MUB 156

Pulitzer review

2011-04-26T02:46:00.002-04:00

For purposes of this exercise, I'll focus on the Pulitzer Prize won by the Chicago Sun-Times for local reporting after the series that they produced looking into crime in Chicago. After scanning and reading all of the stories and looking at some of the photographs, so many different aspects jumped out at me – and above all else, that is a huge part of winning a Pulitzer Prize. Many organizations are able to produce stories that are gripping once or in one area, but these stories were focused on a wide variety of topics, but honed in masterfully on the Windy City and some of the major problems that Chicago is facing.

The stories that sticks out most were the two about people in this culture not wanting to ‘snitch’ and tell police who some of the criminals were despite knowing who they were. The best one, which looked at one boy who was shot and as he way dying, a police officer asked who shot him to which he replied “I ain’t telling you s**t.” The personal story that this piece had is something that I remember and I think that is one of the best compliments that a story can have – it was memorable.

The crime that takes place in a large city like Chicago is newsworthy for some many reasons. But the Sun-Times went about it a different way and was rewarded for that. They benefited local readers with stories that the local readers actually cared about. In the package that won the award, it seemed like there were numerous cosmic moments. There was the line of the boy that wouldn’t talk to police. There was the line that all of the shooters from a giant shoot-up escaped charges. This package encompassed so many things which is really what drove the project to be so good.

While the stories didn’t necessarily follow a different style, they certainly carried a more relaxed voice and feel to them. For example, one story opens up with the words “This is the story of … “ That seems like an odd and ultra relaxed lead, but with this project, the writer made it work. The biggest thing, though, that took this series to the next level, was how close the writers and photographers were able to get to every aspect of this crime scene in a large cities. They followed police, doctors and families. The Sun-Times did an outstanding job with this project reporting on the local news that Chicago residents want to read.

Chillin'

2010-10-22T00:12:00.002-04:00

We pride ourselves on plenty here in the newsroom, but something I feel particularly competitive about during the long hours in MUB 156 is my ability to select the most appropriate tune on YouTube to keep myself and my fellow news, design, sports and executive editors motivated.

True- we sometimes disagree on things around here. Some of us like country (ugh). Some of us like old school rap. Some of us are too indie to function (content editor Amanda Beland also DJ's for WUNH). Some of us are really, really, ridiculously obsessed with the new Mike Posner song.

Okay, that last one was me- but it's only because I have a crush on Mike Posner.

But we have those staple songs that everyone loves- Cee Lo Green's "Fuck You", Hall and Oates "Make My Dreams Come True", Biggie's "Juicy" and The Rolling Stones' "Beast of Burden" are almost always played on repeat.

Our picks aren't always the same, but we do have some overlap in our taste for tunes. And that's similar to the way we run our newsroom. We're pretty different people, with wildly different opinions. We love discussion (and, sometimes, drama). But at the end of the day, we compromise and overlap, throw all our creative ideas out there, and sometimes it turns it to something pretty good.

Although not as good as UB40'S "Red, Red Wine."

Columnists Wanted

2010-08-07T09:45:00.003-04:00

Do you have an opinion? Want to put it out there?

Then we want you.

The New Hampshire is looking to add a few columnists to our pages for the upcoming semester. Columns can be about any number of topics but should have a particular focus (state politics, pop culture, etc), one that can be revisited on a (preferably) weekly or bi-weekly basis. Columns can be either serious or humorous in tone.

Opinion pieces have always been a part of newspapers. We want thick-skinned columnists interested in facilitating discussion in topics important to our readership. We aim to represent a myriad of views, so we're particularly interested in people with political views or ideologies that they feel are currently underrepresented in the paper.

If interested, send an email to tnh.editor@unh.edu with your name, contact info, and column idea. A sample column or two will be necessary before bringing you on board. The first regular issue of The New Hampshire comes out September 10.

The Princeton Review Ranks UNH

2010-08-02T14:38:00.004-04:00

The Princeton Review today released the results of their 2010 survey of 122,000 college students, which rank the country's top 373 colleges in dozens of categories.

Let's just say that it's pretty safe to say that UNH isn't going to be releasing a press release for this one. Here's the lowdown on UNH, according to the Princeton Review (Note: Links may require logging in to princetonreview.com):

#3 "Little Race/Class Interaction"
#3 "Lots of Beer"
#17 "Professors Get Low Marks"
#4 "Town-Gown Relations are Strained"

However, UNH did get named a "Best Northeastern College" (the bad news: there were 218 of them)

Of course, the category that gets the most attention, both at UNH and around the country, is the "Top Party Schools." But UNH, which ranked #7 in 2007 and #11 in 2008 before falling off the list last year, failed to make a return.

Instead, the University of Georgia took the top spot, with Ohio University-Athens and Penn State (last year's #1) rounding out the top three. Here's the complete list (no logging in necessary).

What do you think? Did UNH get snubbed, slammed, or is this just the painful truth? Start the conversation in the comments below.

Summer!

2010-05-23T13:45:00.003-04:00

We'll be back in late August.

TNH alumna honored by Basketball Hall of Fame

2010-05-13T16:19:00.003-04:00

Why did this have to be announced after TNH's final issue had gone to press?

Jackie MacMullan will be honored in August with the Basketball Hall of Fame's Curt Gowdy Media Award. The awards are presented to members of the media who have made a significant contribution to basketball. Read more in the Boston Globe.

TNH loves Jackie MacMullan because not only did she graduate from UNH in 1982, but she was also on our editorial staff during her time here.

As such, we've written about her several times. So instead of a new article on her upcoming award, we'll refer you to some of those.

Most recently, we have "Globe columnist, ESPN contributor, returns to UNH with new book," which was written in November by Brandon Lawrence, currently one of two sports editors. Not surprisingly, this is my favorite part (Note: MacMullan played on the basketball team at UNH):

“Are you kidding?” MacMullan said. “When people ask me ‘what do you remember most about UNH,’ it really isn’t the basketball team, it’s working at The New Hampshire and how much I learned from that, and being up all night and deadlines.”

Here are a couple other stories we've written on MacMullan.

From Jan. 2009: "Looking at the outliers: Seeds of success planted early for Jackie MacMullan"

From 2008: "UNH alumna, Jackie MacMullan, model of integrity and success"

From 2006: "Veteran Globe reporter talks sports at UNH"

Congratulations to Jackie!

(Photo by TNH's Mike Ralph, November 2009)

TNHers take home English Department awards

2010-05-12T16:02:00.002-04:00

Last week, UNH's English Department held its annual student awards and scholarship ceremony and, as we did last year, we'd like to recognize our staff members who took home some hardware.

Former Executive Editor Cameron Kittle won the Laura Rice Journalism Award, which is given to a senior journalism student in recognition of outstanding reporting and writing over the course of his or her career at UNH.

Staff Writer Michaela Christensen received the Michael Kelley Memorial Scholarship, awarded to a sophomore or junior who possesses high initiative and energy and demonstrates exceptional journalistic potential.

News Editor Geoffrey Cunningham received the Theodore "Tad" Ackman Journalism Scholarship, awarded in recognition of excellence in the English/Journalism major.

Former Staff Writer Danielle Curtis received the Donald Murray Memorial Scholarship, which is awarded to an English/Journalism major who has demonstrated a passion for nonfiction storytelling.

TNH has been privileged over the past year to have these four contribute their skills to our publication. We couldn't have done it without you. Congratulations to all the winners.

Year in Review: The Features We Wish We Could Have Included

2010-05-07T13:14:00.004-04:00

Due to space limitations, the "Year in Review" section, which was included in Friday's issue of TNH, is basically limited to the top news stories of the year. (The one exception was our bondage story, which was included because it was probably our most talked-about article of the year). The focus on hard news makes sense, because we want the Year in Review section to prompt students to look back at what made this year exciting and notable.

But every year, a number of interesting feature stories grace our pages as well. These stories take an in-depth look at the interesting people, businesses, and stories present within the UNH community. They also allow for a little more creativity on the part of the writer. We'd like to recognize some of our top feature stories of the year below.

Best investigative feature:
Busted: Alcohol Policy at UNH
(Published October 16)

Best local twist on an international story:
Fault friendly? History shows New England not immune to earthquakes
(Published January 29, our first issue back after winter break, which had been dominated by news of the earthquake in Haiti)

Best profile of a faculty member:
Poly-sci professor inspring...just don't touch his hat
(Published May 4)

Best profile of a student:
Finding a way to pay
(Published November 20)

Best profile of a business (tie):
Celebrating 50 years with Town and Campus
Newmarket coffee shop threatened by economy
(Both published on February 19, interesting enough)

Best campus life feature
Loving lounge life: freshmen reluctant to move out
(Published September 18)

Newsroom Candid

2010-05-05T22:53:00.002-04:00

9 pm Wednesday. Managing Editor Chad Graff takes photos of some of our issues from this past year for tentative inclusion in Friday's "Year in Review" section.

Year in Review: Your Input Wanted

2010-05-05T09:40:00.002-04:00

Every year in our last regular issue of the year, The New Hampshire includes a special section entitled "Year in Review" in which we take a look back at some of our top stories from the year.

That being said, today is Wednesday, we put the paper together tomorrow night, and we have no idea what our top stories have been. So we are now taking your votes.

What were the top news stories of the year, the ones that were the talk of the campus? What did you think were our best feature stories and profiles?

We're pretty sure that bondage will make it in there, since...yeah. Oh, and stolen newspapers. Gotta get the stolen newspapers in.

Other than that, let us know!

You can put me in a category with the Albany Times-Union and Peter King

2010-04-29T15:52:00.002-04:00

As anyone who follows this blog knows, Tuesday was a crazy, yet exciting and incredibly interesting day at The New Hampshire. Tuesday's are pretty much our days off, at least for the office staff that works Monday's and Thursday's to put the paper together. But in association with UNH athletics, this was the busiest news day that I, and possibly even Chad and Tom, had encountered in our collegiate journalism careers.

What happened was this: former UNH tight end Scott Sicko decided (originally) that he was not going to sign an NFL free-agent contract after going undrafted in the 2010NFL Draft, despite receiving contract offers from five teams. I wrote a story about it, for those who weren't aware and didn't look at the front page of Tuesday's TNH issue. Now keep in mind that this was a big deal, and made national headlines on Yahoo.com, FOXsports.com and on College Gameday Live on ESPN. Peter King, Sports Illustrated's NFL writer, wrote about it in one of the weekly issues. Sicko was famous strictly because he turned down the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

When Sicko turned down the five offers (submitted by the Chargers, Chiefs, Cowboys, Jaguars, and Jets) he had the nation in his face criticizing him. But the only publications and reporters that contacted Sicko were the Albany Times-Union (his hometown newspaper), Peter King of Sports Illustrated and myself. I called Scott on Sunday night and got a quick phone interview with him, and he was very gracious and complied and answered my questions thoroughly. When I asked him if there was any chance he would change his mind, he said, "None. I've made my decision."

