Managing editor and Web editor Mahala Bloom talks Buchtelite

Writing for a student newspaper shouldn't be a frightening thing, according to the Buchtelite's Managing editor and Web editor Mahala Bloom.

"If you're afraid, we have copy editors," Bloom said.  "Just do your best.  I'm not any sort of English major, but I've written stories.  Our last Editor-In-Chief was a psychology major.  I'm a design major.  You don't have to be an English major to write."

And Bloom doesn't just write stories.  Her byline can be found next to all kinds of published material, including graphics, photos, page designs and, of course, stories.  She began her Buchtelite employment as a page designer and later adopted the Web editor position as well.  She dropped her position as page editor and was promoted to Managing editor at the beginning of the Fall 2011 semester.

"I sort of went into [the page editor position] blind," she said.  "I was looking for an on-campus job, I thought it would line up with my major.  I actually accepted the Web editor position out of necessity, we did not have a responsible Web editor at the time."

Bloom says the Buchtelite has recently improved the most in its design.

"I feel that this year, and it had begun last year, we have really taken our design to the next level," Bloom said.  "We started considering some of the smaller details that are important.  Simple things like the headers on every page are the same, and we created a flow that was not there before."

One aspect Bloom said she feels particularly proud of is our ability to be not only completely student run, but also have a newspaper full of unique student generated content.

"We have generated better content through our graphic designers and our photographers instead of using resources like MCT like they did in the past,"  Bloom said.  "Now it really is a student's newspaper."

This is Brian Palubiak. He's a page designer.

What's a newspaper without photos?  What's a newspaper without graphics?  What's a newspaper without design?

Boring.

Brian Palubiak, is one of our page designers at the Buchtelite.  As such, he is one of the people who is in charge of making our pages pop.

"I think there's probably more opportunity for creativity here," Palubiak said.  "It's not dry.  We're open to all sorts of ideas.  I can do illustrative stuff as well, it's not all technical, eve though there's some of that stuff too."

Palubiak also believes that working for a newspaper is particularly great for graphic desingers.

"It's good experience,"  he said.  "It's good, it helps you do something that's a little more real world.  I think meeting the deadline might not be as big of a thing at other jobs.  And working with other people and bouncing ideas off each other is nice.  Here there's a group of people working together, and it's good to have that exposure."

Palubiak understands that a newspaper isn't all about design though.  You've got to have good stories too.

"I think we have interesing articles," Palubiak said.  "It's not always just based on current events or things you'd find in a normal newspaper.  There are special topic sort of things that we talk about that are kind of fun, but that still address important issues as well."

Have a good day!

David



Recycle - It's good for both of us

So lately here at the Buchtelite we've seen our paper around campus a lot more than we have in the past.  However, a lot of the time that I see the paper, it's not in someones hands and it isn't in the recycling bin.  It's on the ground.  Or, on a good day, it's discarded on some table.

Honestly, with all the "green" initiatives going on, why not join in on the fun?  A quick internet search gave me 12 ways to recycle your newspaper that you may not have thought of.

Line your birdcage with it.  I don't care - just repurpose our newspaper once you're finished with it.

Have a fantastic day!

David

Meet Molly, News editor of the Buchtelite

Molly Gase, the news section editor of the Buchtelite, proves that you don't need to be a hardcore serious journalist to be a news editor.  In fact, as an English major, she even proves that you don't need to be studying journalism.  When it comes to how we're doing as a staff, Gase has a bit of a different take on that as well.

"I think we are really good at drawing cartoon dogs and bunnies," Gase said.  "I don't think we're very good at ping pong or chair jousting."

Gase moved into the news editor position this year after being a copy editor and the opinion editor last year.  She said that originally, she didn't want to be the news editor. 

"I was totally happy in opinion.  Emily and Mahala talked me into it." Gase said.

In a moment of seriousness, Gase did stress the benefits of writing for the Buchtelite.

"Write for us because it looks great on your resume and it's a great lesson in responsibility," Gase said.

Gase said she is glad she pursued a position at the Buchtelite.

"I really like writing," Gase said.  "Seeing all the papers off the stand is really cool, like when you make a really good paper and all of them are gone.  And the swively chair.  I mean look at this thing."

We want you to join us!

The Buchtelite is doing extremely well, but with your help we could be doing better.

We have more writers than we we did even just a few weeks ago, but we are always looking for more.  If you or someone you know have any desire to write, be sure to contact me at djs73@zips.uakron.edu!  Although we're more than willing to accept writers for any section, we would especially appreciate anyone willing to write for news!

But I'm not just looking for writers.  We always appreciate a good photographer or graphic artist.  If you have some artistic passion, show us!  We are always willing to work with you to get you published.  Again, you can contact me at djs73@zips.uakron.edu.

Have a great day!

David

Matt Balsinger, opinion editor of the Buchtelite

The Buchtelite staff is a pretty carefully chosen group.  Our opinion editor, Matt Balsinger is no exception.

"My extreme science background is always a benefit to whatever I do and, you know, I like to tell stories," Balsinger said.  "What makes me beneficial to the opinion section is that I like to tell stories."

And Balsinger isn't the only one who loves to weave a tale or two.  Balsinger, by far, has the most writers contributing to his section of the Buchtelite.  Although part of this may be just because there are a lot of people who'd like to share their own side of things, my hunch is that Balsinger knows how to keep his writers coming back.

"Every time I send an email to one of my writers, I make it ridiculous sounding.  Ridiculous sounding in the sense that it might make you chuckle a little bit," Balsinger said.  "My biggest advice I give people is make sure when you're writing something, the subject is something you care about.  The best things that people can write are things that come from the heart."

The one thing that the Buchtelite has over other newspapers, according to Balsinger, is our look.

