Week 11 and 12.

Planning the Campus Paper

An effective campus paper informs its readers, is consistent in writing style

and design, comes out on schedule, is ethical in its content, and serves the purpose of
its community.
Beginning a campus paper is easier said than done. Before getting started, the
campus paper adviser should have the abovementioned goals firmly in mind as he/she
forms an editorial team. It is not just a matter of having good writers, there is also a need
to sit down with the editorial team, formulate the paper’s vision-mission, and make a plan
before actually getting started..
At the end of this chapter, you should be able to develop a clear and practical
understanding of the following:
1. What is the process of designing a paper?
2. What are the things to consider in designing a paper; and
3. Parts of a newspaper.
- ( / - )

`Direction: Answer the following question below.

1. Do you have any plan to establish your own publication in the future?
2. If given a chance, what would be the name of your publication?

These are the learning resources that you can use for the wider understanding of
this topic.
1. Khan, Rachel E, (2017). Campus Journalism. Anvhil Publishing Inc.,
Mandaluyong City.

An editorial team should be formed from the best writers in the class. These are
students are not necessarily the ones with the highest grade averages since usually these
students have higher grades in sciences than they do in English courses. The editorial
team should be composed of people who enjoy writing or want to improve in this craft.
The first step for editorial team is to decide the sections of the paper. This will help
determine the subeditors needed for the newsroom. Is there a literary page or a science
page? Then, you will need either a science editor or a literary editor or both.
 Knowing the school’s budget for the campus paper will help the team decide the
paper’s size, frequency, type of paper, and number of pages. Based on experience, the
most economical size is 11 * 17, the size of two sheets of letter-sized bond paper. There
is no wastage and no need to spend extra for cutting the rolls of paper. The most
economical number of pages is divisible by four. A paper should have minimum of eight
(8) pages, but the ideal number is 16 pages. Those with a bigger budget can opt for the
standard tabloid size.
A printing press may try to convince you that the best paper is coated-2-sides
(C2S), but actually glossy paper makes text harder to read and is more appropriate for
magazines then newspapers. If you have enough budgets, opt for 110 or 120 grams per
square meter book paper. Good-quality newsprint is also an option for those with low
budget, although the price difference may be minimal.
Designing a Paper
After choosing the paper quality and size, the next thing to consider are the
elements of design: fonts, number of columns, color. A design draft is often referred to as
a “dummy”.
 Fonts- a font is the term used to denote the typeface of letters, numbers,
punctuation marks, and other symbols. The type of font gives readers visual cues
and tells them if this page has serious or light content. Its size is referred to as a
“point”, which is actually 1/72 of an inch. The font size of the body of the text of a
national newspaper is usually 9 or 10 points.

The type of font is crucial to design. A badly chosen type of font detracts
the readers from the words it represents. To illustrate, would you take this book seriously
if it had fancy font like “Jokerman?”
There are two basic types of fonts: serif, which has marks at the end of each
stroke (Times New Roman) and sans serif, which has none (Tahoma). Most print
designers prefer the serif fonts for body text and sans serif for headlines because the
former is easier to read even in small print.
Serious material like news, should have a serious font such as Times New
Roman or Garamond; while the literary or fun pages could experiment with new fonts
such as Gigi, French script, or Rage Italic.
The editorial team should decide on the following: the type and size fonts
for the body text, headlines, and subheads of most its pages. Banner stories (front page
headline) should have the biggest fonts, usually 40 points up. There should be standard
sizes for fonts of less important stories, for instance, 32 points for next most important
stories and 20 points for smaller stories. Ideally, there should be only a maximum of three
types of fonts in the serious pages.
 Color- another thing to consider is color. The most economical choice is a one-
color paper. But to make the paper interesting yet economical, it is best to have
the outer spread (front and back pages) printed in full color but have the inside
pages printed in one color (preferably black, dark blue, or dark brown.)
 Number of columns- The number of columns also gives the paper a distinct look.
This should be consistent within all pages of the paper, even in the literary pages.
 Respecting column inches gives the paper a sense of order and consistency. It does
not make the paper monotonous if the designer knows how to play around with
it. For example, a story can be laid out in a horizontal manner appearing like a one-
column story, but it occupies space of a standard two columns in a five-column
page design. A dummy of the newspaper is usually drawn to help the editors
visualize the look of the paper even before the design is laid out on the computer.
 In mainstream newspaper, a set of dummies is also drawn by the advertising
department to show the editors the ad placements on their respective pages. The
dummy shows the editor how much space is still available for the news stories.
The designer should choose how many columns there should be in the publication
to give the paper a distinct look.
 White Space- also known as negative space is the term describing open space
between design elements.
 While it is not always a conscious part of design, it is important to examine if the
page has enough white space to maintain balance and readability. This pertains to
the empty space between words, paragraphs, in or around a picture, and in
between elements. A page will look to cramped if it lacks white space.
 White space can be between letters, words, or paragraphs of text; space in and
outside of graphics, and between all of the elements of the page.
 But not all white space is good. Unattractive rivers within your text are created
when you force to justify text alignment. This makes the page look unprofessional
and should be corrected by minor editing, for instance, by adding or removing
words from the sentence.
 Lines and Shapes- can be used to add order, emphasis, and rhythm to the page. It
makes the page more interesting and easy to read. Unusual shapes (from pictures
or graphics) can be used to attract attention.
 Photos should always have a birder which also guides the printing press in aligning
a photo to the page. Unless it is a part of the design, the border should be no more
than a hairline.
 Size- last but not the least, among the design elements is the size of the items
(text, picture, and graphics) on your page. Size, signifies to readers what is
 important, it attracts attention as to what they should read or see first, and helps
achieve balance.
 Photographs- in this day and age of visual media, the old adage “a picture paints
a thousand words” has never been truer. Photographs give life to a page and good
photographs attract readers. On the other hand, a bad photograph can destroy
otherwise good layout.
 The quality of the photograph is just as important as its composition. Photographs
for newspapers should have a high resolution (for a digital camera, it is 5
megapixels and higher); otherwise, the pictures become pixilated and
unrecognizable. Pictures taken using cellular phones should be avoided since
these are usually low-resolution photographs or have limited lens angle.
 Some tips to remember:
 When the subject of the photograph is facing one side, the layout should make
him face toward the center of the page and not outward. Readers tend to follow
the gaze of the subject in the photograph and you would like them to look at the
articles instead of turn the page.
 As much as possible, avoid the firing squad pose. Ask your photojournalist to make
the subjects do other more interesting poses.
 Photos that have a lot of subjects and/or are interesting should be bigger than
photos of one person. Photos that look like passport or ID pictures should not be
blown up.
 Lastly, do not stretch or shrink a photo forcibly. The integrity of the photograph
should be respected when cropped.
 The work of a photojournalist is not just picture taking. He/she should note of the
event, day, and time of the photograph he/she takes as well as then names and
titles/positions of the subjects of the photographs.
 Photo captions, on the other hand, should be written by the photo editor, taking
into account the story that the photograph accompanies. Captions should not
state the obvious but give additional data or context to the photograph. For
instance, a caption should not say, “Principal poses with first year students” but
“freshmen meet Principal Varela for the first time.”

