Credit: Tyra Abraham’14
[pullquote]“We’re looking forward to seeing other papers, and just comparing them and seeing how they’re different so we can improve our paper.” – Carly, Marymount ’15.[/pullquote]
On May 9th, the trailblazing Hewitt Times hosted the first inter-school Journalism Summit. The summit successfully brought together the staffs of 11 New York City independent school newspapers to discuss each school’s publication and hear from distinguished speakers working in the field of journalism.
Each school’s five-minute presentation shed light on categories such as staff size, article content, readership, levels of positions, and publication platforms.
The Collegiate Journal
The Collegiate Journal is a monthly print publication with reporters from grades 9 through 12. The reporters are allotted five days to write as part of the publication process, which also includes generating content, reporting, editing, and figuring out layout. At the beginning of the year, the editorial board (comprised of editor-in-chief, executive editor, managing editor, and layout editor) led a staff-wide meeting along with writing workshops to ease the staff back into writing for The Journal.
This paper focuses more on school-related content rather than current events. Heavy-hitting articles, such as those discussing faculty diversity and the Gay Straight Alliance Club at Collegiate, are balanced out by lighter toned articles discussing what students in the community are up to, assemblies, convocations, and meetings. The paper also has fun extras including Horoscopes and a “Separated at Birth” section.
Credit: The Collegiate Journal’s Powerpoint Presentation
The Daltonian
The Daltonian, a monthly print publication, has a remarkable staff size of 80 students. This large staff is split up into several groups: staff writers, illustrators, photo staff, graphics staff, and the digital business and subscriptions staff. Supporters of The Daltonian can purchase subscriptions, and the revenue from these subscriptions goes towards the annual $20,000 it takes to print the paper. This publication has seven sections, which include Dalton News, Features, Current Events, Arts, Variety, Sports, and Op-Ed. The special feature section is a two to three page spread, handled by the three editors in chief, devoted to a special topic such as sexual health at Dalton. Articles for The Daltonian go through three rounds of student edits before being submitted to the administration to check for any controversial material. At the beginning of the year, new staff writers go through a training process that consists of writing sample articles and completing worksheets; each trainee is also given a mentor for guidance.
process
Credit: The Daltonian Powerpoint
The Riverdale Review
Printed monthly with a span of 12 black and white pages, The Riverdale Review consists of an Opinion section, News, Arts, Sports, and The Back Page, a fun section that explores fads.
The Riverdale Review editors who attended the summit were enthusiastic and open about their publication, sharing some of their concerns and areas of their newspaper on which they would like to improve. For example, they stated that they would like to see more content that relates to Riverdale students published in their paper as well as more controversial articles to improve readership. They also addressed the value of having a print publication. Their staff still physically hands out their newspaper; they feel that students are more likely to read if have something tangible in their grasp. They gave the helpful tip of placing newspapers in places where students are tend to get bored, such as a library, and are therefore more likely to flip through a nearby publication.
Credit: The Review’s Powerpoint
Browning Grytte
“First published in 1897, the Grytte is a student-run newspaper that aims to disseminate current, relevant news throughout the Browning community in a clear exemplary fashion and to reflect the views of the entire student body. Moreover, the Grytte strives to embody The Browning School and to promote its values,” reads The Grytte’s mission statement. Editors of the Grytte shared that the paper is conscious of how they represent Browning; thus, they would like to continue working presenting an authentic representation of life at Browning in their newspaper and avoid simply selling the school.
Some of the Grytte‘s sections include: Browning News, Op-Ed, Sports, and Extras. The Grytte features the writing of boys of all ages, with reporters in grades 5 through 12. Instead of cutting reporters on their staff who are struggling to produce quality work, the editors work with the writers to develop their articles one-on-one. The Grytte is currently only available in print–they put out about four issues per year–they plan to expand to a digital format for the upcoming school year.
