The Student Newspaper Survival Guide

The Student Newspaper Survival Guide has been extensively updated to cover recent developments in online publishing, social media, mobile journalism, and multimedia storytelling; at the same time, it continues to serve as an essential reference on all aspects of producing a student publication.

• Updated and expanded to discuss many of the changes in the field of journalism and in college newspapers, with two new chapters to enhance the focus on online journalism and technology
• Emphasis on Web-first publishing and covering breaking news as it happens, including a new section on mobile journalism
• Guides student journalists through the intricate, multi-step process of producing a student newspaper including the challenges of reporting, writing, editing, designing, and publishing campus newspapers and websites
• Chapters include discussion questions, exercises, sample projects, checklists, tips from professionals, sample forms, story ideas, and scenarios for discussion
• Fresh, new, full color examples from award winning college newspapers around North America
• Essential reading for student reporters, editors, page designers, photographers, webmasters, and advertising sales representatives

Preface xii

Acknowledgments xiv

1 THE ROLE OF THE STUDENT PRESS 3

TIPS FROM A PRO Susan Goldberg 5

REFLECTIONS OF A COLLEGE NEWSPAPER EDITOR Ed Ronco 9

2 RECRUITING AND TRAINING YOUR STAFF 13

TIPSHEET Training your staff 15

CHECKLIST Planning a training workshop 16

Q&A Miguel M. Morales 18

Appendix 2.A Training exercises 20

3 COVERING A CAMPUS 23

CHECKLIST Covering a beat 27

TIPSHEET How to fi nd story ideas 28

TIPSHEET Covering meetings 35

TIPS FROM A PRO Mike Donoghue 36

4 REPORTING 43

TIPSHEET Student journalists share advice on covering a campus shooting 46

TIPSHEET Evaluating information on the Web 49

TIPSHEET Interviewing 51

CHECKLIST Reporting for accuracy 54

5 NEWSWRITING 57

TIPSHEET Writing ledes 60

TIPSHEET Newswriting 62

CHECKLIST Self-editing 64

6 THE LIFESTYLE PAGES 67

CHECKLIST Profi le writing 69

TIPS FROM THE PROS Debby Herbenick and Jennifer Bass 72

Q&A Josie Roberts 72

7 SPORTSWRITING 77

CHECKLIST The game story 79

Q&A Adam Rubin 86

TIPS FROM A PRO Joe Gisondi 88

8 ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT WRITING 91

Q&A Roger Ebert 93

CHECKLIST Entertainment review 94

TIPS FROM A PRO Sean McCourt 94

Q&A Rob Owen 96

9 OPINION PAGES 99

CHECKLIST The editorial 105

TIPS FROM A PRO Jill "J.R." Labbe 105

Q&A Nate Beeler 108

10 EDITING 111

TIPS FROM A PRO Steve Buttry 114

CHECKLIST Editing a story 118

TIPS FROM A PRO Becky Sher 124

11 INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING 137

TIPS FROM A PRO John Frank 144

TIPSHEET A dozen ways to avoid being burned by a hot story 145

Q&A Matt Waite 147

12 PHOTOJOURNALISM 151

CHECKLIST Photo editing 161

TIPS FROM A PRO Kenneth Kobré 161

CHECKLIST Writing cutlines 164

13 LEGAL ISSUES 167

TIPS FROM A PRO James M. Wagstaffe 169

CHECKLIST Newspaper theft 172

CHECKLIST Legal issues 176

Q&A Student Press Law Center on copyright and fair use 177

14 ETHICAL ISSUES 181

TIPS FROM A PRO Harry Kloman 184

TIPSHEET Dealing with potentially controversial content 191

REFLECTIONS ON AN ETHICAL DILEMMA Joel Elliott 192

15 STARTING A NEW NEWSPAPER 197

Q&A George Srour 203

16 DESIGN AND GRAPHICS 207

CHECKLIST Designing for content 208

TIPSHEET Good page design 211

TIPSHEET Creating a design style guide 214

CHECKLIST Page layout 216

CASE STUDY Anatomy of a newspaper redesign 217

Q&A Emmet Smith 218

17 WEBSITES 223

Newspaper or news organization? 224

CHECKLIST Breaking news shift 225

TIPSHEET Breaking news online 226

TIPSHEET Writing breaking news 230

CHECKLIST The newspaper website 231

TIPS FROM A PRO Jake Ortman 236

18 MULTIMEDIA STORYTELLING 241

TIPSHEET Multimedia reporting 243

CHECKLIST Multimedia equipment 244

TIPSHEET Audio reporting 245

TIPSHEET Shooting video 249

19 SOCIAL MEDIA 257