It was around 12:45-1 p.m. when I received a text message from Chad Graff, the Managing Editor at TNH. I opened his message to find, "Sicko signed with the Cowboys." I sort of laughed it off and texted him back, saying that I knew he was joking because I had talked to Scott just two nights prior. I got one back that said "I'm completely serious, there are reports everywhere online." I swore a few times and sprinted back to my room down the hall to check for myself. Sure enough, the first thing on Google was labled, "Sicko signs agreement with Cowboys."

To make it even worse, Huffinton Post also featured my story on their website, which means national exposure.

I didn't know what to do. I texted and called everyone I knew that might have some insight for me, including my co-Sports Editor, Zack Cox. When I calmed down and realized that this wasn't going to kill my journalism career (I may have overreacted a little) I began planning my moves to approach this.

After Chad called me and told me that his boss from the Union Leader wanted him to write the story for their site, I decided to write up a small press release and throw it up online. So I did, thus completing the first step to my plan, although I managed to temporarily destroy the sports page at tnhonline.com. Chad called me back, saying he was at the field house and waiting to hear back from the football team to see if they had practice. If not, then we could talk to UNH head coach Sean McDonnell. If they did have practice, we would have to wait until 7 p.m.

They had practice. I found this out after I sprinted to the Field House too. I should mention that it was raining, which adds to the effect somewhat.

Chad and I casually walked back to the TNH office at the MUB, where we hung out and wrote essays that were due within the next 24 hours while we waited for seven o'clock to roll around. When we went back over to the Field House, we got our interview with coach McDonnell, who is always a very helpful source. But Scott wasn't there, and his quotes meant the most to our stories.

After another cold and rain-soaked walk back to the MUB, we finished our stories minus the Sicko quotes. When it was 8 p.m. I gave him a call, and the three of us teleconferenced until we had all the information needed to complete our stories.

When I talked to the Scott Stapin, the SID for football, earlier, he said that Sicko had appeared on the Dallas Morning News, as well as several radio stations in Dallas. Those media outlets aside, Chad and I (and Peter King) had the only solid stories that Sicko was headed to the NFL. I don't think I need to mention, it felt awesome.

It was pleasing to say that we could be put in the same category as the Albany Times-Union and Peter King.

But one conversation I had with Chad really struck me as we were walking back from one of our trips to the Field House. We talked about how great it would have been if this was out only job. Imagine if neither of us had to write essays or attend class. If our only focus was on getting the story. I can safely say for both of us that sports is our passion. We didn't feel as though this were a chore; we wanted to be doing this because we enjoyed it.

That day taught me a lesson. What I'm doing for TNH right now, including with Wildchats on WUNH and SCAN TV, is exactly what I want to be doing after college. I've already found my dream job; now it's all about the practice I receive for the future.

TNH makes Barstool

2010-04-28T23:34:00.008-04:00

Whether you like the popular Boston-based blog Barstool Sports or not (and there doesn't seem to be much middle ground on that issue), you have to agree that it is something of a regional force on the web. As evidence of that last point, you could read this recent article in The Maine Campus, the student newspaper of the University of Maine, which notes the site's growing readership at that institution.

Why are we referencing an article from UMaine? Well, maybe because when they visit the site, they'll find themselves reading The New Hampshire.

That's right. On Tuesday, in addition to getting our stories about Scott Sicko featured on Huffington Post's college section, one of our regular columnists got called out on Barstool in a post entitled "Anonymous UNH Student Calls Me a Cry Baby in Student Newspaper."

Now this is the point in the post where we note that as a columnist, The New Hampshirite's views are strictly his own and do not represent the official views of The New Hampshire or its staff. But we are content to sit back and watch the rise in page views that it gave TNHonline.com on Tuesday.

If you missed it, you can read The New Hampshirite's original column on TNHonline. It was mostly about SCOPE and MUSO, two on-campus organizations that book concerts, and what students think of them, but it did call the author of Barstool Sports-Boston a "crybaby" (one word, not two; we actually looked that up in the newsroom to make sure we had the correct usage).

Our advice: read both the article and the post, and get on one side of the fence or the other.

How College Publisher, Scott Sicko, and the Huffington Post totally made my day as executive editor

2010-04-28T09:16:00.005-04:00

TNHonline.com as it looks at 7:08 pm on April 27, 2010. But, as today exemplified, you never know when it might change.

If you didn't think that TNH staff members put in long hours, consider this: Yesterday (Tuesday), after putting together the 48th issue of The New Hampshire with the rest of TNH’s staff, I (Thomas Gounley, the new executive editor of TNH) got barely any sleep, battled with College Publisher to figure out how to fix the paper’s website, and found out that one of the lead stories in today’s issue was completely obsolete two hours after the issue came out around campus.

And it goes down as one of the best days of my life. College Publisher, Scott Sicko, and the Huffington Post’s College section totally made my day.

Here’s how it happened:

We finished the paper at 2:15 a.m. last night (aka- this morning), a fairly respectable time. I stayed in the newsroom finishing a paper for a class until 3:30 a.m., then returned to my dorm and slept from 3:45 a.m. to 6:15 a.m. I woke up, showered and was back in the newsroom at 7:03 a.m. I spent the next two hours finishing some other projects that were also due in my morning classes in addition to attempting to figure out how to fix TNH’s website, which was warped for some reason that was unknown to me at the time.

I had classes from 9:40 to noon. At noon, I returned to the newsroom and put in two calls to representatives from College Publisher, which hosts the website for TNH along with dozens of other college newspapers. After a while of toying around with the website, things were back to normal. It turns out that the code for one of our articles was wrong, which was throwing off the whole site. Given that TNH’s web presence is critical to our non-UNH-based readers, I was glad things were all set.

Now you need to know a little about what exactly is contained in the 48th issue of The New Hampshire (the 4th issue I’ve been in charge of as executive editor). On the front page, we have a story about former UNH tight end Scott Sicko turning down free-agent offers from five NFL teams to focus on graduate school. It’s a story that got national attention; it was the lead story on yahoo.com the other day. Traditionally, the sports section comprises the final three pages of TNH, but I decided to pilfer the Sicko article (along with an article about two former UNH players who did sign with NFL teams) to put on the front. It’s not often that UNH football is national news.

So around noon I (as @thenewhampshire) tweeted Huffington Post’s College section suggesting they consider the article (which was written by Brandon, one of our sports editors) for the site. (If you don’t haven’t checked out the section before, it covers college-related news, a lot of which comes from college newspapers through partnerships they’ve made with the papers). The exchange went like this:

@huffpostcollege Former UNH tight end Scott Sicko passing over NFL offers seems like perfect fit for you guys http://bit.ly/9LrzAd

@thenewhampshire you’re right! thanks!

I was pumped. The New Hampshire has only had one other story that was featured on the section, so it’s a rare privilege. Though I hadn’t written the story, I felt that it being featured said something positive about the paper and our staff, and that was good enough for me. I sort of felt like a grandparent that is proud of their grandchild. I hadn’t actually done much to contribute to the article’s success, but, indirectly maybe I had. Between that and getting the website all figured out, I felt like I'd put in a solid day; I was happy.

I spent another hour and a half in the newsroom finishing a paper for an English (yeah, occasionally we do things that actually relate to our classes), approving comments on TNHonline.com, and doing general editorial tasks.

When I went to lunch at 2 pm, I thought the storm had passed. It turns out it hadn’t even begun.

After lunch, I turned on my computer in my dorm room and what do I see? SCOTT SICKO CHANGED HIS MIND AND DECIDED TO SIGN AS A FREE AGENT WITH THE DALLAS COWBOYS!

I was stunned; I hadn’t seen that coming at all. Our sports editor had just talked to Sicko yesterday for the story that was on the front of TNH (we’re pretty sure that only he and a reporter for the Albany Times-Union, Sicko’s hometown paper, actually talked to him about his original decision to refuse the NFL offers; other newspapers around the country just quoted what he told the Times-Union), and he hadn’t said a thing about signing with the Cowboys. And now the front page of the paper, which had just appeared in print form across the campus starting two hours earlier, had a story that was obsolete.

Oh, did I mention that Huffington Post-College had gotten around to putting TNH’s original article story up on their site?

Yep, front page and center. No big deal. Here’s the actual article (including the shout-out to TNH):

As I conferred with our sports editor via facebook chat, I updated TNH’s facebook and twitter accounts with the breaking news. This went on @thenewhampshire‘s twitter at about 2:50 p.m.

BREAKING NEWS: Scott Sicko changes mind, signs free-agent deal with cowboys after all #UNH

I checked Huffington Post College again, and they still had the old story up. So I alerted them to the development (It turns out that they already knew and just hadn’t gotten the page totally updated yet, but I figured it was the least I could do). That led to this exchange:

@huffpostcollege Ah, the nature of the news. UNH’s Scott Sicko changed mind, just signed free-agent deal with Cowboys.

@thenewhampshire we can’t believe it!

@huffpostcollege We def didn’t see that coming. And now we have 5000 copies of TNH that appeared on campus two hours ago that are obsolete.

@thenewhampshire ha! one more strike against print.

By that time, the article was updated on the Huffington Post. (And yes, I took screen shots as this all happened. It seemed like a day that was going to turn into a blog post. Plus, I wanted records of our brief glory to be preserved for posterity.) Here is the updated story and page from them:

Unfortunately, the original article was still the lead story on tnhonline.com. It was 3 pm, and I had class at 3:30 pm. So I ran to the newsroom and updated the headline and teaser on the main page to reflect Sicko’s signing. Brandon said he would piece together an initial report and he put that on the website while I was in class. (It got out at five. Those were some of the longest minutes of my life). When I joined him in the newsroom, we updated facebook and twitter with his new report. He’s currently meeting with the football team to expand the coverage so we can get a full report on the website later tonight(it will also run in the paper this Friday).

Which means that it is now 7 p.m. I have been up for 16 hours today, and the vast majority of that has been in the newsroom. Nevertheless, this has probably been one of the most exciting days of my life. From finally understanding some of the inner workings of College Publisher to the excitement upon hearing that we’d have a story up on Huffpo to Brandon and I simultaneously freaking out on facebook chat to sending out ten billion updates as The New Hampshire on facebook and twitter (which is soooooo much fun) to UNH being in the national spotlight, its been a solid day.

At first I was annoyed with Scott Sicko for making TNH obsolete after being out for two hours. But hey, that’s what the website is for, right?

So thank you, Scott Sicko. Thank you, College Publisher. Thank you, Huffington Post. You guys completely made my day.

11 p.m. update: Brandon managed to contact Sicko and got a complete story together, which we put online an hour or so ago. Mad props to him for everything he’s done today as we scrambled to cover the breaking news. It really was The New Hampshire at its finest.

Note: This is adapted from a blog post that originally appeared on the executive editor's personal blog.

TNH Staff: Academic Year 2010-2011

2010-04-27T20:33:00.003-04:00

April 14 was the changing of the guard at The New Hampshire, the day on which the new staff, the staff that will preside over the paper until April 2011, took over. Now that we're four issues in and looking to bring back MUB 156, the newsroom blog, we thought we'd take the time to recognize the editorial staff of the paper for the next year.

