Finals are finished. The grads have walked the stage and tossed their hats. Many of the staff members from the spring have graduated and moved on to bigger and better things, but some of us stayed behind and were joined by a new group of aspiring journalists.
We are the Summer Forty-Niner staff.
My name is Colleen Donnelly. I'm the new editor in chief of the newspaper.
Summer is a little more relaxed for us here in the basement newsroom, and when I say relaxed I mean we only spend eight hours working instead of the usual 12.
The Summer Forty-Niner is a weekly version of the Daily Forty-Niner, but finding content to fill it is just as tricky. The stories need to be important, but the kind of importance that can sit on stands for a week, not just one day.
The staff is dedicated. Everyone gives up one beautiful Southern California summer day a week to work in a basement with little to no fresh air. It's in these moments I find myself forgetting it's summer and I feel like I'm back in school again. But I’m very glad I’m not.
With the new staff comes new ideas, and with changing times comes changing forms of media. The Daily Forty-Niner and Summer Forty-Niner have often focused mostly on print, but these days many other newspapers are embracing multimedia and this summer, the Forty-Niner will as well.
Our website, www.daily49er.com, was recently redesigned. Today is launch day and we are one of the first schools in the country to launch a website using the latest version of College Publisher, cp 5.0.
A new look won’t be the only thing different about the website. We’ve recently received a couple of grants that we’ll use to purchase video equipment, cameras, microphones and even a green screen. We’re still working on getting the equipment, but once it’s here you can expect to see weekly broadcasts from our newsroom, along with other video coverage of campus and sports events.
We also hope to incorporate photo slideshows with audio, podcasts and more interactive features.
Last year there was talk about dropping the print edition of the Daily Forty-Niner and moving to a strictly online newspaper. Fortunately that never happened, the print edition is here to stay, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to neglect our website. This year will be about improving both, and really working to make our website just as valuable as our print edition.
It’s going to be a rocky road, as we need to learn to use the new equipment and the new programs, but the staff is willing to learn. So keep an eye on the print and the website. Over the next 10 weeks you’ll be seeing changes in both, courtesy of the Summer Forty-Niner staff.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
The Daily Forty-Niner 2007-08 year, by the numbers
Number of issues printed daily, Monday through Thursday: 10,000
Number of average daily website hits: 2,000
Number of hours it takes to complete one day’s issue: 12 to 14
Number of daily sections: Four
Number of online blogs: 16
Number of editorial staff members, both full-time and part-time: 29
Number of international students working on the editorial staff: Two. One is from Australia (put another shrimp on the barbie, mate) and another from Chile (her accent is funny).
Number of stories written by the staff printed daily, on average: Between eight and 12. Very few wire stories from other papers have been used.
Number of registered users at Daily49er.com: 469
Number of times people have hung angry anonymous notes on the newsroom door: Two. Both were on the same day, within 30 minutes of another.
Number of times people have threatened to sue the newspaper: Three
Number of legitimate legal cases those people had: Zero
Number of miles two staffers drove to cover a story: 820
Number of futons donated to the newsroom because of a complaint published in the newspaper: One. It’s now broken but it still works.
Number of manholes on the newsroom floor: Two. They act as sump pumps. Thank you, Facilities Management.
Number of animals made with Post-its on the editor’s office windows: Two. One is a penguin and the other is a tail-less “pig-fish.”
Number of the times the Daily Forty-Niner misspelled “spring” and published “sping” in large font: One
Number of hits the most popular article has got on Daily49er.com this year: 4,000. Last year, however, one got 77,524.
Number of most online comments an article has received on Daily49er.com: 81
Number of years a veteran Daily Forty-Niner staffer has worked for the paper: 30
Number of locked safes sitting idly in the newsroom whose combinations are unknown: One
Number of times the Daily Forty-Niner has published photos of its own staffers in the paper: Two. One was of the editor speaking to the ASI Senate and the other was an unidentifiable silhouette of an editor, which barely counts anyway. Unlike other campus publications that do it on nearly a weekly basis, we avoid the self-gratification of publishing photos of ourselves.
Number of times an editor hid things from other staff members: Three. Once it was the editor’s batteries to his laser gun, and the Top It ball, twice.
Number of Playboys still stashed inside the news desk: Two. They’re leftovers from a prank a few years ago. Honest.
Number of big guns published on the front page: One. Boom!
Number of mistakes that made it into the paper that warranted a correction: Too many …
Number of mistakes that were corrected beforehand and didn’t make it into the paper: If only you knew …
Number of average daily website hits: 2,000
Number of hours it takes to complete one day’s issue: 12 to 14
Number of daily sections: Four
Number of online blogs: 16
Number of editorial staff members, both full-time and part-time: 29
Number of international students working on the editorial staff: Two. One is from Australia (put another shrimp on the barbie, mate) and another from Chile (her accent is funny).