TIPS FROM A PRO Josh Shannon 263

TIPSHEET Twitter for journalists 265

20 ADVERTISING AND MARKETING 271

TIPS FROM A PRO Kami Hammerschmith 274

Q&A Leigh Sabey 282

APPENDIX 1 Associated Press style cheat sheet 285

APPENDIX 2 Contests for student journalists 289

Index 293

Rachele Kanigel is an Associate Professor of Journalism at San Francisco State University, where she advises Golden Gate [X]press, the award-winning student newspaper, and teaches reporting, writing and new media courses. She has directed summer multimedia study-abroad programs in Italy and France with the Institute for Education in International Media (ieiMedia). Professor Kanigel was a newspaper reporter for 15 years for daily newspapers, including The Oakland Tribune and The News & Observer of Raleigh, NC, and was a freelance correspondent for TIME magazine. In 2006 she was named Journalism Educator of the Year, Four-Year Division, by the California Journalism Education Coalition. Student newspaper production has greatly evolved since the first publication of this book in 2006, with increased emphasis on their Web sites, and many taking a Web-first approach to publishing news and incorporating multimedia storytelling. New delivery devices and technologies for transmitting breaking news now exist, such as microblogging and streaming video from cell phones. Social networking tools have created the opportunity to communicate with readers and to disseminate news in different ways.

This new edition of The Student Newspaper Survival Guide discusses how these rapid technological developments can positively affect the efficiency, effectiveness and creativity of student newspapers. At the same time, it continues to successfully guide student journalists through the intricate process of producing a student newspaper.

Updated features of the second edition include:

• A new chapter on Social Media, including how to make use of Facebook, Twitter, CoveritLive and other tools to report and distribute news
• A new chapter on multimedia that explains the basic concepts of digital storytelling and offers tips on recording audio, shooting and editing video, producing slideshows and creating interactive graphics
• An expanded chapter on websites, including breaking news online
• Fresh, new, full colour examples from college newspapers around North America
  

"Rachele Kanigel is a leader within journalism education. Her survival guide deserves a spot in every journalism classroom and student newspaper newsroom. As I'll be telling my students after assigning them the book: It's not just required reading. It's a must-read."
—Daniel Reimold, University of Tampa

"In more than one college newsroom I've visited, I've seen pages from the Survival Guide taped to walls and tacked to bulletin boards -- and not by advisers but by students. That's when you know you have a good book about student journalism: When the students are reading it without some adult telling them to."
—Michael Koretzky, Florida College Press Association president

"Easy to navigate and full of tips, checklists and examples, I consider this a must-have resource for any student journalist. If I were starting a student newspaper or Web site from scratch, I'd use this guide as a framework."
—Tom Nelson, Director of Student Media, Loyola Marymount University

"Few people address the components of the student newspaper the way Rachele Kanigel does. The Student Newspaper Survival Guide tells student journalists how to cover their campus but has been updated with chapters on using social media and technology to tell those stories. It provides practical resources for students who want to produce a good newspaper and grow as journalists in the 21st century."
—Sally Renaud, Eastern Illinois University

"The Student Newspaper Survival Guide is chock full of great advice, helpful tools and practical examples about all aspects of the student press. From text to visuals, print to online, and writing to editing, this book has it all."
—Rich Cameron, Cerritos College