Executive Editor- Thomas Gounley
Managing Editor- Chad Graff
Content Editor- Amanda Beland

News Editors
Mallory Baker
Geoffrey Cunningham
Kerry Feltner

Design Editor- Annie Sager

Sports Editors
Brandon Lawrence
Zack Cox

Arts Editor- Ellen Stuart

Staff Writers
Alexandra Churchill
Justin Doubleday
Samer Kalaf
Matthew Laurion
Krista Macomber
Gregory Meighan
Julia Miller

Staff Photographers
Tyler McDermott
Erica Siver

Farewell, TNH

2010-04-12T17:18:00.003-04:00

TNH's office takes up one corner of the Student Org Complex. It's made up of a couple of computer clusters, a refrigerator, and a few couches. A gray partition separates the newspaper from the other orgs, lined with issues we've proudly assembled on a semi-weekly basis for the past school year.

The electronics, hum of the printer, and printed sheets of paper can seem cold, almost impersonal at times. But the people are colorful, vibrant, intelligent, and quirky. And on Monday and Tuesday nights, we're, well...we're family.

The long hours I've spent in the newsroom have been some of the most wonderful, interesting, boring, painful, surprising, intellectual times of my life. We have a language, a rhythm. There's something strange that unites us all. We click.

Tonight is my last production night at TNH. It's also the last official night for Executive Editor Cam Kittle, Managing Editor Nate Batchelder, News Editor Tori Lewis, and Layout Editor Chris Hawkins. The times, I guess, are a changing. Thanks Bob Dylan.

I remember shaking then Assigning Editor Steve Bodnar's hand my sophomore year, figuring I better publish a few articles, since I was taking an intro newswriting class. I had no idea the two and a half years later I'd be the one assigning stories, on the prowl for Durham's latest, trying to entice people to step into our basement office for maximum coverage.

John Wayne showed us the ropes last year. This past year, we only hoped to improve upon what he did. We started a beat system, doubled our number of contributors, increased online traffic by 50 percent with our updated web site, and tried to make TNH speak UNH's language. You know, be more representative of the student body.

Our newspapers were tossed into the trash last fall (I cried), we caught the people with security cameras and were featured on WMUR, the Union Leader, and Fox News (I smiled), we covered UNH's own bondage club, the unusual number of assault-induced Clery Act news releases, and made it to a convention in Austin, Tx.

Yet, that's only a fraction of what I've experienced within the cardboard cubicles of TNH. Sure, it's good for the career, great on the resume. But what I've learned from the people here will stay with me forever. I think I ran on pure passion for most of the time at TNH - finding the 20-plus hours a week for the paper on top of the 20-plus hours and weekend competitions for UNH's gymnastics team. I came to UNH for gymnastics. But through TNH, I found a reason to stay.

I can't wait to see what Tom, Amanda, and Chad do with the paper. A new era is about to start, while another chapter is ending, for many of us. I wish the new staff all the best.

And for all TNHers two years ago, last year, and this year: thanks for everything.

New semester, New ideas??

2010-01-10T13:46:00.002-05:00

Hi guys, I hope everyone is enjoying their winter break. The J-term is upon us here in Durham, and there are actually some signs of life on the UNH campus, unusual for this time of year.

This semester, we want to hear more from you, the readers. Is there a story, person, place, thing, sport, you think is newsworthy? Anything unusual? Cool? Compelling?

The Olympics are coming up - anything specific you want about that? (UNH Women's Hockey has some representation this year...)

Is there MORE of anything you want covered? Economy-related things? Anthrax scare follow-ups? Travel? (we never did get that C&J Trailways article out last semester...)

Any noteworthy majors? How about the nightlife? Business profiles? Sustainability specifics? Government scoop?

We're always open to ideas. Email us at tnhstaff@gmail.com for news tips. And let's open the spring semester in style.

TNH Writers, By the Numbers

2009-12-07T14:58:00.005-05:00

Here are the latest figures for staff and contributing writers for the first semester, as of Dec. 8, 2009 (one issue remaining)..

Staff Writers:

Amanda Beland: 25
Brandon Lawrence: 24
Kerry Feltner: 22
Thomas Gounley: 19
Danielle Curtis and Chad Graff: Tied at 18
Alexis Macarchuk: 17
Mallory Baker: 16
Brittney Murray: 15
Michaela Christensen: 14
Amanda Flitter: 13
Geoffrey Cunningham: 12
Samer Kalaf: 11
Dustin Luca: 10

Contributing Writers:

Ellen Stuart: 9
Alexandra Churchill: 8
Chris McCandlish: 8
Krista Macomber: 8
Jake Nevrla: 7
Justine Elliott: 6
Kurt Zielinski: 6
Erin Cavanaugh: 5
Ryan Hartley: 5
Kyle LaFleur: 5

Through 25 issues (one remaining in the semester):

Total Number of Contributors: 74
Total Number of Stories Written : 416
Average Number of Stories per issue: 16.64

Those are incredible numbers and I'm extremely happy with the amount and variety of content we've produced this year. However, we have a few staff members leaving to go abroad or complete internships, so we'd love to see more contributors step up to the challenge. If you'd like to apply for a position, come to MUB 156 or send an email to tnh.editor@unh.edu.

Back, excited, and raring for some changes

2009-11-06T08:58:00.004-05:00

Got back at 2 a.m. Monday morning, after four hours of flying (from Austin to Houston to Boston) and getting lost in construction in downtown Boston. We made it!

Austin was amazing. Incredible. Halloween was like Mardi Gras, with the streets crowded in costumed Austinites of all ages. We saw Lance's bike shop, had amazing Tex Mex, authentic BBQ, and a southern brunch that was to die for. We saw the University of Texas (and stared in awe at the football stadium - their shrine to the sport), the state capitol, and the bridge where bats fly out in swarms at dusk.

Austin's weird. It's cool, artsy, western, and funky. People there said it was its own little world, apart from Texas.

But on to the important stuff - THE CONVENTION.

We attended our first session, groggy eyed from our 3:45 a.m. wakeup call. Chicken Salad II: where the speaker spoke the lingo of college kids, a guy from Florida Atalantic University. He stressed leaving clip art behind, shorter, catchier headlines, and putting FACES on the front page. Because we're doing this for the students and members of the community, right? Well, we gotta put them on the front page.

Steve Outing, one of the keynote speakers, addressed the future of journalism. He had worked for big name papers but decided to branch out into the unknown Internet territory in the late 90s, later teaching at the Poynter Institute and UC Boulder.

He stressed niche journalism, entrepeneurship, learning the lingo of computer scientists and business people, freelancing, and community journalism websites, like San Diego's Voice of San Diego.

Other sessions stressed making the newspaper's website a hub of the community. That collaboration with other media outlets was necessary to keep the news alive. Rather than telling a long "story" now, journalists should see themselves as part of the greater community, informing citizens with "streams" and making their research and information readily available. Linking online, more visuals, info boxes, making information on the site a necessity for the local community.

Most of the other sessions dealt with design, headlines, leads, and story ideas for college newspapers. Another dealt with interviews (something never formally taught in UNH classes - things the journalist just picks up on their own here, for better or worse), "Battling the Tranquility Syndrome" on campus and covering news school officials may see as "bad," and covering political issues in the town and surrounding community.

Need more info? One of our writers summarizes the convention perfectly in one of his latest blog posts:

TNH does Austin: Thoughts on NCMC09

We returned brimming with new ideas and have tried to incorporate them into today's issue - note the faces of the nontraditional students and new emphasis on profiles. Hopefully we'll become better at catering to our specific audience and get the community more involved on our website, be it through the "bulletin board" widget college publisher talked about, or something else.

It's all about finding the time and manpower to make those links possible. Hopefully by amping up the writer's presence in the newsroom, we won't find ourselves so limited.

Here's to the future: no matter what, there is hope. People are gonna need their information, in some form or another.

National College Media Convention: Austin, Tx.

2009-10-27T20:40:00.003-04:00

Seems like a crazy week for everyone: midterms, pounding out another week of issues for TNH, finding the perfect Halloween costume, and possibly preparing for the NYC marathon (shout out to Cam).

On Thursday, five TNH staffers are adding a trip to Austin, Texas to the list. While the details will be more precisely mapped out tomorrow, we're leaving lovely Durham at 3:45 a.m. - perfect time to bond, if I do say so myself.

Hopefully we'll come back with some innovative ideas like the crew did last year when they went to San Diego. It better be worth it, since the regulars will be busting out a normal production night without some key staff members (shout out to Chris, who lays out most of the pages. She'll be with us in Austin, oh yeah...)

If anything, there are opportunities to drop of resumes and cover letters while we're there. For a senior like me, pretty valuable stuff.

If you care, join us for a writer's meeting tomorrow at 8 p.m. as we anticipate our quickly arriving departure time. We'll be packing for 70 degree weather, fun stuff.

All to serve you, the readers of the website (including this blog), and possibly the paper. And hopefully advance our careers. Thanks for listening - until next time,

Keeley

The newsroom's colder, but the editing's warming up...

2009-10-16T12:15:00.004-04:00

As our building starts to freeze with the onset of fall and winter weather, the editing is just warming up. Well, we have to make up for the weather somehow.

I have to agree with Exec Editor Cam Kittle - the beat system, in my mind, has been quite a success. (Knock on wood - we've still got all year...) But writers who were afraid they'd run out of ideas for stories now find themselves somewhat overwhelmed with the amount of events and feature ideas coming their way.

In the case of the power outages earlier this year, having our Crime/Cops beat writer (Alexis Macarchuk) on it right away simplified things and enhanced our coverage. In the past, we would've sent out mass texts and struggled to find a writer who could be in the right place at the right time.

The website's awesome. Thanks to John for getting the ball rolling last year, and Cam for initiating everything - from the training sessions to waiting for everything to upload, often until 5 a.m. most nights. Definitely a better reflection of the content, when it looks classier, more streamlined and professional.

Ok, am I gushing too much? Well, from a content editor's perspective, things seem nice. An influx of writers and ideas is never a bad thing. Though we could use some editing help, which we're working on.

With a slightly smaller staff, everyone's a bit more diligent in the newsroom. While Sporcle marathons used to keep everyone in the newsroom till 2 or 3 a.m. last year, it's actual page layout and online posting that does it this year.

And last night - we had our largest amount of original content of the year. When the stories we receive from students double, long nights follow. Thank God I scheduled no classes on Fridays.

So that's where we are. A trip to Austin, Texas over Halloween weekend (National Media Conference) should get the five of us going even more excited. Yes, we're missing Halloween at UNH for newspaper stuff - and it's gonna be great. Look how dedicated we are! (I'm actually very excited).

I'll stop blabbering on and thank everyone who continues to visit the website and read the paper. Hopefully we are serving our purpose: keeping students, faculty, staff, the community, and alumni informed.

Until next time,

Keeley

It's been way, way too long...

2009-10-14T23:47:00.003-04:00

Eesh. No posts since Aug. 21? That's pretty awful, considering that I wanted to make this blog a weekly-updated place for readers to go and find out how production nights work and how staffers are feeling as the semester rolls on. Yet here we are halfway through the semester without a single post since summer. Ouch.

Well, I'm here to rectify that situation and let you know how the paper's going so far this year, especially with all the new changes.