Parts of a Newspaper
Part and parcel of designing the newspaper is deciding on the sections. Of course,
you should keep in mind that the identity of your publication and the first impression you
make on your readers is on the front page.
 Front Page- is the most important section of the paper because it contains the most
important news of the dat. Most newspaper carries standards parts that give them their
identities.
1. Tagline- it identifies the paper’s motto or marketing pitch. It can go from profound
like Business World’s “A Newspaper is a Public Trust” or it can simply state a fact,
“Masbate High School’s Official Newspaper.”
2. Masthead- This shows the logo of the newspaper.
3. Day/Date/Volume or issue- this line gives the date of publication of that particular
issue. Sometimes this also includes the price of the paper.
4. Body text- this refers to the font used for the body of the story.
5. Photo Caption- this refers to the text that identifies or describes the photograph on
the page.
6. Banner- refers to the main headline of the newspaper. The banner carries the biggest
font size to let readers know that this is the most important story of the day.
7. Byline- this shows the name/s of journalist/s who wrote the article.
8. Jump- It tells the readers where to find the rest of the story if it did not fit the front
page.

Some newspaper carry what is called “ears?” These are teasers found on the upper
left or right of the masthead that point to human-interest stories that are found on
another page inside the paper.

-Inside Pages
Each newspaper has distinct sections that cater to the interests of the readers. The
thickness of a newspaper depends on the number of sections as well as the volume
of advertisements in the paper. Despite the differences between and among
newspaper, the most basic sections are usually included. These are the following:
 Front page- the first page of the newspaper that contains the most important news of the
day.
 Op-ed page- the page that contains editorial and opinion columns of the paper. It also
contains the masthead with the list of editors.
 Business page- this page contains the most important business news of the day. It also
has the results of the previous day’s stock market and the exchange rates.
 Nation page- this refers to the page that contains all the political and socioeconomic news
of the day that are not on the front page.
 Sports page- this page with the updates on sports, games, and athletes.
 Arts and leisure- this page contains movie and restaurant reviews as well as other cultural
features.
  Classified ads- this is the section of the paper that contains the small advertisement and
announcement. The page is usually situated next to the orbituary page, which contain the
notice of deaths sent by readers.

Questions:
1. What is the process of designing a paper?
2. What are the things to consider in designing a paper; and
3. Parts of a newspaper.

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1. Form groups of three or four members. Design a dummy for your paper, complete with
a name. If you have computers, design a masthead, too.

2. Form two or three groups (around eight members each). Each group will be the editorial
team of a paper. Plan a campus paper: assign the “role” of each member of the team,
and decide what sections should go into the paper and brainstorm on story ideas for the
first issue. Design a dummy of the front page and masthead.

3. Compare and contrast the layout of three broadsheets or community papers. A.) What
fonts are used? B.) Look for possible errors in the design of the papers. c.)Draw a dummy
based on the front pages of the papers.

Paper 1 Paper 2 Paper 3

a. Fonts used

b. Errors

c. Dummy