Number of stories written by the staff printed daily, on average: Between eight and 12. Very few wire stories from other papers have been used.
Number of registered users at Daily49er.com: 469
Number of times people have hung angry anonymous notes on the newsroom door: Two. Both were on the same day, within 30 minutes of another.
Number of times people have threatened to sue the newspaper: Three
Number of legitimate legal cases those people had: Zero
Number of miles two staffers drove to cover a story: 820
Number of futons donated to the newsroom because of a complaint published in the newspaper: One. It’s now broken but it still works.
Number of manholes on the newsroom floor: Two. They act as sump pumps. Thank you, Facilities Management.
Number of animals made with Post-its on the editor’s office windows: Two. One is a penguin and the other is a tail-less “pig-fish.”
Number of the times the Daily Forty-Niner misspelled “spring” and published “sping” in large font: One
Number of hits the most popular article has got on Daily49er.com this year: 4,000. Last year, however, one got 77,524.
Number of most online comments an article has received on Daily49er.com: 81
Number of years a veteran Daily Forty-Niner staffer has worked for the paper: 30
Number of locked safes sitting idly in the newsroom whose combinations are unknown: One
Number of times the Daily Forty-Niner has published photos of its own staffers in the paper: Two. One was of the editor speaking to the ASI Senate and the other was an unidentifiable silhouette of an editor, which barely counts anyway. Unlike other campus publications that do it on nearly a weekly basis, we avoid the self-gratification of publishing photos of ourselves.
Number of times an editor hid things from other staff members: Three. Once it was the editor’s batteries to his laser gun, and the Top It ball, twice.
Number of Playboys still stashed inside the news desk: Two. They’re leftovers from a prank a few years ago. Honest.
Number of big guns published on the front page: One. Boom!
Number of mistakes that made it into the paper that warranted a correction: Too many …
Number of mistakes that were corrected beforehand and didn’t make it into the paper: If only you knew …
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Making a better website - We're catching up!
Though it's not been publicized yet in the Daily Forty-Niner print version, a revamped version of Daily49er.com is coming your way, hopefully within the month if things go well. The excellent Online Editor Monica Sullivan has been working hard to implement the new front-page design, which promises to be clear, more modern and easy to navigate.
In the works are more modern multimedia features, such as streaming video and audio. The reason we have no had video online for years is simple - we had no video camera. But, as usual, we continue publish even through tough times to the best of our ability and the good news is cameras are on the way, thanks to a grant from the CSULB Alumni Association.
The Daily Forty-Niner has a proud history of being one of the first - if not the first - college newspapers to go online way back in late August of 1994. In fact, this little student paper was online even before the Los Angeles Times. Those first few years of online postings weren't pretty by modern standards, but they were there, and were there way before most people even know what the World Wide Web was.
Though the newspaper fell behind that innovation for a few years with an old-fashioned design at its old address on the CSULB server, it caught up again once the switch to the East Coast-based hosting company College Publisher was made in July 2006. CP allowed the newspaper to post free online in an easy and stable fashion, though at the price of having its ads put prominently on the site.
In the meantime, keep checking and reading.
In the works are more modern multimedia features, such as streaming video and audio. The reason we have no had video online for years is simple - we had no video camera. But, as usual, we continue publish even through tough times to the best of our ability and the good news is cameras are on the way, thanks to a grant from the CSULB Alumni Association.
The Daily Forty-Niner has a proud history of being one of the first - if not the first - college newspapers to go online way back in late August of 1994. In fact, this little student paper was online even before the Los Angeles Times. Those first few years of online postings weren't pretty by modern standards, but they were there, and were there way before most people even know what the World Wide Web was.
Though the newspaper fell behind that innovation for a few years with an old-fashioned design at its old address on the CSULB server, it caught up again once the switch to the East Coast-based hosting company College Publisher was made in July 2006. CP allowed the newspaper to post free online in an easy and stable fashion, though at the price of having its ads put prominently on the site.
In the meantime, keep checking and reading.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Bossing around the newspaper: What's up with that?
You might be suprised on how many people try to boss around the newspaper staff as if we're in the "customer service" business. Here's a sampling of what I mean:
"What? You won't publish my letter/column/article! You're violating the Constitution! You fascist!"
A small minority of people who don't understand First Amendment issues think that if a newspaper such as the Daily Forty-Niner refuses to publish something, it is a horrible, fascist violation of freedom of speech.
Wrong.
Publishing anything in newspapers or other media is a privilege, NOT a right. If someone wants to exercise freedom of speech, then post it on the Web and deal with the consequences of (1) probably no one reading it and (2) if it's libelous, dealing with possible lawsuits.