First off, the beat system. It's been a thrilling success, in my mind. We have 11 writers on staff currently (without counting the four or five sports writers we also have) and that's a huge step up from the measly four we had at the end of last year. I don't know how many there were throughout the majority of the year, but I don't think it was close to 11. We've been lucky to have a lot of committed people writing for us this semester. And, with an average of about 12-15 contributing writers showing up to every writer's meeting, we've been able to minimize the amount of AP content to almost none.

I think the new Index page has been great, and the new page three with pictures of the week, sudoku puzzles and comics has made the paper a bit more fun for students. I like featuring student photos too; we've been lucky enough to see photographers offer to help with a variety of events and stories. It's great.

The business section has been good; the only complaint we've had is that "Corporate" sends a negative message and shouldn't be the title of the section, but I kinda like it. It's different. We've had some good stories show up there, and it allows for readers to expect something new every Tuesday and Friday. It switches up the paper a bit, keeps it on an even keel.

Honestly, I'm very proud of the product we've put out so far this year. No regrets at all. We had a bit of a crazy week when all the newspapers were stolen by three soon-to-be punished individuals, but even that was a great thing. It gave us a ton of coverage and I think a few more people around New England might even know we have a newspaper now. Cool.

Alright, I've got nothing else for you. I'll try and get my staff to update this dusty old blog more often. Now, I'm off to watch a thrilling new episode of South Park (I am a college student after all...)

Cameron Kittle

Big Year on the Horizon

2009-08-21T11:10:00.000-04:00

If you're one of the 0 to 10 readers who check this blog daily, you're going to be a whole week or so ahead of the game. I wanted to get out all my ideas somewhere, just to see where I stand with a week left of summer, but all of you MUB 156 readers will reap the benefits.

TNH is back in seven days, and it's got a whole new attitude coming with it.

Design changes: I've finalized my front, index, left and right inside pages, and sports front templates (pending feedback from my editorial squad) and I'm happy with them. I've still got to tweak the opinion and forum pages a bit, then work on creating a whole new page that will replace the World/Nation alternating section that I feel is important but hardly ever read or looked at, but a new design is on the way. That's all you get to find out right now. It's the temptation and anticipation I want you to feel right off the bat that will keep you reading this post, I hope.

Web changes: The brand-spankin' new TNHonline.com will launch a few days after our staff training session on Aug. 31 with an expert from College Publisher. It looks great and really bumps up our credibility on the web. Here's the link to the test site, if you're understandably impatient.

Multimedia changes: We're doing more video this year. Lots of it. I hope by about the middle of the first semester we'll have something new in the TNH Video player every week, be it a profile, student on the spot, news story, or slideshow. I've already got the interview booked for our first-ever student spotlight profile video with RJ Toman, the quarterback of the Wildcats' football team. The intrigue? He's a California dreamer on one of the best FCS teams in the country and in high school he backed up Mark Sanchez, the New York Jets' new golden boy. He's a good first subject, but the real test is to see how we put together our own studio to really make the video ours.

Worried about it not looking professional? Hush now. My dad owns the local printing franchise in my hometown, Minuteman Press, and he's offered to print a couple huge banners for us with some TNH designs tiled across it that can serve as our backdrop for the videos. Boom. I'm already thinking ESPN's Sunday Conversation but with students.

Office changes: We're still in MUB 156 (how could we not be?) but I'm hoping to make ourselves a bit more noticeable to the basement MUB passerby. Another new banner (Thanks Pops) that can hang above the door or even a clear adhesive with our design that we can stick on the door are a couple of possibilities that will soon show up around the entrance to MUB 156.

Reporting changes: The beat system. Ever heard of it? It's what real reporters use and it's what TNH is implementing next year. It creates a balance of stories, a mixture of stories and way more content. I wrote five, count 'em five, stories on trash bags this summer while I covered the towns of Manchester and Essex for the Gloucester Daily Times. Were they boring as hell? Yes. But they are much more appealing than another AP story you can find with a quick search on Google News. Local news sells, regardless of how mind-numbing. And though our paper's free to pick up and toss away, readership is important too and that will increase with more stories about UNH and less about nationwide crises.

The beat system will also get our journalists ready for the real world. Any journalism major can write a story that's assigned to them. But can they go out and make the calls to come up with a story of their own without an editor's help? That's a real test of journalism skills. I know my staff is up to the task. We'll still have weekly assignment meetings for our contributing writers because we still need them and we still appreciate the work they do, but the beat system will create a real distinction between staff and contributing writers that was only seen previously with assigning the so-called "better stories" to staffers and the rest to contributors.

Oh, and without getting into too much detail, every staff writer will be required to have their own Twitter account and update it with links to their stories and quick pithy comments about their writing process or anything else they can think of. I want to reach out and have our readers have a way to connect or "Follow" specific writers. It's not competition between our writers, it's communication with our readers. If it doesn't work out, that's fine, but I want to try it and see how it goes to start the year.

That's all I got swirling around in the ol' noodle right now, but hopefully this can bring some additional excitement to the start of the year. I'm psyched and ready to go. Are you?

Enjoy the final summer days,

Cam

Checking in mid-summer

2009-07-25T11:24:00.002-04:00

Well, our former executive editor threatened a guest post if we didn't update our blog, so I thought I'd take the initiative and give any TNH readers a little summer update.

Many of us are hard at work with internships and summer jobs - as are many other UNH students.

I've been in my home state of Washington, workin the 9 to 5 at Bremerton's Kitsap Sun - a local paper for those towns on the Olympic Peninsula (where is this, you ask? Hint: same relative area the Twilight vampires call home) - which is across the water from Seattle.

Writing for a "real" publication (what? TNH is real, c'mon!!) has given all of us editors plenty of ideas to implement next year. Cam did outline a beat system, and now that we've seen one at work, we can't wait to get started.

I like the efficiency of a defined story-assigning system - hopefully this process will be organized next year, so we can set clear deadlines and be on the same page as our writers.

God, and multimedia stuff? Watch out. We've got Meg Power. And different techniques to try out. This is the wave of the future, so we've gotta make the most of the video medium.

Also, we will continue to try to really get to the core of UNH student life. The more involved we are, the more we work with students and hear your ideas, the better paper we will be. We're meant to serve you, the readers - whether you're a prospective student, current wildcat (oh, yeah, I used the cheesy mascot phrase), or alumnus.

See, these editors at the papers we're working for send us out into the unknown - and we end up connecting with individuals and hearing stories that help us understand the area so much more. Sure, we're optimistic youngsters who view the current state of journalism as merely "evolving," but any journalist will tell you that the rewards of sharing a story with the world are infinite. We can't wait to apply our worldy knowledge at TNH. With our experiences this summer, this next year is sure to be kickin. (Don't hate, I couldn't help using that word.) You can count on it.

The end of an era...

2009-05-16T10:13:00.005-04:00

Today, former executive editor John Wayne Ferguson (aka The Duke) will be flying to St. Petersburg, Florida as a Poynter Institute college fellow. He'll be learning the ropes of journalism in a two week "journalism boot camp" along with other top college journalists in the country, making us proud, of course.

This week, along with the others at the end of the school year, marks the end of an era. John made tons of changes to the paper, as he recorded here on Mub 156, integrating our paper with the community more than ever. And more than John - saying goodbye to Joe, Kyle, and Jake will be sad. I'm still having a tough time imagining sports without Joe's fiery rants and spontaneous high-fives.

As a news editor this year, it was interesting seeing the transformation John's passion for the paper had on us all. I think there was quite a bit of a "piggyback effect" - at least, I know that when I came back from break, many of us wanted to make a difference in the way the paper ran. When the group that went to San Diego came back, they had a vision of what our paper could be, and plenty of ideas to implement.

I have to admit, I was a bit taken aback by the increase in responsibility that came with being content editor. I'm glad I got to give the position a test drive this spring, so I know what to expect in the fall. Seriously, though - when you get at least 50 emails a day, it does get difficult to keep up. And I'm already looking for story ideas for next year - email me at tnh.news@unh.edu if you have any!

As we all leave for the summer or go off into the world in search of our next calling, I have to give a shout out of love to the organization we call The New Hampshire. It really is the people that make it all worthwhile. The late nights don't seem so bad when you have a good time with the others around you. I've never seen anybody else get so worked up over body text (yep, Meredith - I didn't forget), front page layout design (Nate has offered to give certain stunning front pages a date, if you can believe that), hockey (complete with beard-betting contests), and random photo/multimedia shots of the newsroom (Meg and John - you never know when they'll be watching!). And shout out to Tori Lewis, because, as Meg says, she's probably the only one who's not a nerd and chooses to work with us in the newsroom.

Ah, a special group, indeed. Can't wait to see what next year brings, with new Executive Editor Cam Kittle at the helm. Until then, we have a fabulous summer to enjoy.

TNH by the numbers: Part 2

2009-05-11T16:12:00.004-04:00

Now that we've got the numbers done in the big picture sense, it's time to recognize the writers who have done the most work for TNH since September 2008.

First a caveat, TNH does not believe that quantity necessarily means quality. However, we were blessed this year to have both dedicated and talented young journalists contribute to the paper throughout the year and they should all be commended for their hard work.

MOST BYLINES (FIRST SEMESTER)

1. Cameron Kittle 29

2. Joe O'Connell 28

3. Biz Jacobs 23

Meg Power 23

5. Shawn Cyr 17

6. Jake O'Donnell 16

7. Michaela Christensen 14

8. Laura Hedges 13

9. Alex Cornetta 12

Thomas Gounley 12

MOST BYLINES (SECOND SEMESTER)

1. Thomas Gounley 21

2. Biz Jacobs 20

Joe O'Connell 20

4. Brittney Murray 19

5. Cameron Kittle 17

Brandon Lawrence 17

7. Michaela Christensen 15

8. Shawn Cyr 13

9. Meg Power 12

10. Terri Ogan 11

Kerry Feltner 11

MOST BYLINES (YEAR)

1. Joe O'Connell 48

2. Cameron Kittle 46

3. Biz Jacobs 43

4. Meg Power 35

5. Thomas Gounley 33

6. Shawn Cyr 30

Brittney Murray 30

8. Michaela Christensen 29

9. Brandon Lawrence 21

10. Laura Hedges 18

Nate Batchelder 18

MOST BYLINES (W/O SPORTS)

1. Thomas Gounley 33

2. Brittney Murray 30

3. Michaela Christensen 29

4. Laura Hedges 18

Nate Batchelder 18

6. Kerry Feltner 16

7. John Wayne Ferguson 15

8. Tori Lewis 14

9. Dustin Luca 13

10. Keeley Smith 12

Two notes on these final counts.

First, when they were hired, staff writers were told they only had to write one article a week. Editors were not required to write anything.

Second, our sports staff is prolific and possibly did more work than the numbers indicate. But the reason that we discount them from the last byline count is because they got many bylines by virtue of writing a game story. Call it an asterisk, if you will.

Good job everybody and thanks for all the hard work.

