Change happens, and New Trier is no exception. Sports teams mix up their rosters. Clubs are formed and transformed. Staff and students come and go. But the school newspaper? Well, we’ve been the same for the past 20 years.
That’s why we at The New Trier News are excited to unveil our revamped format. We decided that it was time for change. Allow us to explain.
The front and second pages have been transformed into the “Newsfeed” section. We know that content on past News pages may not have always been of high interest to students.
However, we think this section will relate more to the everyday student, complete with coverage of the very experiences they have, are, or will encounter at some point in their New Trier experience. The majority of our news will be student-centered.
The next two pages will be our new “Perspectives” section. We hope that this section quite literally serves as an outlet for various perspectives around school.
On the first page of “Perspectives,” there will be two weekly columnists providing viewpoints about whatever’s happening in and around school. Complementing these views will be our staff editorial, traditionally written by one of our editors-in-chief.
The second page will be even more free-flowing– Photo-opinions, opinion pieces by additional staff, letters to the editor– we want to give a written voice to New Trier. Think of it as an open mic in print.
The center of it all is “The 385.” This new section is intended to legitimately document the goings on inside the halls of 385 Winnetka Avenue (New Trier’s address).
Each article in this two-page section will be more culturally oriented; weekly mainstays will include “trending this week” (as in clothing, social media behaviors, etc.) and “10 questions with…”. We wanted to include pieces that people would legitimately read, and life inside 385 Winnetka Avenue is interesting in itself.
Not every article will have something to do with New Trier, but there will be a cultural component and relevancy to each piece.
Sports is sports. It won’t change much. We will continue to write pieces about the many teams at New Trier, and the “three stars of the week” feature will stay on the back page.
On page 7, however, will be a new “pop culture grid,” in which four athletes will be asked somewhat random questions about their tastes, rituals, etc.
Spanning the bottom of pages 2 through 6 is our Twitter ticker. Each week, we plan to Tweet a question relating to an article in the issue. Student responses to this question will then show up on the ticker.
This is our most concerted effort to ensure student engagement and really add a bit of flavor to each page.
To supplement all of this, we’d really like the paper to become as visually pleasing as possible. This means a transition to larger (and more) pictures, larger page headings, and subheadlines.
Our hope is that this new-look New Trier News will provide a fresh, insightful, and engaging source through which students, staff, and the outside community can see our school.
We love delivering the news to New Trier. We think our audience will continue to truly love reading it.