Advisor to take North Star Media in new direction with online-only publication
The below article ran in the May print edition of the North Star.
Starting next school year, the North Star will be an online-only publication with an increased focus in multimedia programs, as decided by North Star Media Advisor Tara Jewell.
“I know that it’s a hard transition for [journalism students] to make, but I think in the long run it’s what’s best for the program,” said Jewell. “It’s clearly the future of journalism, and I need to prepare my students for the future.”
Current Assistant Journalism Advisor Mitch Martin will be stepping down next year, to be replaced by Ryan Smith of the Communication Arts department. Smith will bring a level of multimedia expertise to the North Star, and expand upon the work the publication has already achieved.
“[Smith] will really focus on helping the kids make their journalism come alive through multimedia presentations,” said Jewell.
Jewell not only hopes to produce more multimedia next year, but more stories as well. She said her goal is to post two to three stories per day on the site. A website re-design is also possible, but not guaranteed.
According to Jewell, she decided to make the leap to online-only for four reasons: class size, recognition, the future of journalism, and a lack of funds.“The first reason I decided to do it is because we have a smaller staff next year, and with a smaller staff than we have this year I don’t think we can do [everything we do] as well as we do it now,” said Jewell.
Her second reason had to do with the National Scholastic Press Association Pacemaker Award won by this year’s online edition. When the North Star was nominated, Jewell recognized the potential the digital world held for the publication.
“I figure it’s a smaller pool of talent [online], and we have a better shot of being a big fish in a small pond,” said Jewell. “We’re on the leading edge of online media because we’re one of the only schools that posts as frequently as we do. I think that gives us an opening to be a literal pacemaker in the field.”
What’s more, Jewell feels the emphasis on design that the print edition requires does not have much relevance to her students’ future careers.
“Unfortunately, they’re all learning how to design pages, and then once they leave they will never lay out a page again,” said Jewell. “We spend a lot of time doing layout and I don’t think that’s real journalism.”
The financial situation of the North Star was the final factor in Jewell’s decision.
“Kids want to sign a petition to save the North Star, but petitions don’t pay for newspapers; subscriptions do. We’re not getting enough subscribers. It’s so expensive; it’s cost-prohibitive,” said Jewell.
According to Jewell, she has been considering this transition for several years and did not take the decision lightly. She spoke with other advisors who had already made the jump to online-only publications, as well as Martin, Activities Director Jennifer Baumgartner, and Principal Kevin Pobst, who supports Jewell’s decision.
“I think your generation of news consumers is oriented toward online electronic communication anyway,” said Pobst. “I think getting your information about school events and issues electronically seems to be appropriate.”
Because of the volume of content that will be posted at all hours next year, Pobst said that he does not plan on continuing the policy of prior review he has established with the print edition. “In a practical world, that just doesn’t make any sense,” said Pobst.
Baumgartner was also in support of Jewell’s decision. Baumgartner even sees the change as an opportunity for an improvement in NNHS activities.“I think it will help Student Activities by getting information out to kids quicker,” said Baumgartner. “I think it supports everything we do.”
She is especially excited about the increase in North Star video content. “I’m really excited about that because that not only helps the newspaper, but the rest of the building as well. We can put that up on the screens we have and broadcast that in the cafeterias as well,” said Baumgartner.
Still, Baumgartner is sad to see the tradition of print go away. “I’m old school, so I’m a newspaper reader myself,” said Baumgartner.
She is not the only one to mourn the passing of the paper. Martin is also upset by the thought of not having a print edition, not only because of tradition, but because he believes it increases the North Star’s readership.
“I think there are more students than people think who read print on their own,” said Martin. “We made some significant progress this year because our students did some really remarkable stuff, but still the impact of the print paper is the primary impact of the paper right now.”
Martin believes that it will be difficult for the North Star staff to predict media trends accurately, and that missing that element will potentially limit the publication’s readers by not being able to capture their attention.
“It’s tough to keep up with this stuff. My prediction is by April next year, some of the things we thought were cutting edge aren’t going to be cutting edge,” said Martin. “Professional papers aren’t sure of what will make the greatest impact, so to expect a student newspaper to be able to do that isn’t realistic.”
Jewell shares his worry concerning a possible decline in readership.
“My biggest concern is that we’re going to put all this work into it, and no one is going to read it. However, we put all this work into the print edition, there are 3,000 kids in the school, and we have under 600 subscribers. So we aren’t breaking any readership records there either,” said Jewell.
Martin understands and appreciates the idea that an online-only edition could be the best direction for journalism students to take in this changing media climate.“I think the bigger benefit is training the students to do something that is more reflective of their immediate futures,” said Martin.
He also agrees with Jewell in that having a more focused staff will produce more quality work. “[Print and online] both have their strengths, but we have to be careful that we’re not doing three things (print, online, and multimedia) poorly, so I understand why we have to move on,” said Martin. “Also, print doesn’t have the immediacy or the flexibility of an online paper. You can’t have everything.”
Current Online Editor-in-Chief Melanie Schnell sees the shift as a gain for the North Star.“I think the North Star will be broader in terms of the media that we use,” said Schnell. “I think you’ll start to see more in-depth stories than we have now.”
Schnell is the third student to run the online edition, but the first to have such an extensive program as to win an NSPA Online Pacemaker. Her hope is that the online edition will expand and become the publication the school needs it to be.
“I hope being online-only helps the school stay current with events, and also fulfills the responsibility of a newspaper in monitoring school and social function,” said Schnell. “I also hope it will create a presence in the community through social media and responsible news coverage next year.”
There is an overall sense of combined sadness at the end of an NNHS and journalistic tradition, and simultaneous look to the future and the new, and in many cases unknown, opportunities the new North Star will facilitate.
“I think it’ll make reporting so much more authentic and so much more exciting,” said Jewell. “I think it will be an exciting challenge. It’s going to be much more fast-pace. It’s not going to be easy, but I think it’s going to be a positive experience.”
Martin also acknowledges the new possibilities. “I think Ms. Jewell is going to continue to work with the students to move closer to the cutting edge of multi-media,” said Martin. “She’s been very strategic and realistic.”