TNH by the numbers: Part 1

2009-05-11T15:36:00.004-04:00

If you picked up our year in review section last Friday, you may have noticed the little breakdown of just how much content TNH has produced over the year. But just to reiterate, here's our year, by the numbers.

TNH has produced 52 issues since Sep. 12, 2008. The '08/'09 staff was also responsible for producing freshman issue for orientation week, the dining guide for Family Weekend, the special Election Day pullout, the Year in Review, and the (soon-to-be-published) Summer Issue '09.

Over 150 people have contributed to the production (writing, editing, or photography) of TNH since September. The list we give SAFC only has the two dozen names of our paid staffers, but we would be nothing without our hundreds of contributers. From journalism students who had to contribute an article for their class, to freshmen looking for a place to fit in, to upperclassmen that were just interested in trying their hand at journalism; our contributers make TNH of the most highly-participated organizations at UNH.

Over 740 articles were written by TNH writers since September. That's an average of over 14 bylines an issue.

TNH's editors paginated over 1,100 newspaper pages over the last year.

I'd like to make a quick point about those last two statistics. One of the criticisms we often receive is that we run too many Associated Press or UWire articles in the paper. Going back through some issues that year, there were some that were really heavy with out-of-house content. However, it's my belief that one of our job's at the paper is to teach aspects of journalism that are not taught in the UNH journalism program. One of those things is the use of programs like InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator. During the time our news editors are preparing those 14 articles to be fit for copy and layout, our paginators built their skills by putting together wire pages. I'll take the increase in skills (and a couple extra pages of news) over having people sit around in the office complaining there's "nothing to do" any day.

Saying Goodbye to TNH

2009-05-11T12:51:00.003-04:00

In a couple hours, I'll be leaving my apartment to participate in my final production night ever at TNH. When I started working there 13 months ago, I never could have imagined the effect it would have on me not only as a journalist but as a person. As I prepare to say goodbye, I wanted to write out some of my thoughts here for all to see.

I resisted coming to work for TNH for a long time. I'm not sure if it was because I didn't think my writing was good enough, or if I was scared to put myself out there, of if I was intimidated by the people in charge, or what it was exactly that kept me away. I would look at the paper often times and think of many ways it could be improved, but I never actually did anything about it.

Then came my editing class, 2nd semester of junior year. A whole new world was unlocked for me in terms of what I could do as a journalist. Sitting across from me in the journalism lab was this kid named John. I had no idea at the time that he'd become one of the real movers and shakers on campus, and the person that would finally bring me into the TNH fold. Because he was taking over as executive editor, his previous job as sports editor became open. Originally intending to come to TNH as a copy editor, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to do sports. I took a chance. I dove right in.

Helping me from Day 1 was Joe. He showed me all the ropes pretty quickly, and we hit the ground running. We took TNH Sports in a great direction, putting the emphasis on clear and concise stories, interesting features, hard-hitting commentary and effective design. We had amazing reporters and photographers that made our jobs that much easier.

Every Tuesday and Friday, Joe and I put out three or four pages of sports content and I don't think there was one time we were unsatisfied with the result. In my opinion, we had the best semester ever for TNH Sports. Because of my impeding journalism internship, I walked away in December thinking I'd worked for TNH for the last time. But because I was still living on campus, and had nothing to do besides my internship, I couldn't stay away. Two days a week I'd spend roughly 11-12 hours working at a newspaper. And I loved it, because this is what I love to do.

Part of the reason why I stayed was the people. I'll be lucky if I ever work in another office as great as this one. You can never accuse us of not having fun every Monday and Thursday night. But at the same time, the office is overpopulated with people who honestly care about putting out the best possible product. I saw the things that existed in me regarding attention to detail and putting in that extra effort reflected in so many people I worked with.

I give a lot of the credit for this to John and Kyle. Their dedication to the finished product trickled down to everybody, and resulted in the many hard-earned awards our organization won a few weeks ago. The best part is I know that isn't going away anytime soon because Cam, Nate, Keeley and everyone else possesses that same desire.

This is getting long so I'll try to wrap this up. I'm part of a generation of young journalists who has no idea how they're going to make money in this industry going forward. But the things I've learned by working for a forward-thinking college newspaper have been invaluable, and I'll use them for the rest of my life. I've forged lifelong friendships there, and hopefully, along with John, Joe and Kyle, we've left something behind for future TNHers to follow.

My last word of advice: don't hesitate to take that chance and dive right in. I'm sure glad I did.

TNHers win English Department Awards

2009-05-08T12:52:00.002-04:00

Last night, the UNH English Department held its annual student awards and scholarship ceremony, and a handful of TNH staff members were recognized for their academic and writing success.

Former Managing Editor Kyle Stucker received the Laura Rice Journalism Award for excellence in writing and reporting.

Executive Editor Cameron Kittle and Content Editor Keeley Smith both received the Michael Kelley Memorial Scholarship for excellence in journalism.

Staff Writer Brittney Murray received the Theodore "Tad" Ackman Journalism Scholarship for excellence in the English/Journalism major.

Staff Writer Shawn Cyr received the John Hanlon Memorial Scholarship for excellence in journalism (sports writing).

We'd like to congratulate our colleagues on their awards and thank them for sharing the skills and dedication they show in the classroom with our publication.

Good job everyone!

Looking through the view finder

2009-05-05T22:30:00.005-04:00

We've been at this multimedia thing for a few weeks now. Let's see what we've learned.

We learned it's not rocket science, brain surgery, or financial accounting. Putting together movies and audio slideshows is, overall, pretty simple. Because of the heavy population of Macs in the newsroom, our weapon of choice has to date been iMovie. Its an intuitive program with easy to use editing and bells-and-whistles. Audacity has been a put to good use as well.

Secondly, we've figured out the best format and look for publishing online. The, well, less than awesome site isn't exactly multimedia friendly (seriously, is a multimedia archive too much to ask for?) but we've found the best format and size for what one can only hope is the soon to be former site.

Finally, we've learned how to fix things. Need to flip a movie, no problem. Struggling with the audio, we can change that. Want the audio without the picture, got that. In the spirit of Woodstock, we've just kept trying, seeing what works.

Looking ahead now. We're going to need a how-to at some point, maybe even a (gulp) handbook. Just basic things - have a voice recorder going when you're taking video, you never know when you'll need the extra tape. There's no such thing as too many photos, just keep going. And everybody's favorite - hold the camera with two hands.

We also want to explore different medias. Okay, we got the audio slide show and the video down. At the risk of stepping on TV's toes, we could try broadcasts - writers talking on camera about a story, podcasts or something interactive. We've gotten our feet wet, let's go tread water now.

We knew when we started how multimedia adds to stories, how increasingly important multimedia is to a newspaper, website, even a reporter's portfolio. We knew there would be plenty of opportunity (thank you, greeks) for interesting stuff. And we knew incorporating this stuff was going to be a long process. But we're probably about a fourth (alright, fifth) of the way in and we're doing alright.

I mean, ya know, considering who's in charge ...

Front Page Revisionist History

2009-05-01T12:03:00.006-04:00

Sometimes I get an idea in my head, and it won't go away until I get it out on paper. Unfortunately, one idea I had this week was "How else could we have done that Twitter front". You don't get do-overs in the paper, but if you have free time, you can redesign an old page and try to using it as a teaching moment.

Here's what ran on Tuesday.

And here's a version that I think would have been more effective (the layout would be the same below the fold).

The story's about a lot of people joining Twitter, so I went with putting a lot of birds on the front. I drew the birds in Illustrator, based off some sketches I had done in a notebook and some inspiration from others people's Twitter Bird designs (there are a lot out there). All of the birds are the exact same drawing, I just stretched, squeezed and flipped them to make them all a little different. I also bevel and embossed them, because I like that effect.

Here's the original drawing,

I made the lead hed as close to the twitter font as I could (it's just a rounded off Arial). I also was able to make the news deck exactly 140 characters, the amount Twitter allows you to include in one post.

But, like I said, you don't get do-overs and that first page looked fine. But sometimes, it's good to go back and think about how something could have been done differently. That way, the next time a design opportuniy like this arises, you know how to do something that works, rather than something you're not entirely happy with.

Here endeth the lesson,

John

Five issues in, still alive.

2009-05-01T11:57:00.005-04:00

After two and a half weeks at the helm as TNH's new executive editor, I can say I'm coping well. I'm proud of the work I've produced so far, and I'm confident that I can do a better job too. Some of the small mistakes I've made have been stressful, but nothing to fret about for more than a few hours. It's part of the job description: mistakes happen. So, through five issues, I'm happy with where we are as a staff. I do need to find another sports editor and decide on a news editor as well, but we have enough manpower to get us through the last two weeks so I can make the decision over the summer.

I'm excited to see the paper next year, when a new flag and overall look to the paper will be complete. In the meantime, I've become a little too comfortable with John's layout because I find myself not wanting to change anything, but that wouldn't be much fun. So, I will go a little against the grain, but I will certainly keep the modularity and strong knowledge of good newspaper design intact (something the paper did not do well for most of 2007-2008).

To stop this post from being entirely uninteresting (which it is currently), I've compiled a rundown of what I like about the new job and what I don't like. Sort of a Friday tradition: TNH Thumbs up, Thumbs down -- blog edition.

Thumbs up to putting as many references to Detroit sports as I want in the opinion and forum sections. Suck on that, Bostonians!
Thumbs down to the ridiculous number of sleep hours lost. I knew it was coming, but 20 hours in a given school week? Really? Ouch.
Thumbs up to writing editorials. Easily my favorite part of the job so far. Yeah, they can be a hassle when I haven't finished one and it's already 1 a.m. and all the rest of the pages have been laid out, but it's my favorite style of writing. It really lets my voice come out. Like a column, but less outwardly opinionated.
Thumbs down to email lists. The sheer number of pointless emails I get is crazy. No, I don't care that some band called The Warlocks leaked their supposed "hit" titled "Red Camera" onto the internet. Spare me. And no, I don't want to cover a story about a guy pretending to be Shakespeare on Twitter (@WillShake if you're intrigued). Oy vey. And why does "unsubscribe" never seem to work? Subscribing at any point is like killing someone. You're looking at a life sentence, whether you want it or not.
Thumbs up to having final say on the front page. Our front pages have been excellent this year, and it's nice to be able to help my partner in crime, Nate Batch, design it, lay it out and proof it. Then when it hits news stands the next day, I have the accomplishment at my fingertips. It's a good feeling.
Thumbs down to forgetting things. This seems to happen every day. Sometimes it's little things, like forgetting to send out the email edition on production night, but sometimes it's bigger things, like forgetting to set an alarm and sleeping through class. I have yet to go a day on the job where there wasn't something I forgot to do at the end of the day, but I think that will get better next year when I only have three classes to worry about.
Thumbs up to leaving at the exact right time in UNH sports. Sorry Brandon, but when I left the sports editor position on April 15th, I was very happy. Your pages have been great and you're improving every issue, but I don't know how I would cope with women's lacrosse being the forefront to every issue after all the beautiful hockey layouts Joe and I had over the semester. It's nice to only worry about proofing those pages and not designing them.
Thumbs down to sacrifice. I'm all for sacrificing my time spent watching Transformers on HBO for the 48th time (I <3 Megan Fox), but I've lost many of my hobbies since taking over the position. Playing guitar, free reading, weight lifting, and lounging have all been left by the wayside as I spend more time running or working in the office on ideas for next year.
Thumbs up to staff relations. We're all such good friends and it makes the twice-a-week newsroom experience so much fun. There's hardly any tension, we make time for goofing off and we come out with a good product. I really love working with the friends I've made over the past couple years at TNH.