True modern-day violations of freedom is speech would be Big Brother not allowing you to publish on the Internet, or President George W. Bush walking onto CSULB to get someone to "stop the presses" with the many columns critical of him. This is called prior restraint. Newspapers are morally and societally obligated to publish things, but by no means are forced to do so. Get to know that, people who don't know better.
"We think you should have written it this way ... You should have included this ..."
Wrong (maybe).
Unless what we or any other newspaper are factually wrong in our reporting, there's no point in arguing about semantics. Artistic differences can happen all day long. Furthermore, humans make mistakes. Sometimes sources of stories will not like the way things turned out because it either puts them in a negative light or not the perfectly lit one they imagined - or something else entirely crazier.
Newspapers are not free marketing tools. Newspapers do not PR machines. Hopefully that facts will suffice and help educate those who work with newspapers or deal with media.
"I want you to run this story on this day about this angle. Thank you."
Are you an editor? Are you in charge?
No.
Only editors make those kinds of decisions. Of course, there is nothing wrong with sources or other people politely suggesting ideas (we like that), but when people get demanding like we're servers for them at Denny's, it gets annoying and insulting. It's not we get money tips, anyway.
Furthermore, an objective newspaper, with few exceptions on the editorial page, isn't "on anybody's team" and doesn't have to take orders that are rude to the editorial editor's mind. We don't want to be bossed around.
"What? You won't publish my letter/column/article! You're violating the Constitution! You fascist!"
A small minority of people who don't understand First Amendment issues think that if a newspaper such as the Daily Forty-Niner refuses to publish something, it is a horrible, fascist violation of freedom of speech.
Wrong.
Publishing anything in newspapers or other media is a privilege, NOT a right. If someone wants to exercise freedom of speech, then post it on the Web and deal with the consequences of (1) probably no one reading it and (2) if it's libelous, dealing with possible lawsuits.
True modern-day violations of freedom is speech would be Big Brother not allowing you to publish on the Internet, or President George W. Bush walking onto CSULB to get someone to "stop the presses" with the many columns critical of him. This is called prior restraint. Newspapers are morally and societally obligated to publish things, but by no means are forced to do so. Get to know that, people who don't know better.
"We think you should have written it this way ... You should have included this ..."
Wrong (maybe).
Unless what we or any other newspaper are factually wrong in our reporting, there's no point in arguing about semantics. Artistic differences can happen all day long. Furthermore, humans make mistakes. Sometimes sources of stories will not like the way things turned out because it either puts them in a negative light or not the perfectly lit one they imagined - or something else entirely crazier.
Newspapers are not free marketing tools. Newspapers do not PR machines. Hopefully that facts will suffice and help educate those who work with newspapers or deal with media.
"I want you to run this story on this day about this angle. Thank you."
Are you an editor? Are you in charge?
No.
Only editors make those kinds of decisions. Of course, there is nothing wrong with sources or other people politely suggesting ideas (we like that), but when people get demanding like we're servers for them at Denny's, it gets annoying and insulting. It's not we get money tips, anyway.
Furthermore, an objective newspaper, with few exceptions on the editorial page, isn't "on anybody's team" and doesn't have to take orders that are rude to the editorial editor's mind. We don't want to be bossed around.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Funny headlines in old Forty-Niner issues
Though we don't often have a lot of spare time in a day's work while slaving away for the paper, last week we did and, being news nerds, we looked through some old books bound with old Forty-Niner issues.
The following are some funny headlines we found:
"Campus fees for bathroom facilities won't be taken sitting down"
-Feb. 11, 1971
"Budget phantom strikes again"
-May 12, 1971
"Gringos go South for Easter"
-April 2, 1977
"No one wants to diet but board of control can't slice pie into enough pieces"
-May 6, 1971
"Wild goats help banana splits"
-March 18, 1971
Let's just all agree that in the year 1971 the Forty-Niner had a few good copy editors writing some good headlines. Furthermore, we find that history repeats itself: Budget phantoms are still a statewide problem today.
The following are some funny headlines we found:
"Campus fees for bathroom facilities won't be taken sitting down"
-Feb. 11, 1971
"Budget phantom strikes again"
-May 12, 1971
"Gringos go South for Easter"
-April 2, 1977
"No one wants to diet but board of control can't slice pie into enough pieces"
-May 6, 1971
"Wild goats help banana splits"
-March 18, 1971
Let's just all agree that in the year 1971 the Forty-Niner had a few good copy editors writing some good headlines. Furthermore, we find that history repeats itself: Budget phantoms are still a statewide problem today.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Impressions of The President's Forum
My first impressions of The President’s Forum on International Human Rights came long before most people. A few executive members of the University Student Union talked to me last semester because they wanted “to make sure the campus newspaper knew about it first.” As editor in chief, I was honored to hear such information and helped the staff plan ahead. It was a very busy week during the genocide forums, and because all the genocide conference stories were coming in late in the day, the last few hours before the final day’s deadline were very hectic.
