While not exactly a gripping discussion topic, the question “How is a newspaper produced?” is a good one. Most people realize that twice-weekly Student Life does not produce itself, but many are probably unaware of how much work goes into producing just one issue of the newspaper.

The sports staff gets to work the earliest, often requiring a full two-week block to plan a single issue. Story ideas depend heavily on the upcoming schedules of Washington University’s sports teams. Senior Sports Editor Nick Sreshta and Editor Dan Peterson decide what needs to be covered and which reporter will cover it. “We assign the stories, send them out over e-mail, and pray that the kids read their assignments and get them in on time,” says Sreshta. Sports photographers are then contacted and told which events are being covered.

Roughly a week before an issue comes out, the news section gathers to discuss and assign story ideas. These all-important meetings are the first step in producing a news section. Of course, that point is debatable. “News production never really ‘begins,’” says Senior News Editor Jonathan Greenberger. “Instead, it is an ongoing process. We are constantly on the lookout for people, issues, and events happening around the WU campus that may be of interest to our readers.”

The story generation that occurs at news meetings is not just the first but perhaps the most crucial step in bringing the news section together. “Without a good angle or story to pursue, even the best reporter will have a difficult time writing a compelling article,” says Greenberger. Once the stories are assigned, reporters receive e-mailed assignment sheets from their individual editor, with names of campus figures to contact, suggestions for angles, and links to pertinent online information.

Three days before the paper comes out is the opinion section’s submission deadline. One of two opinion editors, either Yoni Cohen or Alex Fak, select four columns to run on the page and edit all of them. Which submissions are chosen and which are not is left to the discretion of that issue’s opinion editor. “We have space for two [approximately] 750-word columns and two 650-word columns,” explains Senior Opinion Editor Rob Stolworthy. “Sometimes columnists are asked to cut from their column so that it will fit.”

Feeling ‘the crunch’

Two days before the publishing date, the staff of Student Life starts to feel the crunch. The business staff gives the editor templates of all of the advertisements. Also, news articles are due to editors, whose job consists primarily of editing for content issues, such as objectivity, readability, and flow. Grammatical errors are also fixed.

This is also the day that the editor in chief’s main duties begin. “At 5 p.m., I review, edit, and layout the letters to the editor,” says Editor in Chief Bernell Dorrough. “We tend to print all that we receive from WU students or about WU issues. If we have too many, we tend to eliminate redundant issues and prioritize them based on what we think readers will be most interested in. We try to print them all eventually.”

That night at 8 p.m., the staff attends the editorial board meetings, or e-board. “e-board meets twice a week to discuss the staff’s opinion regarding any particular topic of interest. At e-board meetings we review the already written editorial for the next issue to make sure it is ready for publishing,” Stolworthy explains. “We also discuss and debate our opinion on the topic selected for the paper two publishing cycles from now, and tentatively select a topic for the paper three publishing cycles from now.”

The cyclical system gives the staff time to conduct research, allowing for informed debate at later e-board meetings. During these debates, the staff participates in a roundtable discussion format which allows the opinion editors to gain a thorough understanding of the staff’s viewpoints, ensuring that the finished editorial will properly represent the staff’s opinion.

“It has been my experience that e-board usually is an accurate representation of the staff’s opinion. There are issues that come up which are controversial, however. Sometimes debates are long, and one particular viewpoint may win out by as little as one vote,” says Stolworthy.

Production for the opinion section is completed the night of e-board. With the editorial ready to go, the opinion designer lays out the four guest columns, the editor’s column, and all submitted letters. The staff finishes the opinion section before production night even begins.

Production day

One day before the paper comes out, the news editors e-mail the edited articles to the senior news editor for another round of read-through, focusing primarily on content. Next, those articles are sent to the editor in chief, who makes sure there is no potentially libelous content. Production day is when most of the editor in chief’s duties kick in.

“I usually arrive at the office around 10 a.m. I finish reviewing all of the opinion columns and finalize the opinion section to be copy edited,” says Dorrough. “Then, I begin editing the news stories… If I do find anything wrong, I send it back to the senior news editor to have the problem fixed.”

The bulk of assembly work on Student Life takes place during the afternoon on production day and straight on through the evening. As the editor in chief sets up page templates and designs “The Flipside,” or page two, section editors arrive. Sports editors arrive to edit the stories that reporters have e-mailed them, while the sports designers begin work on the layout, creating page designs that are unique to each issue. “This is sometimes tedious but is also sometimes very easy,” says Sreshta.

Meanwhile, copy editors trickle in throughout the day, checking for grammatical errors. “The copy editors are by far the unsung heroes of production,” says Dorrough. “[They] fix the mistakes that could be huge embarrassments for the paper.”

An enormous amount of what shapes a newspaper is its photography, and most graphics issues do not get sorted out until the last minute. “Everything we do is pretty much last minute,” explains Senior Graphics Editor Jack Darcher. Although photographers receive their assignments in advance, communications issues tend to arise.

“We often have trouble getting in touch with reporters early on, so we do a lot of work on production day. It’s no one’s fault, it’s just the way we end up doing our work. I kind of like it that way,” says Photo Editor Ian Oreland.

Coming together

As production day turns to production night and the midnight deadline approaches, the news designers arrive at the office to mold the next day’s Student Life. “They make sure the graphics and the articles are presented in such a way that readers can find what they want,” says Dorrough. “They allow you to just glance at the front page and immediately know what the main stories are that week.”

“When I get here all the articles have been written, approved, and ranked by story order,” explains News Designer Brett Friedman. “My job is to make all the articles, all the graphics, and all the headlines fit, and to make the whole thing visually appealing. It’s not the most difficult job, I don’t think, but you have to be nit-picky. I can easily end up sitting in front of a computer for seven hours.”

Once every page is laid out and copy edited, the staff makes PDF files-essentially high definition pictures-of every page of the paper. When the staff confirms that the pages are working, they electronically send them to the printer.

The morning of the day the paper comes out, Online Editors Annabelle De St. Maurice and Alyssa Gregory arrive at the Student Life office at 9 a.m. First, they resize the photos and convert them to TIFFs. “What we do, essentially, is convert the photos to a more web-friendly format,” explains Gregory. Next, the layout documents are formatted for the Web site and put online. They then send the issue to everyone on the Student Life e-mail list. Readers receive it around 11 a.m., about the same time the WU community is picking up copies from boxes all over campus and the South 40.

In the Sept. 23, 1949, edition of Student Life, former editor Joe Oppenheimer offered some words of advice. “So you’d like to work on Student Life?” he asked. “It won’t be a waste of time… Don’t be afraid to put in long hours. Any newspaper man will tell you that those extra hours you put in on your own pay off in added ability, that ‘lucky’ news break and, better yet, that eventual pay raise or promotion… The time you spend on SL will be worthwhile.”

We agree.

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