That's about all I got. I want to start working on a photoshop file that is extremely juvenile but perfect for my hatred of the Anaheim Ducks. Chris Pronger is a cheap-shot giving sasquatch, that's all you need to know. Happy Friday everyone, have a good weekend!

And, most importantly, Go Wings.

Cam

Checking in at 3:16 a.m.

2009-05-01T01:55:00.007-04:00

It's nearly 3:30 a.m. Do you know where your newspaper is? We do. It's just about done. Nate's putting the finishing touches on the front, Bran's spell checking Sports as we speak. Keeley's double checking online. And Cam is reading an email unfit for the blog. Golf is a strange sport. Golf fanatics are even stranger.

All work and no play makes a very boring newsroom. Good thing we're not like that.

And on the eighth day, TNH gave us videos

2009-04-28T02:20:00.003-04:00

Relative newbie freshman Zack Cox opened up in the staff interview, even if he doesn't know what he's doing next year.

Because it needed explanation. Brandon walks us through the Playoff Beard.

We're doin' a 180! Well, kinda...

2009-04-27T18:05:00.005-04:00

The section formerly known as Arts & Leisure has switched it up again. In previous weeks, we ran a design called The Verb, but last Friday, we took Etc. for a test drive. The changes are a pretty dramatic shift because the Etc. design adheres to a more traditional newspaper layout. For starters, the flag runs along the top of the page which is standard for most section fronts. Also, the events column (still called The Groundling) runs along the left side of the page where a regular commentary piece or information box might normally sit.

As nice as it turned out, we like the design of The Verb more for a couple of reasons:
1) The Verb looks a little bit more 'artsy,' if you will. The top-of-the-page flag of Etc. gives the section a nice, clean look but its aesthetic appeal and white-space quotient is ultimately diminished by the cramped feeling of the rest of the page.
2) Speaking of cramped, the presence of "The Groundling" as a side bar is distracting and takes up too much space on the front page for the other articles to have a bit of breathing room. Further still, there just isn't enough space to fit as many events as we would like to see accommodated.

BUT we do really like the "What we're listening to" box and have grand plans to do more with it in the future.

Verdict: We'll probably stick with The Verb.

Meredith

TNH cleans up at 2009 awards banquet

2009-04-24T13:19:00.005-04:00

Last Tuesday, April 21, UNH Student Organization Services, held its annual awards banquet, honoring the accomplishments of UNH's student orgs and the individuals that participated in them.

This year, The New Hampshire took home four awards:

Publication of the Year
Rookie of the Year: Christine Hawkins
Student Leader of the Year: John Wayne Ferguson
Organization of the Year

We are extremely proud of our accomplishments this year and humbly thank SOS for the recognition.

The picture above shows only a small fraction of the people who were involved at TNH this year. To date, there are over 150 students on TNH's contact list, all of whom have contributed to part of our organization - from writing and photography to advertising and distribution - at some point this year.

And while TNH did not win the Phoenix Award for the most improved organization this year, it was the first time in many years that we were honored at the banquet, a fact in itself that shows how much we've changed over the past year.

Announcing your new student body leaders

2009-04-23T12:26:00.003-04:00

At noon today, the student senate released the results of this year's student body elections.

The next pair of students to hold the position of student body president and vice-president will be Marie Charlotte Noreng and Richard Washburn Peyser III. The pair received 32.8% of the vote (637 out of 1,938 votes).

There was a drastic drop 0ff in voter turnout this year. Of 11,720 possible voters, only 1,938 entered a vote, a 16.5% turnout. Last year, 4,019 of 10,998 voters elected John Banks and Stephanie Saporito, a 37% turnout.

Nicholas Benson, the sole candidate for the student trustee position, won took in 1,793 of the possible 1,938 votes.

Look for full coverage of this story in tommorow's edtion of The New Hampshire

Taking the first step

2009-04-17T22:50:00.006-04:00

It was a different production night. After much reflection, celebration, and sugar (lots and lots of sugar), the staff of 2009-2010 took the reigns on Thursday. And, knock on wood, everything went off without a hitch. Or at least nothing a quick phone call wouldn't fix.

Cam took his spot in the Batcave. His big project was writing his letter from the editor. Like his predecessor, Cam outlined goals for TNH - including a new business section and a beat system. Missing though was something about adding a coffee maker to the newsroom. Caffeinated journalists are happy journalists.

Keeley manned the news section with ease. Her first night included editing 11 stories, picking the lead, then planning for next week. Not bad, not bad. Next week, she's going to juggle flaming swords while reciting the periodic table.

And brave Brandon Lawrence did NOT crawl into the fetal position underneath the sports desk. No, instead he valiantly put together the first of many sports pages, switching between seats. With a little help from some cameo appearances, Bran put out a good looking back page. Pretty impressive considering before Thursday he's only ever looked at InDesign.

So there you have it. The new crew took over, and the office still stands. Now we've only got, what, 50, 60 more times? Sweet.

Inside the newsroom

2009-04-16T22:34:00.001-04:00

Christine Hawkins, Keeley Smith, and Tori Lewis (with a few other cameos) hang out on a production night

Joe's last night

2009-04-15T16:37:00.002-04:00

After three years of dedication to The New Hampshire, Joe O'Connell is now just a contributor. He took some time out on his last night to talk about the ups and downs of being married to MUB 156

'the verb' finally launched!

2009-04-10T12:05:00.003-04:00

After much toil, we bring you the new look of the section formerly known as Arts & Leisure. This is one of two designs we plan on experimenting with, but hope to run at least three or four trial sections before the close of the spring semester. Get excited.

Meredith

What's changed this year

2009-04-10T12:03:00.008-04:00

Feeling a little retrospective today. One of our goals at TNH this year has been to provide the paper with a more consistent and professional look. Obviously, our front page had a significant makeover, but we also overhauled the inside of the paper. Today, I went and grabbed a couple pages from papers this year, as well as the corresponding pages from the equivalent editions from the '07/'08 school year.

What I'm stressing today isn't the content, but the look of the pages.

Here are pages 2 and 3 from the March 6, 2009 edition

And here are the same two pages from the March 4, 2008 edition

Bullet points on the changes that were made, since I've been told my posts are too long.

Index w/ page numbers and summaries moved from front to Page 2. Leaving more room for design on the front, and quick bites on the inside. Cons: Depending on who writes the index summaries, they can be more comedic than most editors prefer.
Corrections moved from Opinion to A2 and staying there every week. It shows we're not trying to hide our mistakes.
"Seen around Durham" adds at least one more picture to the paper. However, we still need to find the photogs to take good and consistent standalone art.
The extra space underneath the photo was meant for rotating "fun" content, community announcements, and selected calendar events.
On the third page, we decided to anchor it and make the "World" page on Tuesdays and the "Nation" page on Fridays. There are definitely influences from the Boston Globe, the paper I grew up reading, and I think it's good to have a "zoomed out" page to provide some historical context to what's going on in the world. Cons: Some people don't like having AP stories so high up in the paper
As for what we took out. There's no more calendar anywhere in the physical paper. This is mostly because it was a pain in the ass to fill out every week and was mostly filled with the same exact things every issue. It'd be one thing if we had a reporter that took the time to develop an interesting calendar, it's another to just take the things that are on the UNH site and paste them in without any thought.
Finally, because of the anchor section that we placed on Page 3, the opinion section can no longer ever appear in that spot. I believe that's a good thing and that at least some sort of news should always appear before the opinion section. Today, depending on the number of pages we are producing the opinion section will be on Pages 4 and 5 or, more often, Pages 6 and 7.
One other thing that we were able to kill this year were those big-ass house ads that used to take up so much space in the our paper. Some people complain about the amount of wire content we run. What they often fail to realize is that, in the past, the space that the wire content fills would have been taken up by a house ad. I'd take news, even wire news, over a house ad any day, so that's why we do it.

There will be more comparisons coming soon, since I think this is going to be very similar to what my portfolio looks like.

Thanks for reading,

JWF

TNH celebrities

2009-04-10T11:25:00.003-04:00

We're in the presence of celebrities. Can you name the pop star and Wings fan?

Possible Business Logo?

2009-04-10T11:12:00.006-04:00

Admire it. Bask in its glow. Take in all of its glory. Yes, I am a magician. Yes, those bills do appear to be actually inside his mouth because you can still see his teeth on the outside. No, I'm not quite this condescending all the time.

This is the possible business logo for next year. It took me a long time to make and I'm proud of it because I had to learn a lot of techniques in Photoshop and then play with them for a while before I got to the finished product. And I'm still deciding if the 'Cat needs a top hat and monocle, which would be uber-badass, but might make it look too busy.

I won't do as in-depth of a lesson as John has done with his great tree design and hockey front page, but I will go through a little bit of my process.

I don't remember what I Googled, but it was something along the lines of "put one picture in another" and I found a good tutorial. I'd link to it, but I couldn't find it again. Anyway, the first thing you have to do is get the two images you will use. Done and done.Then, I used the eraser tool in Photoshop to erase all the background around the crushed money to end up with this:Then came the hard stuff. Naturally, I won't go into too much detail about the tough parts because I can't explain it very well in my own words. Life's solution: Google it and learn it on your own.

I will tell you that from what I remember, I used the polygonal lasso tool to draw the shape I wanted to place the money into (inside the 'Cat's mouth, making sure to go around the teeth to give it the desired effect). Then a quick click of "Paste In Place...," some resizing, and a counterclockwise rotation gave me the visual orgasm you see at the top of the page. I love it. Do you?

Cam

Front Page Ads

2009-04-09T12:57:00.007-04:00

In order to deal with their dire financial situations, many newspapers have had to consider adjusting the way they do business in order to keep float. For some papers, this has meant cutting the number of pages, dropping wire content, firing staff, charging for web content or stopping home deliveries.

While most of those measures are aimed at cost-cutting, there are only a few ways papers have found to increase revenue: most notably, they have started to put advertisements on the formally sacrosanct front page. It's not a new concept, smaller and struggling papers have had this practice for decades. But at larger, more respected newspapers, A1 was always for editorial content only.

Last year, The New York Times took the leap, and put ads on their front page (and made buckets of money doing it). While there is not an ad on the front every day, I wouldn't classify them as "rare" either.

For instance, today's NYT featured an ad for an upcoming miniseries on CBS (who seem to pay for a large percentage of the A1 ad content)

This ad is pretty typical of what has been appearing in the Times, a banner across the bottom , underneath the editorial content. The color, the layout and the text are all significantly different from the way the news looks, meaning no one can confuse the ad as something else.

