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Web and Social Media

In the past few years, online content has gained more traction as we typically are publishing multiple stories online every day, in addition to the print cycles. We have more views on stories than ever before and are publishing an unprecedented amount, but quality over quantity will always be my main priority.

Multimedia

Every single article, unless it is same-day breaking news, must have an element of multimedia before it can be edited by the managing team. There is simply so much to explore by way of timelines and interactive graphs, and they greatly enhance audience engagement with more visual elements. I created a poster for the Media Team so that new writers would not be intimidated by this new requirement, and know who to reach out to if they need help with platforms like Infogram and Canva.

Monitoring analytics

I am always following the analytics of our site to see how our audience responds to different types of content. As you can see in the graph, we have had more views than ever this past year, and the average session time on each story page has greatly increased. This is a great way to gauge that people are not only clicking on our site, but enjoying reading, watching or listening to our content.

Interactive elements

Aside from breaking news, all approved stories must list an interactive or multimedia element to ensure that our audience is actively engaging with our content, and to challenge staff members to dive deeper into their reporting. I frequently use timeline tools and interactive sidebars in my own reporting:

The Standard •

Local Victorian church burns down

A fire broke out inside St. Mark’s Church on Hamilton Terrace starting at 11 p.m. Jan. 26, according to Police Constable Luke Leballeur. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Leballeur said electrical engineers are scheduled to inspect the water system inside the church today, and “the footpaths will hopefully be open tomorrow.”

Naomi Kuagben, a local resident, said she attended Sunday mass at St. Mark’s Jan. 22, as she has done regularly since Christmas. She said she noticed the churc
The Standard •

Social Justice Council, Administration respond to escalating violence between Israel, Gaza

The Social Justice Council hosted a forum for High School students Oct. 12 to discuss the impact of the ongoing conflict in Israel and Palestine.

SJC Co-President Jemma Granite (’25), who helped organize the event, said she wanted to create a space for students to come together and share their thoughts.

“The first step in dealing with a conflict like this, especially in a school environment, is to just have compassion for people,” Granite said. “Understand people’s different perspectives, and
The Standard •

Death of Queen Elizabeth II ripples through community

As a child, Assistant Principal Natalie Jaworski said she viewed England as a “magical place.” Jaworski’s perception of the country was largely shaped by stories of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign that were passed down from her grandmother, a London resident who lived through World War II until 1947. Jaworski said she still carries a pin from the Queen’s Coronation in 1953, which was initially in the possession of her grandmother. This week, Jaworski held the same emblem in mourning.

After 70 years
The Standard •

Texas school shooting spurs discourse on gun control

Over 1,000 students ages 5 through 18 walk onto the ASL campus every day. When doing so, students file past numerous security guards and bulletproof glass that surrounds the entrance. For 19 students and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, May 24 was the last day they walked into Robb Elementary School, per The New York Times.

Head of School Coreen Hester said she turns on the news channel BBC Four every morning, which is how she learned about the shooting in Texas. She said she was “heartsick about

Alternative story formats

Depending on the story's content and multimedia elements, I am always thinking about how we can most effectively communicate information with the audience. I discussed using an alternative story format for this piece on eating disorders with the writer because she had so many multimedia elements and pull quotes that it would have been overwhelming for readers all in one block. We decided to use the chapter story format so it would be easy for readers to navigate between different sections.

Event coverage

I established a clear and straightforward system for event coverage on Instagram to allow for same-day reporting and encourage reporters to cover as many school events as possible. All photos and captions are sent to me directly; I edit as soon as possible, coach the writer on their knowledge of caption writing if necessary, and send the final version to two members of the Media Team who insert the content into the template and post. The Standard is posting on Instagram more than ever and has increased its following to over 930 followers after it had stagnated in the 800s for a couple of years.

Social media

Many students only follow our content on social media, so I wanted to create as much of a connection as possible between social media content and online or print content. By putting links to articles in Instagram stories and teasing online content in posts, we are able to bring more students to our site and read full-lenght articles rather than just photo captions and briefs. The Deputy EiC: Online and I also post a teaser for every article on Twitter and Facebook, which brings many alums and parents to the site.

Social media layout

I worked with the social media managers of the Media Team to establish a posting schedule for all of our platforms and establish a clean template that could be used for every post so that our content would be recognizable as students scrolled through each app. We decided to use different templates for sports and news coverage on Instagram, and make sure that The Standard logo was always visible in the corner of the screen on TikTok.

Bridging online and print

To revitalize print as a news source in the school, I created the Standard Scoop, a weekly briefing that I print on Fridays that has a news brief, funny highlights and lowlights from the editors, a calendar of events for the following week, a photo spotlight, and our website QR code. Every print edition also has multiple QR codes for stories with bonus online content. That way, there is a clear connection between all of our content and readers are inclined to explore both. Right now, I am the only one putting it all together, but I would like to make it a formal role next year so it continues to have a place in the school.

Managing daily posting

At the start of every editors' class, the Deputy EiC: Online and I go over online posting with each section. This way, everyone knows what is being posted every day and can catch overlap with articles that have been pitched. With new stories every day, it is absolutely essential to be organized and transparent about online posting. We use the platform Trello to move stories around the calendar and show where they are in the editing process.

Exclusive online packages

A great way to dive into one subject and really explore all of its avenues is to create an online pacakge where writers can run with the theme. I created an online package revolving around music, which has about a dozen articles. I am currently designing the layout on Adobe Express, but due to delays in the editing process, it has not yet been published.

In the first week of the school year, I made this video at Senior Sunrise to demonstrate that I was committed to transforming our use of broadcast coverage. I filmed these clips before 7 a.m., edited the video together, and published it before our first class at 8:30 a.m. I could see how big of it an impact it had as I was walking through the hallways and could hear the video playing from students' phones all day long.