A grow­ing num­ber of col­lege news­pa­per are mov­ing to Word­Press as a Con­tent Man­age­ment Sys­tem. For a time, Col­lege Pub­lisher seemed to be the only way a col­lege news­pa­per could be pre­sented on the web.

Has your paper made a switch in Con­tent Man­age­ment Systems?

How did it go?

What do you wish you knew before you started?

Show us your site. (Please)

New Year in the Newsroom

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There is a foot­ball game just about every week­end from now until Thanksgiving.That means your paper (or online news site) will be devot­ing quite a bit of space and time to the ol’ pig skin.

So, we want to see your best.

Post a link to what you think is a Touch­down of a foot­ball arti­cle or col­umn and share briefly what makes it worth six points.

We’re not vot­ing and you don’t win any­thing, save for the respect of other col­lege journos and some extra hits on your site.

There’s no limit to your shar­ing. Check­ing back often is HIGHLY rec­om­mended. (as always)

Do some brag­ging, people!

For col­lege news­pa­pers across the coun­try, the aca­d­e­mic year is wrap­ping up and in the words of the great Bob Dylan, “…the times, they are a changing.”

As edi­tors and staff move on to what­ever is next and lead­er­ship roles are filled by new peo­ple there is a pass­ing of information.

A lot of what you’ll be doing will stay the same. A lot of what you do will get bet­ter. A lot of what you do won’t be fully appre­ci­ated by your read­ers, but we the inky-fingered mem­bers of col­le­giate news­pa­pers are a unique mili­tia of infor­ma­tion. (more…)

Daunt­ing as it may seem, the time is draw­ing near when there will be a life beyond one’s col­lege news­room. (Shock­ing, I know.)

Where that life will be, what it will involve and how to start are all ques­tions young jour­nal­ists, edi­tors, design­ers, web-heads and all of the other peo­ple ded­i­cated to the news media beyond the col­lege level may ask. (more…)

For many col­lege news­pa­pers, the dead­line for get­ting pages to the printer is some­where around mid­night or just after. (more…)

Col­lege news­pa­pers uti­liz­ing social media like Face­book and Twit­ter, or even on the newspaper’s Web site can ben­e­fit from inter­ac­tion between and with their read­ers. How­ever, as com­ment­ing, shar­ing, links and all other becomes an active part of your news orga­ni­za­tion, a pol­icy may be nec­es­sary to main­tain the integrity of the social media.

We’ve had a few inquiries about this. If your paper has a Social Media pol­icy, a resource for one or some­thing else ben­e­fi­cial, please paste it as a com­ment below, or share a link to it.

Odds are, if an orga­ni­za­tion has a Web site, they prob­a­bly also have a Face­book Fan page. Even Col­lege News­room has one.

But for col­lege news­pa­pers, a face­book fan page can cre­ate a forum where com­ments may be less about sto­ries and more about attack­ing writ­ers, staff mem­bers or spread­ing rumors. (more…)

When Wes Mau­rer gets asked what will save news­pa­pers, his sim­pli­fied response is good writ­ing and good journalism.

Mau­rer, the pub­lisher and edi­tor of the St. Ignace News in St. Ignace, Mich. and the Mack­inac Island Town Crier, rep­re­sents an old school style of news­pa­per jour­nal­ism that isn’t focused on tweets and web prowess, but more so the con­tent that fills the space between the reader’s thumbs as they hold the paper in front of their face. (more…)

The Col­lege News­room Team will be attend­ing the Michi­gan Press Asso­ci­a­tions annual con­fer­ence in Grand Rapids, Mich. on Fri­day Jan. 29.

This is a great oppor­tu­nity for the col­lege news­pa­pers of Michi­gan to pose ques­tions (as a com­ment below this post) and get answers.

Let us know what YOU want to know.

Or, if you’re going to be at the con­fer­ence, stop by our table next to the reg­is­tra­tion area.

Look­ing for­ward to meet­ing you.
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