On today's LA times, the situation was a little different.
That boxed in article on the left side? That's an ad, made to look like, at first glance, like a news article. Now, LAT probably insisted on a couple things in the ad to make it look separate from the news - the sans serif text and hed, the boxed-in article, the big NBC logo above the story). NBC probably payed out the wazoo for it too.

To me, the LAT ad pushes the limits on what front page ads should be. This one cuts into too much editorial space, risks confusing readers and is ugly. I understand the Tribune company is desperate, but I'm really surprised they chose to allow that much advertising on the front page. I guess it's good that they didn't allow the ad to go above the fold. Also, notice how the designer made sure the article it is not flush with top of the "Citizens snared" article, in order to make sure the reader had to look more closely at the story and differentiate news from ads.

And while what the LAT did was distasteful, what UCLA's student paper did this week is practically criminal.

On Tuesday, the Bruin had a wrap-around ad that covered their front page.

Here's what the real front page looked like

And here's what real front was wrapped in and what people saw when they picked up the paper.

Yeah....

Apparently, there was much objection from the editorial staff over the fake front, and even offers by the staff to pay for the cost of the ad to stop it from running, but not enough to stop it from going to print.

The editors of the paper wrote in an editorial in the same paper

The Daily Bruin senior staff has begrudgingly agreed to run an advertisement as the front page of today’s paper. We see it as a regrettable but relatively unavoidable consequence of the recent financial trends devastating our sources of revenue and our industry....We were forced to make a decision we find distasteful at best – and dishonest and unethical at worst – because of the ever-present and unrelenting reality of the economy and the downturn of the journalism industry.

The editorial goes on to say that, because of the amount of money the ad was bringing in, the paper had no choice but to print it in order to "save the paper".

And without knowing to full extent the way the Daily Bruin operates and what their financial situation is, I can't outrightly criticize them. I will say, however, that at TNH, an ad like that would never had made it to a production, no matter how much money it brought in. Of course, TNH has the benefit of funding from the university, while the Bruin is independent and apparently running short on cash.

Still, I'm amazed the Bruin doesn't have some kind of guidelines for this sort of situation, in order to prevent advertisers from this kind of trickery, or an adviser or manager that has the sense to stand up to it. There are certainly other kinds of ways the company could have set up their ad (and I'd argue, there are ways to do it more attractively as well).

In March, TNH's advertising department was given the go-ahead to discuss front- and back-page advertisements with clients. So far, we have not had a buyer, but it is unlikely that our front will remain immaculate forever. I hope and believe we will never let our ads get this far, and our ad reps have been told as much.

I hope the Bruin's blunder serves as a lesson for everyone as to what could happen if we allow our fear of losing money to override our journalistic integrity.

Here endeth the lesson,

John

Links
Where I originally found the story
The Bruin's editorial about the ad
A note from the editor about the Bruin's ad
From Variety: LAT sells front page to Southland
LAT editors objected to the ad

The World Needs More People Like Mike Ilitch

2009-04-08T23:11:00.006-04:00

As a former resident of the Detroit area (I lived a half-hour away in Canton, Mich.), I will hopelessly defend the downtrodden city to the very end. I'm overly obsessed with my Red Wings and Wolverines, and I leisurely root for the Lions, Tigers and Pistons (oh my!) as well whenever the season calls for it. That's why whenever a new story comes out about the Big Three automakers, I'm always intrigued to read it.

While I do think the Big Three have had awful business strategies for a long time, it's terrible to see them in such dire straits. The city can't survive without them. And Detroit is a great city; the country wouldn't be the same without it.

That's why the world needs more people like Mike Ilitch. He owns the Red Wings and Tigers and could probably buy the rest of the world too, if he felt like it. Ilitch runs charities, donates millions per year, provides jobs for the unemployed with his Little Caesar's pizza chain, and simply never puts himself first in any situation. He has more give than a broken trampoline.

So, you should read this article. It's written by my favorite columnist, Mitch Albom, and is truly a great piece of writing. Every week Mitch doles out anywhere from 700-1000 words, and every week he impresses me. He's not just a sportswriter; he's a human magician with words. Albom's archive is here. I highly recommend it.

It's always nice to appreciate good stories when you find 'em. Just thought I'd share.

Cam

A college newspaper's worst nightmare

2009-04-07T23:00:00.005-04:00

The Daily Universe, the student newspaper of Brigham Young University, had to recall there entire press run and reprint today's paper because of a typo on the front page.

From the Salt Lake Tribune,

A caption on a photo from this weekend's LDS General Conference stated that "Members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostates and other general authorities raise their hands in a sustaining vote Saturday morning. ..."

The group was actually called the "Quorum of Apostles". Ooops...

Quick vocab lesson
Apostle (n) 1. A person sent our on a special mission 2. any of the twelve disciples sent out by Christ to teach the Gospel...6. any of the twelve administrative officials of the Mormon church

Apostate (n) a person guilty of abandoning beliefs; renegade

While they are only separated by three words in Webster's New World Dictionary (apostatize, a posteriori, and apostil) they're obviously a world apart in meanings.

The paper's editors said mistake was not intentional, but rather due to a spell-checking error that got through at least three levels of editors.

For the non-newsroom savvy, that may seem like a lot, but coming from personal experience, spell check is the newsroom's worst enemy. It wasn't until this past year that TNH had a mandatory spell check on our InDesign documents, and even then, editors often forget take that last step. Or, like happened here, spell check is used but the editor just makes sure the words are words, not that they're the right words.

If this typo had happened in TNH, it's very unlikely would have pulled the run and reprinted it. Off the top of my head, I can't think of a situation where we would do that (at least when it comes to typos, if there was something libelous or defamatory we'd probably pull it). It would require a correction in the next issue of the paper.

Of course, this typo is a little more personal to BYU and the members of that community, but do you think it's bad enough to reprint the day's run? I'm not convinced.

Here's the Salt Lake Tribune story

The letter explaining the mistake from The Daily Universe

and their original article about the error

In that last link there is a student that says that he thought the paper was always sloppily edited, a criticism I'm sure every college newspapers (and most professional ones) hear. Newpapers aren't perfect, but that's why they made correction pages.

Here endeth the lesson,

John

Front Page Design: Can I put "tree drawing" on my resume?

2009-04-03T11:38:00.036-04:00

Hi again,

I'm back with another tale about designing the front page of TNH. Last time, we had a great photo to work with for the lead story. Yesterday, we had nothing. Zero. Zilch. Nada. It's not exactly an uncommon problem to not have lead art for the paper, that's a problem that comes with not having many photographers.

Fortunately, we had already known earlier in the week that Kyle Stucker's piece about the open forum on strategic planning and plans to improve the quality of education at UNH would probably be our centerpiece story. While it's not exactly a topic that screams "Graphics!", it doesn't hurt to have ideas stewing in your mind for a couple of days, just in case something better doesn't reveal itself.

In doing some token research of the open forum, I came across a Facebook group dedicated to get students involved in the process called "What's the Best/Worst of UNH? How Do We Make It BETTER?" That group featured a list of nine "working groups" that would help determine the university's overall direction. Essentially, we had nine parts to a whole

It wasn't much, but it was something, so we ran with it, thinking if something better came up we could scrap it and change directions.

The next step was deciding how to display the nine work groups graphically. This was a little tricky because we're dealing with some pretty vague concepts. I knew I wanted something simple, even geometrical if possible. So, after a round of word associations alongside Managing Editor Extraordinaire Nate Batchelder, I came up with the following logos for each of the working groups. I've bolded the words that were especially inspirational.

Breaking Silos, Scrambling Categories: Integrating the Academy Horizontally and Vertically

Research: New Frontiers and Old Challenges
My original idea was a sunset, to represent "frontiers". That was shot down.

Teaching and learning: Modalities, Technology and Contexts in the 21st Century

Communities and Alliances: Expanding and Deepening UNH's Strategic Partnerships
The original idea here was to have a set of linked chains, but I couldn't figure out for the life of me how to draw that. So we went with a Venn Diagram instead.

Affordability and Access: Developing a Sustainable and Socially Responsible Business Model for UNH

Sustainability: Extending the UNH Commitment
Yeah, yeah. I know sustainability isn't just about recycling. But I think it works better symbolically than a lightbulb or a tree. You'll see in a moment another reason I didn't want to use a tree.

STUDENT EXPERIENCE: UNH As A Student-Centered Institution
Drawing concentric circles is deceptively difficult. I wish I had spent a little more time on this one. We also thought about drawing a graduation cap or a diploma, but this was simpler and faster to draw.

New Markets: Generating Resources to Meet Core Missions

Another case where I was starting to feel the time crunch. This is supposed to be a drop of water (or oil). Something is off about the bump on the bottom and the slope of the sides.
I also don't think the working group is talking about natural resources, but financial ones.

UNH and the World: Advancing a Global Perspective
This is the symbol that got the most "what's that supposed to be?" questions. I was going for the look of longitude-latitude lines/Captain Planet's chest logo, but I didn't bother checking what those things actually looked like. The execution could have been better, if I had taken some lines out and added some curves. However, I still like this idea better than trying to trace the continents using the pen tool.

The logos were only a part of this project however. The other idea that Kyle had touched on when talking about this story was an idea about UNH changing, growing, or heading down a new path. I chose to run with the growing idea and make the largest part of the centerpiece a tree, with branches extending to each of the different icons. (I also considered a path/road motif, but I didn't like the initial sketches I made for that so dropped it)

Of course, I had knew I wasn't going to be able to find the exact clipart of the tree I wanted, and I didn't want a tacky looking Photoshop either. Again, I wanted something simple and clean with a decent amount of air around it to break up the gray that was going to be all over the rest of the page.

I was going to need to draw a tree in order to get what I want. And since I don't have the time, skill or technology to do something freehand, I went back to what worked in middle school, tracing.

As I finished touch-ups on the logos, I tasked editorial assistant (and future Design Editor) Christine Hawkins with finding an image of a tree that I wanted to use, based only off the descriptions like "post-modern truck" and "like the Lion King tree, but less leafy". After bickering over about two dozen different examples (too many branches, the trunks too skinny, etc.), she finally brought me this image from a family tree website.

The branches were really the important part, because they needed to be thick enough and wide enough apart for the symbols to be "hung" on them.

Using Illustrator, I traced over the family tree using the brush tool. I was my first extensive experience with the tool, and I was pretty pleased with the results. I'm glad the computer program smoothed out my lines, but still left them looking organic.

This what the tree drawing looked like using the normal brush tool.

I liked it, but it looked flat. So I messed around with Illustrator some more and found the option to change the type of brush I used. I liked the look of the felt tip marker option the best, so one click and....SHAZAM!

Now that's a good looking tree (though maybe a little dead looking, we'll say that was a metaphor).

While I had been working on the tree and logos, Nate had been working on the front page, leaving the centerpiece space open for when I was good to go.

I dropped the drawing on the page and manipulated it increasing the height and decreasing the width just a little. I dropped the symbols into equal sized picture frames with rounded edges and an embossed effect. I decreased the tint of tree, because leaving it straight black would have made it too intense and I wanted layer the headline on top of the graphic.

The headline is Century Old Style. I messed with the vertical spacing to make it all come together nicely (notice how the question mark comes up into the line above it.) And that's about it.

