Online Provides Unlimited Real Estate

Being able to add content daily was one of the driving forces behind going online for my staff.

I was very excited to hear what Kristy Roschke’s thoughts about online media. We just started our online newspaper this past school year and have really enjoyed the ability to deliver news in a timely manner. Prior to this past school year, we would only published quarterly. It always bothered me that our newspaper sometimes felt like a yearbook because the news we included had to have such an evergreen quality because of our printing limitations.

We are still working on a plan as far as going all online or keeping some form of a printed news publication. I especially enjoyed the discussion we had about this issue. I shared some of the same concerns about going online when it comes to what happens if the location I am hosting our school’s publication on is one day no longer available. I really like having the print copy available but our students just don’t read it and I feel like we waste what precious little funds we are able to generate a product that like Kristy said “just ends up in the trash or on the floor.”

I like how Kristy also brought up how to share with a reluctant administration the value of having an online publication:

·         21^st Century Skills

·         Inexpensive solution to print

·         Great public relations tool

The fact that we have an opportunity to “train students for jobs that don’t even exist yet” can be very intimidating but I think that is what makes what we do in a publication program that is exciting. This simply echoed everything we have been hearing all week. The newspaper business is  not dying, it is just changing. And this is one of the changes I think is exciting.

 

Jill Burns

Robinson High School

Tampa, Fla.