Houlton High Times editor,Houlton Pioneer Times intern
While the basis of writing for a school newspaper and a local newspaper is the same, the differences in the two are far more extensive than what may be seen at first glance.
FUTURE WRITERS/PHOTOGRAPHERS – Learning about the world of journalism at Houlton High School are, left to right, front, Max Rush, Ben Austin, Rachel Cleary, Abe Carmichael and Landon York; back, Jordan Tweedie, Michaela Blow, Tiffany Bossie, Scott Anderson, Tara Lawlor, Amanda Graham, Haley Nickerson, Mandi Bubar and Sebastian Berry. The students are writers and photographers for the Houlton High School newspaper.
I began writing for the Houlton High Times at nearly the exact same time as the Houlton Pioneer Times. Working at both papers has been a great opportunity and has given me much experience into the life of journalism.
Each paper has helped me to develop different areas of writing and etiquette that I take from one paper to the other.
At the Pioneer Times I have been given the chance to acquire real-life experience in the field of journalism. Lessons I have learned about creating layout and effectively executing interviews at the Pioneer are constantly carried over and used during journalism class. Conversely, the structure, technique, and ethics that are taught in journalism class are worked into the articles I write for the Pioneer Times.
“It’s wonderful to have a supportive local newspaper that allows students real life application of the skills we learn in class,” explained Houlton journalism teacher Traci Storti.
Despite these similarities, it took very little time to begin to notice slight differences in the way tasks are accomplished within each system.
One quite noticeable difference between the two is the audience. While writing for a school newspaper it is important to remember that the articles need to keep junior and senior high school students interested. The need for flair allows for high school journalists to be slightly more relaxed with the technique and configuration of their writing at times, as long as they are able to make their story entertaining.
The need to entertain also becomes important because it is nearly impossible to break news in a school newspaper. With the eight-day delay of publication, along side the speed that news travels through the halls of a 350-pupil school.
In contrast, I have found that when writing for a local paper the readers are primarily looking to be informed, rather than entertained. With only one-night turnover for publication, it is much easier to break news or summarize a sports event that some of the public has not heard about yet.
Another very obvious deviation between writing for a school newspaper and a local newspaper is the atmosphere and co-workers. While the point of journalism class is to put out a paper, you must keep in mind that it is, indeed, a class. All of the writers are actually students, learning the structure and technique of writing different kinds of articles. The atmosphere is one of development and growth, where a columnist can spend a month on one article and deadlines are occasionally flexible.
On the other hand, the colleagues at a local paper are professionals, sitting in cubicles and working on a strict deadline every week. The speed and routines of the local paper are a higher, more meticulous level.
And the final difference between my experiences writing for the Pioneer Times compared to the Houlton High Times is the articles I write. For the Pioneer, I work exclusively on sports articles and photography. I have yet to do any sports writing for the high school paper. Instead, I focus on doing news stories, dealing with anything from politics to senior jig day.
Writing for a single newspaper can be quite stressful at times. Writing for two can be chaos. While it is hard to juggle the demands from both newspapers, it has continued to teach me how to use time wisely, as well as supplying the maximum amount of experience in a small amount of time.
Both of these platforms have given me a great opportunity to learn the necessary tools for becoming a journalist.
