My Portfolio
Welcome to my portfolio. Here you’ll find a selection of my work. Explore my projects to learn more about what I do.
MARKETING & AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT
The extensive journalistic efforts poured into our publications would be ineffective without reaching our readers and viewers. Throughout my time in the journalism department, I have actively contributed to financing printing and equipment expenses and participated in the distribution of both print and digital media to our audience. Additionally, I've delved into the business aspects of journalism to ensure the effective circulation of our publications within the community, which is vital for our success.
FUNDING
The publications I'm involved in heavily rely on the collective efforts of our staff for funding. Without the necessary resources for printing and equipment, our publications wouldn't be able to convey their impactful messages. The sales from the Prowler yearbook are our main source of funding for our journalism program. As the Senior Tribute editor for the Prowler yearbook, I play a pivotal role in designing, placing and editing all of our senior tributes pages. A crucial aspect of our funding strategy involves using a designated form sent to parents, who then customize it with messages, photos, size details and payment. My responsibility includes organizing the photos and messages, meticulously tracking tribute forms to ensure their inclusion in the yearbook and delivering the final product to the families.
In addition, as the Editor-in-Chief of the Catalyst newspaper, I also recognized the crucial role of securing funding for our journalism program to ensure its sustainability and growth. The advertisement shown below was a strategic move to generate revenue while fostering community engagement. By tapping into local businesses for advertising opportunities, we not only provided them with a platform to reach our readership but also strengthened our ties with the community. This initiative showcased the multifaceted role of journalism, demonstrating my ability to navigate the business side of the industry. Through funding strategies like this, we were able to enhance our resources and expand our coverage.
DISTRIBUTION
Upon receiving boxes filled with the latest edition of our print newspaper, my fellow staff reporters and I take the initiative to personally distribute the papers throughout the school. We make it a point to visit each classroom, aiming for teachers to directly distribute the papers to their students. Moreover, I undertake the task of hand-delivering a few copies of our newspaper to our administrators and the guidance and counseling faculty.
In Yearbook, distribution is also a meticulous task. Upon receiving our books, we individually insert each of our spring supplements into nearly 800 yearbooks. Following this intricate process, it becomes our duty to ensure the delivery of each purchased book to its student. As a team, we've established a system where students can easily collect their yearbooks. Our organized approach involves a check-off system, where we verify each student by requesting an I.D. before handing over their eagerly awaited yearbook.
NEWSPAPER STANDS
Our journalism team has successfully enhanced audience engagement with both faculty members and students within our school through strategically placed newspaper stands. These stands, positioned throughout the school, serve as accessible hubs for each edition of our newspaper. Aside from handing out our newspapers to students and faculty, we restock these stands with fresh releases while removing any outdated copies. This approach, not only contributes to a continuous boost in our audience engagement, but also fosters a connection between our publication and the school community.
WEEKLY BROADCAST
Each week we send out a weekly broadcast to all of the staff and faculty members at Millard West with the hopes of them showing it to their class. This has been an essential method to increasing our viewership for the MWHS Wildcat News and brings acknowledgment to the hard work and dedication of our program. Click on the video below to view one of the many weekly broadcast we sent out.
COVERING OUR AUDIENCE
Focusing on the interests of our primary audience—students, staff and parents—we actively seek their input through a Google form we've created and posted on our Twitter and shared in our school's daily announcements. This approach enhances audience engagement by allowing them to suggest topics for coverage. Through this interactive process, we've not only discovered new stories but also strengthened our connection with readers, making our newspaper a more community-driven platform.
ANALYTICS
One goal that we have as a team is to publish a minimum of one story per day whether that be a broadcast, written story or photo gallery we try to keep our audience engaged as much as we possibly can. Our efforts have been proven to be successful, as this past year we have received more views from both new readers and returning readers than in past years. Thanks to my efforts as well, as my fellow staff reporters, we received a School Newspaper Online (SNO) Distinguished site badge, in addition to a NHSPA Cornhusker three years in a row for our online site.
BEST OF SNO
As a manger of our online site, I place an emphasis on earning Best of SNO(School Newspapers Online) awards. Recognizing the impact on our web traffic, I understood that earning these awards and securing publication on their platform could attract new viewers to explore our content. Best of SNO has a significantly larger following on both their website and social media platforms, with their Twitter account alone amassing over 5,300 followers compared to the Millard West Catalyst's 933 followers. Over the course of this school year, our dedicated staff has proudly earned 12 Best of SNO awards, spanning both written stories and broadcast videos.
TRENDING STORIES
Within our online platform, we've dedicated a section for the latest trending stories. This strategic addition not only captivates users, but also significantly enhances our audience engagement by enticing readers to explore more content on our website.
SOCIAL MEDIA
On our website we make it easily accessible to view our social media platforms. Above the title on our publication we have linked icons for our Youtube Channel, Instagram and Twitter profile. By doing this its makes it easier and more likely for our viewers to see our social media pages and gain a larger audience.
Social media has proven to be large help in increasing audience engagement and sales for our journalism program. At the start of the year, we posted QR codes like the one below on Twitter to help drive sales for the Prowler Yearbook. We have also increased the sale of yearbooks and senior tribute orders through the strategic planning of online posts and monthly reminders.
We regularly share our stories on social media accounts right after publishing them on our website. This not only channels our substantial social media following to our online platform, but also garners recognition for our publication's efforts— fostering increased engagement on our digital platforms.
POST INSIGHTS
I manage the Millard West Catalyst Instagram profile, utilizing Instagram's analytical features to see its impact on audience engagement and its efficiency in expanding our reach to new viewers. The post insights below show that we successfully drew in over 150 new consumers who were previously unfamiliar with our account. Social media, specifically Instagram, has proven to be a highly effective s tool, playing a pivotal role in raising awareness for our publication.
STORY FEEDBACK
Another benefit of having a social media platform for our publication is the ability to view feedback from our readers. Often times I will receive comments relating to my stories conmemorating my work while also exemplifying the positive impact I've left on our community. Below is a comment I received from a parent of the Millard West High School color guard on my opinion article"Ain't no party like a Wildcat party."