On one of those days, Feb. 13, three women told of their personal accounts of genocide survival in Nazi Germany, Cambodia and Guatemala. I read what the original writer wrote and was horrified. It was lacking any significant reporting of those three’s amazing stories of both tragedy and survival. Because I was there as part of a class, I was taking down notes anyway. At the last minute, I practically re-wrote the story and added many quotations to do what I felt was better reporting for those women. Had I not added to the story what I had, I might’ve likely made the decision to cut the story entirely – it just wasn’t good enough for something as important as remembering genocide.
Other memorable parts of that week were the controversies, particularly at the Armenian Genocide forums. A few staffers got wind of threatening e-mails sent to a CSULB professor and wrote a story about it for the next day’s paper. I remember the sensitivity of the situation, and how some of the information we had was either cut at the last minute or heavily debated because people gave us information, then backed down, afraid of repercussions. We also wrote in the opinion page that some of the speakers seemed to be more concerned about selling books than anything else. I didn’t know enough about the situation to take a side, but it made me wonder if America’s infamous capitalist spirit was taking over even in the face of tragedy.
Lastly, during the genocide week I was very proud of the paper’s photography desk, aka “Team Photo,” for its amazing work. The staffers got some quality work done under considerable deadline pressure and posted many of them on our website, Daily49er.com, in slideshows.
On one of those days, Feb. 13, three women told of their personal accounts of genocide survival in Nazi Germany, Cambodia and Guatemala. I read what the original writer wrote and was horrified. It was lacking any significant reporting of those three’s amazing stories of both tragedy and survival. Because I was there as part of a class, I was taking down notes anyway. At the last minute, I practically re-wrote the story and added many quotations to do what I felt was better reporting for those women. Had I not added to the story what I had, I might’ve likely made the decision to cut the story entirely – it just wasn’t good enough for something as important as remembering genocide.
Other memorable parts of that week were the controversies, particularly at the Armenian Genocide forums. A few staffers got wind of threatening e-mails sent to a CSULB professor and wrote a story about it for the next day’s paper. I remember the sensitivity of the situation, and how some of the information we had was either cut at the last minute or heavily debated because people gave us information, then backed down, afraid of repercussions. We also wrote in the opinion page that some of the speakers seemed to be more concerned about selling books than anything else. I didn’t know enough about the situation to take a side, but it made me wonder if America’s infamous capitalist spirit was taking over even in the face of tragedy.
Lastly, during the genocide week I was very proud of the paper’s photography desk, aka “Team Photo,” for its amazing work. The staffers got some quality work done under considerable deadline pressure and posted many of them on our website, Daily49er.com, in slideshows.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Out then back in
Thursday morning we heard some breaking news and were getting ready to go to the scene like good journalists should. I “loaded” myself accordingly: a jacket to keep warm, digital camera with a decent zoom for pictures, recorder for grabbing quotes, notepad and pen for writing down stuff, laptop for putting the story immediately on the Web, business cards for handing out and my press pass for looking legit.
A few of us from the Daily Forty-Niner were half way to my car when we heard some more news. Minutes later, we were back in the basement newsroom, and I “unloaded” myself accordingly. I put off the jacket, put the camera back in its case, and stuffed the notepad, pen, cards and press pass back in my desk drawer.
An active, on-scene reporting story within an hour’s time became a passive — but nonetheless important — type of one. The unusual morning jolt stopped as quickly as it had started, and we were back on the Thursday morning routine.
The news was a possible shooter at Cal State Dominguez Hills up the 405 in Carson who was later discovered to be an ROTC student holding a non-functional gun. In any case, it’s very good that nobody was hurt, and that no shots were fired.
And I guess it also saves me a bit of gas money to not go up there.
Moreover, the “maintenance required” light is lit in my car. Better keep it parked until I can take it in.
A few of us from the Daily Forty-Niner were half way to my car when we heard some more news. Minutes later, we were back in the basement newsroom, and I “unloaded” myself accordingly. I put off the jacket, put the camera back in its case, and stuffed the notepad, pen, cards and press pass back in my desk drawer.
An active, on-scene reporting story within an hour’s time became a passive — but nonetheless important — type of one. The unusual morning jolt stopped as quickly as it had started, and we were back on the Thursday morning routine.
The news was a possible shooter at Cal State Dominguez Hills up the 405 in Carson who was later discovered to be an ROTC student holding a non-functional gun. In any case, it’s very good that nobody was hurt, and that no shots were fired.
And I guess it also saves me a bit of gas money to not go up there.
Moreover, the “maintenance required” light is lit in my car. Better keep it parked until I can take it in.
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