To Publish or Not

Last year, I made it my mission to get my school's newspaper online.  I explored several options and then made a decision to work with schoolnewspapersonline.com.  By the end of the first nine weeks, we had a shiny new website, www.theboltonpawprint.com.  We worked hard to keep it updated throughout the year.  I was excited about the cool things we could do with the site, such as post video, work with polls, and stream podcasts.  It really looked like the greatest use of our (very limited) resources.  There was just one drawback:  the students hated posting to it.  They did not like leaving the comfort of our printed paper.  They loved having a physical copy in their hands, loved being able to show something to their friends and family.  More importantly, they loved the design aspect of creating a newspaper, and I must admit this was an area where our little paper excelled.  They did not want to go online.  One of my best students even threatened to quit the staff if we did not publish.  I walked the line all year of trying to urge our content online while still publishing a paper that was gaining each month in cost.  But even as I did this, part of me was sad.  I did not want to see the end of watching my students complain that the ink was staining their fingers.  As I was forcing the issue, I was also scared of change.

I say all of this because yesterday as we were listening to Dylan Smith, I once again struggled with the issue.  Print might be dead in the "real" world, but does that mean it needs to be dead in a small high school setting?  Do we have to lose the physical over the virtual in order to keep up with current trends?  I am not suggesting that the Internet is a fad. I realize where we are.  But should we totally do away with the paper itself?  And if we do go online only, will the loss of the physical paper mean our journalism class will become less visible.  At least when I see scattered copies of our paper on the hall or cafeteria floors I know someone looked through it, if only for a moment.

We published nine issues last year, and worked to keep our website up with current content and photos.  I am moving to only publish five issues this year, with monthly (and weekly, if needed) original content on the web.  For those of you who also have a website, do you publish a paper too?  Is it silly to keep holding on to it?  Please let me know what you think about this issue.

I am including a short film that a student of mine made about our class this year.  It won 1st place in the TN High School Journalism awards for a documentary.  I am quite proud of it.  I hope you enjoy.

Kelly Robinson