Welcome to Journalism

Course Overview:

Vermillionaire

The Vermillionaire has a long-standing tradition at Vermillion High School. While the look of the paper has undergone a number of changes since I took on the role of journalism adviser, its popularity with the students keeps growing. During the 2004-05 school year, the paper underwent a major overhaul. The new magazine format boasts 24 pages of student journalism published every month. No longer jobbed out to a professional printer, the paper is published in house, saving the district a large chunk of money.

RAW News

The RAW News has only been in production for four years, but its popularity among students makes its release a much-anticipated happening on Friday mornings at the high school. Unlike the Vermillionaire, which is produced collectively, two student editors are responsible each week to put the entire paper together. While some features remain the same each week, a lot more flexibility can be seen in the look and content of this paper. Here students are in complete control of the layout, since pre-designed templates are not used. This gives students real-life experience in taking a paper from beginning to end in a short period of time. Real pride takes place in the quality of the work the editors do because "real" people see and critique their work.

Design Layout

Students use two different procedures to design newspapers. Since the school has gone to the magazine format for the Vermiliionaire, students now use design templates. This provides a map for the "look" of the page. Flexibility of design is not discouraged as long as it serves a purpose and adheres to the style of the paper. This is not the place to go crazy with fancy fonts or fill a page with pictures because one forgot to write a story.

The RAW News requires students to come up with their own layout. While strict guidelines are in place, no two papers look alike. To ensure that the text style is consistent, customized style sheets are saved in the page template, which is blank except for the name of the newspaper. Style sheets are a neat little tool that really save on the tediousness of getting everything to match.

Getting Started

• File Management

• Photography

• AP Style

Yearbook

• Templates

• Yeartech Picture Placer

• Publishing

Newspaper

• Vermillionaire

• RAW News

• Style Sheets

• Links

• Layout