Marketing and Audience Engagement
As the leader of a print newspaper, I don't get the dopamine hit of seeing likes or comments on my publication that social media or online editors do.
However, we have effective old and new methods of making sure our publication gets the same engagement and accessibility as social media, regardless of its format.
Collaboration with other publications
This year, The Budget partnered with the only other high school student newspaper in town, The Free Press, to create an issue featuring both publications.
​The purpose was to cross promote both journalism programs by handing everyone an issue with two publications in one. This took place at the City Showdown football game, where our rival high schools football teams faced off, an event that usually brings a lot of publicity from the student body.
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It took extensive planning to pull off the process of combining two different publications. Here is a look at what that process looked like:
1. Planning
First, we wanted to make sure both publications had equal footing.
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We came up with the solution to have an equal number of pages by each staff and two covers, with one side being printed upside down to make sure there was no official front or back to this issue.
The middle page would have a creative design that blended both publications together, and instructions to flip to the other side.
2. Organization
To help coordinate content, we created a joint Basecamp board.​
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We wanted to make sure that both publications' content had a similar tone, while creating content unique to the school.
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Because LHS has a longer history, we focused more on its lineage while Free State focused on their athletic success.
3. Editing
During the editing process, we got together a couple times to coordinate making the finishing touches.
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After spell checking, color correcting, and fixing countless spacing issues, we finalized the idea of the middle page, which showed images of players from both teams.
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The only thing left to do was combine the files and send it to print!
4. Advertising
First, we completed a standard social media post, collaborating the post with their Instagram. It quickly become one of the most liked posts on our page.
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Second and most importantly, we distributed them to the student section during the game.
We also encouraged our respective student sections to hold up their side of the issue at the beginning of the games. Many students participated!
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This experience was a great chance to not only directly advertise our work to our student body, but a whole other high school.
It is by far the most elaborate advertised campaign I have participated in today.
Distribution day
Every time we publish an issue we have a very exciting event: Distribution day!
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This process involves stuffing the newspapers with ads, organizing them by room number and finally handing each teacher a fresh stack of newspapers.
This is the oldest method in the book. It gets students excited and curious about the colorful pamphlets.
​We also put copies in our newspaper boxes across the school. This way students can grab a copy from an authentic newsstand, adding another layer of excitement. It also makes them more accessible around the school.
Social Media Promotion
Although I am dedicated to print through and through, audience engagement relies on the digital world. Every time we release an issue, we promote it on both Instagram and TikTok. While Instagram usually only requires a picture, our TikTok promotions are spiced up with trending audio.
Holding out their publication, editors-in-chief Zana Kennedy, Bryndal Hoover, Arabella Gipp and Juliet Outka dance to the trending audio "Wait.... they don't love you like I love you," Holding the issue out on "Wait."
Covering their mouths with the latest issue, editors-in-chief Zana Kennedy, Sama Abughalia and Natasha Torkzaban lip sync to the trending audio "Because it's iconic. And I like to do iconic sh*t."
Smiling for the camera, editors-in-chief Zana Kennedy, Sama Abughalia and Natasha Torkzaban pose with their first publication for the world to see.
Attempting to form a pyramid, editors-in-chief Zana Kennedy, Bryndal Hoover and Arabella Gipp make a creative pose to advertise their publication.