"[The Buchtelite has] consistently good designs," Balsinger said.  "It takes us forever to get stuff out and we've had many late nights, but everything is good quality.  There have been papers I've seen in the past that looked like poop.  It looked like they were following a formula.  We're following a formula ourselves, but we make it much less noticeable."

Be sure to check back in the near future for more Buchtelite interviews!

Have a good day,

David

Chris Coon, Buchtelite sports editor

Chris Coon, our sports editor, knows he works for a good publication.

"We’re unified.  It’s like a real newspaper," Coon said. "Even like the Buchtelite two years ago, do you ever look at those old newspapers?  They’re just bad.  They’re all dark and dreary."

Coon said that writing for the Buchtelite is a good experience becuase getting published will help out any resume.  There are some things we could be working on though, he said.

"We need to be getting students aware that the Buchtelite exists," Coon said.  "Today there was a kid in my class who was like, 'What's the Buchtelite?' And he was a communication student."

After graduate school, Chris thinks he will continue to cover sports, but probably not in the area.

"I don't like the cold," Coon said.

Chris is a fantastic member of the Buchtelite staff, but he's not the only one.  In the next few weeks, I hope to introduce you to the rest of the staff as well!

Have a good day!

David

The Buchtelite Get the Word Out Campaign

Our staff has been doing quite a bit to promote the paper as part of an effort to increase campus awareness that the Buchtelite even exists.  So far we have mainly been promoting ourselves inside our own paper, but unfortunately that puts us in a real Catch 22 position.

More recently we've changed our strategy.  First, members of the Buchtelite staff have been visiting classes.  When they visit, they not only promote the Buchtelite, but they also encourage students in the class to write.  We are always looking for new writers!  Starting next week, we're also starting a poster campaign.  These posters will not only promote the Buchtelite, but also my blog as well!

Check 'em out!

Have a good day!

David

Special Issues coming in the Buchtelite

Last April, the staff of the Buchtelite released their first ever Sex Issue.  This issue, although controversial, was extremely successful.  Our website received more page views than it ever had before, and emails (both praising and critical) poured into our inboxes.

With this in mind, we will have several "special" issues coming up.  Tomorrow (October 13) will be our first of two Halloween issues.  You can expect a second Halloween-themed issue on October 27.

The one I'm really excited about is our Tech issue (November 10).  We're hoping to make this issue extra-large.  We also want to really feature Akron technology.  This might include how professors are using technology in unique ways in their classrooms, technology that professors are developing or how Akron in general is using technology better.

Got any ideas for special issues we can do?  Or any ideas for our Tech issue?  Let me know!

Have a fantastic day!

David

Journalists are fun!

Just to prove that journalists aren't always boring, I thought I would post this video.  This was shot in our office around 1:30 a.m.  So to give these women some credit, we were losing it.

Have a swell day!

David

The Buchtelite: Still getting used to using the Internet

This semester, the Buchtelite completely revamped its Website.  First off, we moved from College Publisher to Wordpress (something that I would strongly recommend to anyone using College Publisher).  This gave us a lot more flexibility with the design of the Website and removed a lot of the headaches we've had in the past while using College Publisher.  Now, the Website is much more streamlined, much more reliable and much more attractive.  However, we could still be doing more.

Unfortunately, having an editorial staff as small as 12 people makes it very difficult to do everything we would like to.  Ideally, we would be posting new stories online on a daily basis.  If, for example, you wanted to find out whether the Zips won or lost over the weekend, you could log onto buchtelite.com and find out.  To make up for this we try to have the sports blog updated as often as possible, but sometimes we just can't make it work in time (This is in no way discrediting our sports editor Chris Coon - he is a very hard worker and does a lot behind the scenes).

Also, we have puzzle solutions and polls on the website.  This is all well and good, but I would love to have video and audio available as well.  These would either be their own stories or they would be part of another story.  Again - in a perfect world we would have been doing this all along, but with such a small staff these things can be difficult to organize and take advantage of.

Anyway, I just wanted to say that I have all intentions on adding new features to our Buchtelite Website in the future.  The only question that I can't answer yet is how long into the future this could be.

Have a swell day!

David

Commedian George Wallace will be in the Buchtelite's October 11 issue

It's always a treat to meet or talk to someone with any sort of star power.  For example our sports editor Chris Coon shared a story with me about how when he was a little kid, Jerry Seinfeld actually handed him a paper towel in a restroom.  Another friend of mine, who used to work at the Gamestop located in Summit Mall, sold a game to drummer Patrick Carney from the Black Keys.  Last year, as the Arts and Life editor of the Buchtelite, I had the opportunity to interview Nashville-based rocker Will Hoge.

For our next issue, our Arts and Life editor Heather Beyer has been given to the opportunity to interview comedian George Wallace!  Heather learned that Wallace worked at Firestone in Akron and actually went to the University of Akron.  Actually, he's good friends with Jerry Seinfeld as well.  Interesting.

Please check out the Arts and Life section this Tuesday for more on George Wallace.

Have a good day!

David

An evolving page design

The the front page of the Buchtelite has never had a static design.  In fact, this page in particular is the one I see changing the most.

Some days the page holds several stories.  Others it has only one.  Sometimes the page might resemble a page found on www.newseum.org (which is a great resource for inspiration).  Other days its design is completely our own.

The Oct. 4 issue of the Buchtelite has one of those front pages that make me proud to be a part of creating the independant voice of the University of Akron. 

After the origional concept was thought of by our News Editor Molly Gase, the idea evolved, and soon the design itself became a work of art.  One of our page designers, Brian Palubiak, even hand painted some of the graphic elements.  Our head page designer Emily Poor spent much of the night working on making the overall concept and design absolutely perfect.

Check it out!  Read the paper!

Have a good day!

David