The Mirror, the campus newspaper at Drury University, is a student-driven organization that discusses campus issues, things around Springfield, and topics from around the world.
Editor In-Chief Juan Franco leads the rest of the staff in producing a weekly newspaper each Friday. The Scoop sat down with Franco and other staff members to understand how the campus newspaper is produced.
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Budgeting the paper
The first step The Mirror staff takes is collecting the content they need for each page in budget meeting on Thursday afternoons. Here, the staff decides what campus issues should be covered around campus, and what will get the most attention from readers.
“We lay out what we want to cover for the week and who will write each article, and then the editors stay behind and define what each article will cover,” Franco said.
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Interviewing and writing
The next step the staff takes is collecting interviews and writing articles for the week. Staff writer Ryan Dickey collects his interviews a day or two after budget meeting so that it is easier for him to get his article by deadline.
“The first thing I do is search for a person that is relevant to my story, someone who has the valid experience or knowledge needed for the story,” Dickey said.
After interviews are collected, staff writers begin putting together their articles and produce whatever they need for the paper that week. Through this process it is important that the staff writer communicate with the editor that he or she is writing for that week so the page can be completed on time.
“An editor needs to have frequent communication with staff writers and photographers to make things happen,” said Weekend Editor Lillian Stone. “If there happen to be kinks in the process, it’s probably because there was miscommunication somewhere.”
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Article editing
After the staff writer submits an article, the editing process begins. The Mirror has a number of copy editors whose job is to make sure that each page is submitted with proper grammar, punctuation, and professionalism.
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Laying out the pages
The next step involves page editors laying out the articles, collecting and laying out pictures, and creating compelling page designs.
Stone described her process of editing: “As an editor, most of my job is making sure that my section comes together, so putting things together visually is a big part of it. I’ll sketch pages before any content happens and then I’ll go from there.”
Page design is one of the most important steps because it draws readers to the articles. Editors also create the headlines for their page, which, according to Franco, is one of the hardest parts of editing.
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Finalizing, sending the paper to press and delivery
The next step of the process includes Franco and Managing Editor Alexis Dutt looking over the paper to make sure each page is just right. Each article must be read with care so that it can be as correct as possible.
Franco sends the paper to press by 6 p.m. exactly one week after budget meeting. The paper is then printed and delivered back to Drury on Friday morning. Circulation Manager Kyungmin Kim delivers the papers to designated buildings around campus by 8 a.m.
