So last Friday the first issue of the Torch came out. By now, it has probably been erased from your mind, the hard work that we spent months working on. That's okay with me. i just want you to know how much work actually does go into the making of your school newspaper. Next time, on November 11th, think about it as you read through those glossy pages of the redesigned Torch for the 2011- 2012 school year.
It all began on the first day of school. During third period every day for the rest of this year, we would be working with our classmates to produce the best possible publication. So, naturally, we circled up and shared our name, position, grade, and favorite disease. We also introduced, along with a new school year, our new design, website, and a new advisor, Ms. Stacy Hanes-Moore.
Soon after, story ideas were due. During that class period, we circle up again (see a pattern?), and each of us shares at least two of the ten story ideas we came up with to publish in the paper. After everyone has shared two, we open up discussion for any more ideas floating around out there. We want the most, and best possible content for our paper.
The next day we hold court, and editors meeting, and decide which stories will be published in the paper. Left over stories may go on to be published on the website. Click here to check out our website. Story assignments are handed out the day after and i hold a photographers meeting to hand out photo assignments to go with the stories.
During the next few weeks, our writers, photographers, graphic artists and sketch artists wrote their stories, took their photos, created digital art, and sketched their cartoons. . But that wasn't the end of the production cycle.
Once all of the stories, photos, graphics, and cartoons are in, it is up to the editors to put them on the pages. First, they have a mental image of what they would like the pages and spreads (two pages put together) to look like. We then had our managing editor, Jessica Rowan, create the pages.
But before the stories and photos can be placed on a page, they have to be edited. That is where out handy dandy copy editors come in! They look over every story that is submitted in the Torch to make sure there are no grammar or spelling mistakes. Imagine reading every. single. story. at 9 PM. That's what they do.
I edit every single photo that goes into the Torch. Go ahead and flip through yours. There are quite a few photos in there. More than quite a few. There's ALOT. It is my job to tone, cut out, crop, and overall edit every photo so they are fit to print. It takes a long time and a lot of patience.
Now, since all of the photos and stories were done. We went to work session on Wednesday and Thursday. This is where all of the editors take time out of their own day to come into school at 6 PM to work on their pages. We stayed until about 11 each night. But it wasn't all bad! The lovely Mrs. Gilman brought us dinner and we raved it up. Plus, DJ Rachey Rach kept the tunes rollin' so we could work better.
By 11 on Thursday night, pages were done. JK. They were far from it! Jessica, Editor in Chief Rachel Gilman, Feature Editor Allie Sindlinger, and i all came in bright and early Saturday morning to finish up the paper. It is Rachel and Riley Galbraith, the other editor in chief,'s job to make sure the paper is up to par before we send it to the printer.
There is a lot of time and effort that goes into the making of the Torch. And this blog post didn't even cover the half of it. There were small disasters, unfinished stories, lacking content, abominable pages, and not enough issues to boot. But look at the bright side, we also created a snack calendar so a designated person brought a snack every day. That person also tweeted on that day. We call this process Treat and Tweet. It's pretty awesome.
Sarah =]
P.S. Follow us on twitter @Kennedytorch and like us on facebook. Seriously. Do it. And give props to Nick Appleget and Ben Feltes. Have you seen our new podcasts every Friday? They're pretty dope. LAWLZ
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