flash drive or portable hard drive might be potentially valuable, too.) Also, bring your newspaper's local stylebook (if you have one); a complete set of your 2011-12 newspapers; stuff to write with; a notebook; a dictionary and thesaurus (paperback or online); scissors; a ruler; your talent and passion for doing good journalism (by far the most important!)

Group Instructor

 

Karl Grubaugh, who has an MA in journalism from the University of Missouri, is teacher/adviser of the Gazette student newspaper at Granite Bay High School, where he also teaches Advanced Placement micro- and macroeconomics.

The Gazette has won multiple CSPA Gold and Silver Crowns, NSPA Pacemakers and Quill and Scroll Gallups during Grubaugh's tenure as adviser, and his students have won hundreds of individual awards and scholarships. Grubaugh was named the Dow Jones News Fund National High School Journalism Teacher of the Year in 2008. Currently, he serves as a board member of the Journalism Education Association of Northern California.

In addition to teaching and advising, Grubaugh has professional newspaper experience as a reporter and editor in California and Missouri. He still works an occasional on-call copy editing shift at the Sacramento Bee, and he writes sporadic newspaper and magazine freelance articles.

He and his wife Tanya live in Cameron Park, Calif., with their three children, Lauren, 21 (a UCLA senior in the fall); Connor, 17 (a college freshman somewhere in California, Washington or on the East Coast in the fall); and Garrett, 14 (a high school freshman in the fall).

Quick Downloads

 

Click on the PDF icon to download the class description as a PDF document.

Requirements

• Newspaper's stylebook (if you have one)
• One complete set of your 2011-12 newspapers
• Pens, pencils and erasers
• Notebook
• Dictionary and thesaurus (paperback or online)
• Scissors
• Ruler
• Laptop with Photoshop and InDesign installed
• Working knowledge of all equipment and software