Start a School Newspaper in Middle School

So, you want to start a school newspaper? If you do, then this is the article for you. Starting a school newspaper can be a great learning experience and is an awesome thing to put on a resume in the future as it shows your interviewer your leadership skills and that could very well help land you the dream job for your future. Being part of the school newspaper will give you a good idea on other people you barely know and also it will give you a chance to learn what goes on in the school, that you never know about.

Steps

  1. Make sure you're committed. Starting a school newspaper can be fun, but it's a huge responsibility. Don't bother starting if you're not planning to follow through for the entire year. If you start the newspaper, you will assume the role of the editor. The editors' job is to:
    • Make sure you have the articles in on time (preferably by email).
    • Design the templates for the articles.
    • Format and proofread the articles on your computer to get them ready for printing.
    • Write one article. The editor traditionally writes either the front page or * Sell the newspaper (unless you hire a salesman).
  2. Get approval from the school. Arrange a meeting with your principal to discuss the idea of a school newspaper to bring it to his/her attention. Remember, if they say no, make a compromise.
  3. Assemble a team, and start with a teacher. This is essential for the success of the newspaper. A teacher brings something very important to the party, and that is authority. A teacher is there primarily to help make sure that everyone gets their articles in on time. With a teacher, staff simply feel an obligation to get their articles in. This really makes your job a lot easier. Students in middle school will tend to slack off if not given authority. A teacher not only sees to it that articles are handed in on time, with a teacher around, staff will quit over 80% less. The teacher will also be responsible for printing. Once he/she has the articles, he/she would have to format them onto legal-sized paper and print the copies. It's a big responsibility for one teacher, so I would recommend getting two teachers to split the work. If you can't find a teacher for your newspaper, look for other ways to do it. Two students can run a good school newspaper. You may need to do an online edition on your schools website. The school librarians will probably be happy to help. Your main problem may be teachers who won't allow club meetings to be announced.
  4. Determine how many articles to feature. Typical school newspapers have 12 articles, so I would recommend hiring 11 people to do the articles leaving one for you, and a salesperson, who will be responsible for advertising and selling the newspaper. Some people can pair up to do one article, so you could hire more than 12 people. Try to assign people to their articles in consideration to their personality and responsibility.If you have more applications than you need, meet with your teacher or principal to make a decision together on who will make the staff.
  5. Formatting. Arrange a meeting with all your staff during a recess or after school. Make sure you all exchange emails so when people send you their articles, all you have to do is copy and paste, rather than having to retype the whole newspaper. Also, get your teachers email so you can send him/her the final copy for printing.
  6. Gather ideas for articles. Because most school newspapers have 12 articles, brainstorm 12. Some ideas are: games, colouring contest, short story, horoscopes, advice, random facts, sports, poetry or fashion. Once you have these articles planned out, open a word document and come up with cool titles and layout for your newspaper. You can copy a few things from the internet, but if it has a copyright, make sure to say where you got them from. Save it to the desktop if necessary. Remember the newspaper will go onto legal-sized paper.
  7. Make a schedule of when you will do things for each issue for the entire year. Recommend to your staff that once they hand in their first article, get a head start on their next article because life happens e.g. sickness, vacation, family affairs etc. Also tell them to let you know if they can't get one article in so you can cover for them. Print off the schedule and give it to all your staff members.
  8. Proceeds. Brainstorm at a meeting where the proceeds will go. It could go to somewhere in your school, a local charity or even a staff party at the end of the year. Anything to keep them motivated.
  9. Think about what's appropriate. Use your common sense for what's suitable for a middle school newspaper. Don't print anything hinting on weapons, violence, drugs, or basically anything that's illegal or not fit for middle school.
  10. Printing. If you have your schedule on track, your teacher should be able to print it, but you will have to fold it. Ask for him/her to print 50 copies and if the newspaper is popular enough and you sell out easily, next issue ask for 75 or 100 copies. Go into the office, or wherever your folding site may be, and get going. This shouldn't take to long, maybe 20 minutes to fold all the papers. If you have a large school, print more copies, or do an online edition.
  11. Publicity. You shouldn't have to do very much in this department as long as you have a good salesman. Ask your salesman to start advertising every day a week before sales on the P.A system at your school. Also ask him/her to put up posters of the school newspapers. This way is more permanent and doesn't need to be tended to. Arrange with whoever controls the announcements in your school that your salesman can come in to advertise.
  12. Advertising. To offset the costs of printing, you may need to sell advertising. Advertisers love school newspapers because their audience is very defined (students). Brainstorm some potential advertisers, they should be selling products targeted at students, e.g. Tutors, driving instructors, job postings, cinemas etc... Don't include too many ads (no more than 40%) and intersperse them throughout the publication. Consider adding certain sections to attract advertisers e.g. film reviews for a cinema ad, study tips for a tutor ad.
  13. Sales. Find a certain date, time and place to sell your newspaper. The salesman will also take care of the sales, so all you have to do is find a way to get the newspapers to him/her before they are to go on sale.
  14. Letters to the editor. If you have an advice column or a letters to the editor column, place a shoe box with a hole in it to place the letters in somewhere. Decorate it so it draws more attention, but all you really have to do is indicate that it's for the newspaper. If you get no questions or letters, make a few up. If you follow all these instructions correctly, you should have a a fair newspaper at the end of it all and have fun.

Sample Articles

Doc:Article on High School Sports,Article on Accomplished Student,Article on School Event

Tips

  • Find cool places to post your advertisement posters. Places like above drinking fountains, on doors, essentially everywhere that people go a lot.
  • Arrange monthly meetings in your schedule. This will help your staff stay with it.
  • If you have more applications than you need, meet with your teacher or principal to make a decision together on who will make the staff.
  • If you can't find a teacher for your newspaper, try holding the meeting in the school library. You can do an E-edition and collect articles by email.

Warnings

  • Don't stray from the schedule! This could throw everything off course and be disastrous for the newspaper.
  • Don't under-work or over-work your staff. It may be hard, but eventually you'll get a good idea of how much pressure to put on them.
  • Don't overprice the newspapers. Try 25 cents each. That seems to be the "butter zone" for good sales. If you post online, you don't have to charge anything or pay for anything-try the school website.
  • Don't be that "mean boss" that nobody likes. It doesn't pay.

Things You'll Need

  • One school
  • A good staff
  • Will power

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