I didn't start building this graphic until about 8:30 p.m. and finished a little before midnight. It would have gone faster if I hadn't been called away a couple times and if I was more comfortable with Illustrator.

I think the end result was pretty good. If I had to go back, I would have spent more time on the logos, since I wasn't happy with the final look of a few of them. I would have adjusted the placement of some of the logos (The bullseye was just a little bit too high).

I would not, however, have added labels to the logos. I think the graphic says enough by itself (specifically, that UNH, the tree, has many focuses, the branches, that they are trying to grow) without having to add a bunch of words.

Here's the PDF of the final page with all the stories on it. Nate Batchelder did the everything else on the page, and, of course, Kyle Stucker wrote the article that I had to work with.

Here endeth the lesson,

John "The Lame Duck" Ferguson

Total time on project: About 3 hours
Programs used: Illustrator, InDesign

Testing, testing...

2009-04-02T20:49:00.010-04:00

Okay, we admit it. Our Arts & Leisure section needed a breath of new life. You can still expect your old friend 'the movie review' to show its face once in awhile, but we hope to put in more previews of movies, music, and local shows, as well as the occasional how-to section. With any luck, we'll also have a permanent weekly columnist, student submitted photos, and more feature articles. (Topics may include: agriculture, cooking, fashion, trends, and anything else we find generally interesting.) Plan on seeing a few other interesting tidbits here and there like blog recommendations, quotes of the day and some snark from the staff.

With new content will come vast changes in the design and overall feel of Arts. For starters, we will no longer be called Arts & Leisure. A few ideas have been tossed around, but the most popular names came down to Etc., Current, and The Verb. As for design...check out these beauts! (Click the photo a larger view.)

Some pieces to note in particular: On Etc. the column running up the left side is a section called 'The Groundling' which will be devoted to listing local shows, concerts, plays, and art exhibits. On the Verb: the flag in the middle of the page. To our happy surprise, it lends itself to layout flexibility. Large feature photos could be put above the flag/fold with the lead story to follow directly below. A combination photo and lead story could be put above the fold and some of the extras would fit below. While the same combinations could be used in Etc., the overall layout is hampered by 'The Groundling.'

Of course, we intend to use elements from both examples to express a cohesive and lucid design, but we want your feedback! What do you like about the way these new pages look? What doesn't work? Is there anything you wish to see more of in terms of content?

Look in the April 10th edition of The New Hampshire for the first of a few previews. We hope that you'll like what you see.

meredith

Front Page Design: The best laid plans...

2009-03-31T11:55:00.001-04:00

Sometimes things look awesome on the screen, and then don't turn out as well as you want them to on paper. Today's edition is a prime example. If you look at today's front page, you'll notice that the top photo, the flag and the date/edition blocks are all pixelated. Obviously, that's not intentional. On our InDesign page, the photo and layout looked fine, but for some reason in between our desk and the press everything got a little fuzzy (First impressions are that something wrong on our end with our Adobe Distiller settings. The fuzziness is apparent on the PDF we forwarded to the press.)

Oh well, we live and learn and do it better the next time. Anyways, I thought I would post my thought process as I was designing this page (Full discloser: I only laid out the top story. Managing Editor Nate Batchelder was responsible for all the goodness down below the fold)

So, we went into yesterday knowing that sports was going to be on the front page. Last weekend, there were two highly emotional NCAA tournament hockey games. After winning an overtime game against North Dakota on Saturday, the 'Cats fell to Boston University on Sunday by way of a power play goal with only 14 seconds remaining. Our sports photographer, Michael Ralph, got dozens of great photos from this weekend, and it was tough to pick just one for the front page. Ultimately, we decided to go with the photo from the last goal in the BU game, because of it's timeliness and composition (puck is clearly in the net, two players are prone on the ice, one is obviously distraught, the ref who made the critical penalty call just seconds earlier is pictured).

Because I wanted to play it big, and make it stand out, I decided to mesh the photo into the flag (similar to, as someone pointed out later in the night, the way Sports Illustrated does many of their covers)

To make the mesh happen, I created three layers in PhotoShop.

First, was the untouched base picture (above).
Then, I copied the flag from our InDesign template sized it to the photo. I had decided where I wanted to crop, placing the photo behind the flag in InDesign. I also deleted the background in the upper left corner of the photo so that the date and edition number would be visible.

Then I duplicated the original layer, and put it on top of everything. Next, I took the eraser tool and went wild. There wasn't really a need to be careful, since if I erased something on the top, it just revealed the things that were right below it. The tricky part was erasing the bits so the "Serving UNH" line appeared to go behind the goalie the ref and the goal, but behind Blake Kessel (the defenseman in the back.) To do that, I used the magnetic lasso tool with the frequency jacked up to 100.

Here's the top layer showing the parts I erased. I added a green background to make things stand out a little more.

And here's the finished photo with all of the layers displayed.

There was some trepidation about having the blue flag right up against the blue sing along the boards, so I added white lines in InDesign to give it some definition. I also added the kicker "NCAA Men's Hockey Championship Northeast Regional Manchester, NH" to the top right corner. Unfortunately, the press must not have seen it because it the reverse text failed to print in the hard copy edition.

*UPDATED*

OK, so now we have the picture and the flag, but we still need the headline, and something to indicate the score. Originally, I wanted the whole thing to be inside the picture frame, and thought there might have been enough dead space to use it. I was also set on using the headline "The agony of defeat". Cliche? Probably. But sometimes that's ok in headlines. Plus we had the news deck (bumped up a few points) to relay what actually happened in the game. I also wanted the hed to play big. Not quite Doomsday, but close. Definitely big enough to see from across the room.

This is what I got...

Everyone seemed initially happy with it, but there was something about it I couldn't shake. I definitely didn't like how the text partially covered Foster and Kapstad, as well as that lone stick out near the board. The score bubbles (resurrected from some pages I did last spring) looked lost up top. Also, the news deck was just too small, and we couldn't really make it bigger because I wanted everything to be on the top half.

I tried with a couple different variations on this - stacking the score bubbles, shrinking the headline, putting the headline up above Foster's head - but none of it was working for me.

So I went in a different direction. Take everything out of the picture and get rid of the bubbles. Grab a more traditional score box from the good ol' sports template folder and put it in the story. Crop the bottom of the picture a little, and make enough room to put the headline below the pic, but still on the page (it's not ideal, but I did not want that headline inside the picture any more.)

This is the end result, and what you saw in the paper.
In the hard copy, the picture and the headline fit perfectly above the fold, which is always something I worry about when going with this method.

In hindsight, I probably should have cropped more of the picture off on the left, to get rid of the dead space where the ice is and include more of Pollastrone's stick and the back of the net. O well, as I said, live and learn and do it right the next time.

I should say that none of this could have been done without the talents of Mike Ralph and Biz Jacobs, who produced the things that are most important about the newspaper, the photos and the stories.

One last extra tidbit for those of you that read this far. As I said, I was a little worried about the blue flag on the boards in the photos, so at one point I came up with an alternate flag that I ended up liking even less.

Here endeth the lesson,

John

Umiliation? Not this time!

2009-03-28T21:49:00.000-04:00

More highlights to come later.

The Madness of March

2009-03-27T13:30:00.001-04:00

You just never know, ya know?

We started out with a bang last night. Steve Damish stopped by, offering us feedback on the paper, tips to getting a job, and hope there'll still be newspapers when we graduate.

Seemed like we had a lot of people in last night helping with editing, which is good news. Had a lot of quality UNH stores, meaning we'll have a good paper for the next day.

Then the next thing ya know we're up till the wee hours of the morning (the sun may or may not have been rising just as we're headed to bed.) So you just never know.

Anyway more madness than usual took over last night. Someone was left without a workstation because one computer served as our TV.

Oh bless the internet.

Tried to upload the video to blogger but it wasn’t having it. So check out our Youtube channel to see footage of the Greek God contest, the newsroom watching basketball, and Brandon Lawrence mugging for the camera.

New Camera

2009-03-25T19:46:00.001-04:00

Visiting journalist Steve Damish of The Enterprise gave the newsroom a new camera, which we promptly put to use.

There's some bad language at the end. Sorry.

Passing of the Torch

2009-03-24T16:20:00.000-04:00

We took about an hour and a half out of the production night to vote for next year's Executive Editor. Two staffers threw their names into the hat for the job and were put on the hot seat last night. They got asked everything from stances on ethical issues to expected schedules next year to recruiting photographers.

Two things came out of the discussion. One, we were confident whoever got elected would be successful in the job. Two, Cameron Kittle was voted in as next year's e.e.

Serious business aside, we were trying to shake off the Spring Break. While a few went somewhere exotic (Maine doesn't count), most spent the break gearing up for the semesters final stretch. Some more staffers got word about summer newspaper internships, which is always good news.

Surprisingly one of the night's most discussed topics was not the election. Nope, it was chick flicks. As expected, the girls held their own. So did the guys. In fact, with one exception, most of the guys in the newsroom could name several chick flicks. And discuss them. Passionately.

Counting down the days till we can sleep in ...

2009-03-10T18:00:00.000-04:00

It's the third post. Which means a few things. A. we've been busy and B. we don't have a blog protocol. Let's focus on the former.

We realize people are counting down the days and scrambling to get things done before the break, but if you're looking to fill some down time or smuggle a bagel out of HoCo, may we suggest the latest issue of The New Hampshire. Now, now, now, before you get huffy at the idea of reading even more this week, just pick up a copy. there are a lot of good reads, relating specifically to UNH. Brand New rocked the Whittemore Saturday. Scope announced, to mixed reviews, Guster's April performance. Dictated But Not Read's Andrew Koral has an interesting Spring Break history... you know, you should just check it out yourself.

Big, big news is women's hockey locked up a forth straight Hockey East championship. Check out the back page. Dare we say, sports design one-upped news? Oh, dear. what's the world coming to?

Not that the front was too shabby. Consider that Nate learned then used Illustrator in about, what was it, seven and a half minutes? Oh yeah, he's a design savant.

You could tell we all had one foot in Spring Break. We were moving at the collective speed of molasses. One caption was debated, heatedly, for about an hour, maybe more. It's great when we're cruising, stories go smoothly from copy editor to news editor to design to layout. But when there's a hold up, whoa not good. And then the e.e. ends up turning the lights out at 3:30 a.m. on Tuesday.

But it's all worth it when you get the paper the next day around 11:00 a.m., open the second page and see ... you forgot to save the correction you needed to run.

Oh, it's so time for Spring Break.

A different kind of production night

2009-02-26T17:35:00.000-05:00

Tonight we are attempting something that has not been done this school year: a production night without our current Executive Editor, John Wayne Ferguson. He and seven other TNH staffers have journeyed to San Diego for a national journalism conference. Yes, they're enjoying the warmth of southern California and dream newspaper designs while we are hard at work in snowy New Hampshire, dedicating ourselves to the readers of The New Hampshire.

So, we'll break out the popcorn and coffee (compliments of our fine Business Coordinator, Julie Perron), and get started. Cue the music. Tomorrow's issue might look a little different. Just a warning. Here in the newsroom, it's always an adventure.