Anjali Kakarla
Writer, Reporter, Editor-in-Chief
Editing, Leadership & Teambuilding
I became a Website Editor-In-Chief of The Communicator Online my junior year.
At first, I was terrified. A meeting with the previous EIC's only worsened my fears as they rattled off terms such as the "backend" and "widgets." However, after a summer spent watching videos and learning how SNO worked, these terms became a part of my own vocabulary. As we headed into the school year, I was feeling confident. That feeling only grew, as I learned more and more of the elements the backend had to offer. I experimented with adding "Breaking News" banners and polls, story containers and chapters and so much more. After building out, scheduling and posting hundreds of stories throughout the year, it felt amazing when we were recognized with a Pacemaker award from the National Scholastic Press Association.
This year with an EIC team established at the beginning of the summer, we wanted to start preparing for the 2023-24 school year as soon as possible. Fellow website EIC Sana Schaden and I took MIPA's week long "Level Up Leadership" course with instructor C.E. Sikkenga. In the course, we were given hours of work time in which we were able to establish a website workflow that takes journalists from the story planning stage to a finished product. Additionally, we were able to make many presentations on topics ranging from "Creating SNO Story Drafts" to presentations about "Multimedia." Click on the images to the right to check out each presentation.
Editing & Organization
This year we have been using both FLOW and google sheets to organize content for the website. FLOW is extremely helpful for me as an editor because it allows me to change the status of a story and notify the journalist. For example, after completing edits on an article I can mark it as "Returned With Edits," signaling for the journalist to go through the edits I have made. By seeing where each story is in the writing process, I am able to easily discern which journalists may need help to get their piece ready by the preset due date.
In addition to FLOW, we have also been using a google sheet to keep track of publishing dates. This year we implemented a new policy that a final draft for a News article must be turned into editors a day before it is scheduled to be published. This new system has allowed us to ensure we have consistent content coming up in our News section every other day. For each of our other major content areas (Feature, Opinion, A&E, and Lifestyle), we require journalists to submit a final draft four days before it is scheduled to be published, as these articles are less timely.
