At their March 8 meeting, The Spartan Speaks staff edited pages of the print edition in preparation for publication, and they signed up for articles , photos and illustrations for the next edition.
Since 2007, Orono High School has had a student newspaper. The paper had been in existence before, but had been cut from 2003-2007 due to budget cuts, but Orono has been able to bring back both the journalism classes and also the newspaper.
“As long as I see that thirst for information…[Orono] should always have a paper,” said Kyle Ann Herring, English teacher and adviser of the newspaper.
According to the Daily Press, “A newspaper … keeps students informed, motivates them to read and makes reading interesting.” Not only does a newspaper make reading interesting, but it also has many categories of articles to appeal to students.
“If a story is interesting to a kid, they’re going to read it, and if it’s not, they’re not. Not everybody is interested in the fiscal cliff,” Herring said.
“I don’t read every single article, but I’ll read the ones that interest me and I’ll skim all the other articles in the newspaper,” sophomore Elizabeth Maddock said.
The Spartan Speaks staff, who are all students attending OHS, are in charge of finding those interesting stories. At monthly meetings, staff will get together to brainstorm story ideas and plan for the next edition of the paper. This includes ideas for audiovisual stories that appear solely on the newspaper website.
Not everyone on the newspaper staff has participated in a journalism class, however. That is a common misconception among students, co-editor in chief Maddie Mayhew said.
According to Herring, “Any student who wants to be part of [the newspaper] can be, regardless of whether they have been in journalism or not.”
Whenever a student joins, they are helped to succeed by the editors. Mayhew said of new staff, “We’re not throwing you to the wolves. You can definitely start with what you are most comfortable with.”
On The Spartan Speaks staff, there are roles for every student, whether they are interested in photography, layout design, editing, drawing, marketing, or writing.
Staff members admitted that there are challenges to creating the best newspaper they can. One of those challenges are the long nights around publication time. Co-editor in chief Taylor Peterson said that to get the paper ready and sent to the publisher, “some nights I will stay until 7:30 p.m.”
Some on the newspaper staff have said that they struggle with making deadlines. This is a common challenge, but one students strive to overcome.
“Not having [work] in when it should be causes stress for the other members,” Zach Wagner-Lund.
Yet they are still faithful on sending the edition for publication and into the hands of the students. Mayhew said she is proud when students are eager to get and read the newspaper.
Herring said, “There is just something special about having that physical paper and the excitement I see in the staff when they get to hand it out. You can’t take that away from them.”
Haven Torgerson is a Staff Reporter for The Spartan Speaks.