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.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Monday, December 7, 2009
TNH Writers, By the Numbers
Here are the latest figures for staff and contributing writers for the first semester, as of Dec. 8, 2009 (one issue remaining)..
Staff Writers:
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
- 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
- Total Number of Contributors: 74
- Total Number of Stories Written : 416
- Average Number of Stories per issue: 16.64
Friday, November 6, 2009
Back, excited, and raring for some changes
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:
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.
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.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
National College Media Convention: Austin, Tx.
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
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
Friday, October 16, 2009
The newsroom's colder, but the editing's warming up...
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
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
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
It's been way, way too long...
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
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
Friday, August 21, 2009
Big Year on the Horizon
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
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
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