Our second issue came out on the 25th of November, and was, in my opinion a significant improvement upon the first one. We were much more efficient with our use of time and prepared the issue well in advance of distribution time, to allow us to not only comprehensively proof-read the issue, but also to iron out any possible problems with our supervisor.
We set the deadline for articles a good week in advance of distribution time to give us time to actually physically get together and edit the articles with Pauline during lunch-time which would not only alleviate our home work-load, but would also allow for easier editing with less duplication and actual discussions during the editing process, which is more difficult to do virtually. It showed us the extent to which time management is important, as I feel like this was the deciding factor in minimizing stress and increasing the quality of the finished product.
What also hugely contributed was the new layout software we used. I asked Ms. Platt, our wonderful art teacher to show me the basics of inDesign, a piece of software used by professional layout designers, whose user interface was far more intuitive compared to the other software I used previously and allowed me to make a significant improvement in the layout of the paper. People actually commented on the improvement, and I felt it too, so I think that taking the time to learn it was very beneficial. What's more, I definitely want to progress further, be that through YouTube tutorials or more lessons with Ms. Platt.
Us photocopying earlier on the friday before the 25th was also very, very useful. We gathered a team after school to staple everything on time, and got together a flow-production-like process to make it painless and efficient.
What's most important however, at least for me, was the fact that we increased the amount of pages in the paper from six to eight. The sheer volume, and quality, of the articles which we got was overwhelming! So much that we had to increase the amount of pages! The fact that our journalists are so eager to write is the surest way for me to assure myself that the paper is actually working.
We set the deadline for articles a good week in advance of distribution time to give us time to actually physically get together and edit the articles with Pauline during lunch-time which would not only alleviate our home work-load, but would also allow for easier editing with less duplication and actual discussions during the editing process, which is more difficult to do virtually. It showed us the extent to which time management is important, as I feel like this was the deciding factor in minimizing stress and increasing the quality of the finished product.
What also hugely contributed was the new layout software we used. I asked Ms. Platt, our wonderful art teacher to show me the basics of inDesign, a piece of software used by professional layout designers, whose user interface was far more intuitive compared to the other software I used previously and allowed me to make a significant improvement in the layout of the paper. People actually commented on the improvement, and I felt it too, so I think that taking the time to learn it was very beneficial. What's more, I definitely want to progress further, be that through YouTube tutorials or more lessons with Ms. Platt.
Us photocopying earlier on the friday before the 25th was also very, very useful. We gathered a team after school to staple everything on time, and got together a flow-production-like process to make it painless and efficient.
What's most important however, at least for me, was the fact that we increased the amount of pages in the paper from six to eight. The sheer volume, and quality, of the articles which we got was overwhelming! So much that we had to increase the amount of pages! The fact that our journalists are so eager to write is the surest way for me to assure myself that the paper is actually working.
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