The Fieldston News
The Fieldston News has both an online and print presence. For their weekly meeting, the staff uses a professional office space equipped with Macs, a dry erase board, and banners reading The Fieldston News. With a faculty member present only to advise, The Fieldston News has the freedom to publish controversial articles. The staff organizes their articles through the various stages of writing and revision by using Google Doc folders labeled: assignments, 1st edit, 2nd edit, and ready to post. The Fieldston News utilizes social media by tagging people in pictures they post on their Facebook page and encouraging writers to share their own articles online.
The Joritan (Marymount)
The interesting name of this publication is the result of combining the names of two of Marymount’s founders. The Joritan is a combination of print and online, although the print format gets more recognition around their school. The 21 members on The Joritan staff publish six to eight issues per year. The editorial staff on the paper include editors in chief, website editor, news and layout editor, and photography editor. There are two faculty moderators who read each article to add any last comments. The last line of review for this newspaper is Marymount’s Dean of Students, who reads each article to gage their appropriateness; this dean can ultimately eliminate some articles from being printed or posted. A few of The Joritan‘s sections are News, Opinion, and Sports; a fun add-on is the Overheard Comments section, where students’ words in casual conversation can end up in print.
The Horace Mann Record
The Horace Mann Record is a weekly publication with both print and online platforms. The Record has a staff of 17 editors as well as about 60 consistent writers.
The Record, reserves Thursday nights at Horace Mann for press nights, where editors lay out the paper into hours that can creep into the early morning. The sections include Arts & Entertainment, Middle Division, Features, and Opinion. Their News section tends to concentrate on Horace Mann related events. For their Sports section, For the editors send a reporter who is specifically not an athlete to practice with a team for an inside look.
Credit: The Record’s Powerpoint
The Zephyr (Brearley)
With a name that means ‘west wind,’ The Zephyr runs on a 28-day production schedule to write, edit, incorporate media, and receive approval for their articles. Issues are printed monthly and eventually uploaded online in a PDF form. The Zephyr‘s main reason behind sticking primarily to a print publication is the accessibility this platform offers to the Brearley community.
The writers receive instruction in journalism at the beginning of the year, and the sections that they can write for include News, Brearley, Features, Reviews, and Sports. Zephyr writers must be cognizant of the three strike system used to make sure that they meet deadlines; after failing to meet a deadline three times, the writer is asked to leave the staff. Positions above writers include the editor-in-chief, layout editor, photo editor, and managing editor. In weekly meetings, the staff discusses possible articles while munching on some snacks to keep everyone in good spirits, according to their editor-in-chief.
The Dragon (Trevor Day)
The Dragon is currently a print publication because the editors agree that print best increases readership in the Trevor Day School community. However, with the difficulty of formatting a print publication, The Dragon staff is interested in transitioning online. The four issues that are published per year contain articles in the Op-Ed, Sports, Strictly Trevor, and News sections.
Credit: The Dragon Staff
The Spence Voice
The Spence Voice lives up to its name by focusing on news that is relevant to members in the Spence school community. This paper aims to share news stories that only their publication might write about, as opposed to more objective current events pieces that could covered by plenty of other news sources, for example. The sections of this paper include Features, Opinion, and Entertainment. Their Sports section features a nutrition column by a PE teacher, and their Political Column features one student who identifies as a Republican and another student who identifies as a Democrat who argue their political views on a given topic. The Spence Voice flips the script by giving the school a report card on areas of Spence life, such as temperature regulation. At editorial meetings, the staff brainstorms articles, and there is a monthly Saturday meeting for layout.
Credit: The Spence Voice Powerpoint
We were privileged to have two guests who have established themselves in the field of journalism speak at the Journalism Summit:
Credit: Tyra Abraham’14
Taylor Trudon, Huffington Post Teen Deputy Editor and Erica Futterman, Managing Editor of Buzzfeed. Both Trudon and Futterman share a love of music and writing, but what all the student journalists in the room had in common with them is a start in journalism by writing at the high school level.
The Hewitt Times Journalism Summit opened up an inter-school conversation by creating a forum for sharing ideas about journalism and collective advancement in writing at the high school level. We intend to host another Journalism Summit next year and hope that all of our peer-school publications in attendance this year return!