Numbers don't lie... It is time
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| Getting your paper online requires you to eat the elephant one bite at a time. |
Armed with these statistics, it is time to face the fact that school newspapers need to be online. According to Kristy Roschke, associate faculty member at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, "It's OK to stumble, and stumble, and stumble until you figure it out."
The first thing you need to do is figure out a plan.
GET ADMINISTRATION ON YOUR SIDE: What better PR tool can you have for the school than to have your newspaper online? If you are met with opposition from your principal, Roschke has some advice, "I told him that we would only publish school-related content just to get started."
FIND A PLATFORM: Choose from the following:
1. issuu.com You upload your pdf's of your newspaper. issuu.com/groups/studentnews. You e-mail, share on Facebook and twitter the link. Each individual staffer should e-mail links to anyone they interviewed and sourced in a story. Make sure to flag your publication for age, to avoid adult content and adult advertising.
2. myhsj.org Hosted by ASNE. They are a professional news organization that does not censor, but they do filter.
3. School Newspapers Online $600 start-up cost and $300 per year. This way you are paying for support. They will be able to help you on a real granular level. If you are already paying to print your paper, it might cost more than using this service, anyway. Keeps from viruses, too. But you are never completely safe, so always back-up. Get into the habit of having a "back-up" day every so often. In the digital world it is hard to not get stung at some point. This site has people who are professional school newspaper advisers. They are also working on mobile options.
4. Wordpress.com is a blogging site. It is free. They host, but they require certain file types and themes are limited. You can pay a nominal fee (around $20) to buy a more sophisticated theme. Themes are explained very clearly on the site.
5. Wordpress.org has the option for adding plug-ins to customize. You must find your own host, but that is very cheap. They must be installed. This is very common in the industry. Many colleges want students to have knowledge of the Wordpress platform. It is incredibly popular. There is a fee, but you can run advertising, and also get credits toward the fee if you give them one of your ad boxes for their own advertising.
6. Joomla - harder to use, but has a mobile option.
7. Drupal - more complicated, but another option.
8. Self-Code/Dreamweaver An easy program to learn, but students must be trained. Once you lose your trained students, you are re-training every single year. You are also the only one to manage. You should have other people who can post and manage.
THINGS NEEDED: a custom domain name (about $10)
A host ($4-$15) per month
TAKE A BITE:
The biggest challenge for start up is mind-set. Change the name of your class to Publications instead of Newspaper. Must have a "post when you can" attitude. Daily updates, does not mean 400 word stories. It means adding content as you go.
SET UP A SITE MAP:
Find a school's website that you like and do that.
JUST DO IT:
Start small and build. Chose a platform and educate yourself and your staff.
Lynda.com has classes on everything (cost $30 per month). Use Web tutorials, local pros. Organize your staff. Generate content. Aim for one piece of new content a day to start. Students must perceive assignments as important. Not everyone needs to do the same task. Give students options of three tasks to do for a season.
*** jeadigitalmedia.org has a Guide to Moving Online.
BE REALISTIC:
Give yourself time. Celebrate your successes - no matter how small. Don't let perfection get in the way of progress. You cannot wait to launch your business until you are finished building it. Send it out, bugs and all. You are blazing new trails and you have to give yourself credit for that.
TRY NEW THINGS:
Keep challenging yourself. Look to successful programs for ideas, web packages, video tie-ins.
PROMOTE:
Make sure you make students promote your publications to EVERYONE! Friends, relatives, EVERYONE. Use email, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, Instagram, District PR. No one else will sing your praises. DO IT ALL THE TIME! The more value you can make for yourself, the more resources you will get, and the safer your program will be from being cut.
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!
Paula Wolfe
Dubuque Senior High School
Dubuque, IA
This is a great summary of this session! Thanks for all the subheads to make it so readable.
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