Carli Molinelli: Professional Page designer

Carli Molinelli understands that success doesn't come from nothing, and that any person who wants to write for the Buchtelite needs to have that same mindset.

"Take the chance," Molinelli said.  "That's how I ended up here.  I took the chance and I got the job, and it's been a great experience.  No matter what you do for us, it's still a great experience."

As a page designer, it's Molinelli's job to make the Buchtelite attracive.

"I'm not a graphic design major, so I have a different viewpoint than our other page designers who are graphic design majors," she said.  "They tend to want to use computer graphics, because that's what they're used to, where I am more in favor of hand drawn."

Molinelli says that she's proud to work for the Buchtelite because we do things in a way that other newspaper don't.

"I think what we're doing well is that we're telling the news the way it's supposed to be told," she said.  "For instance, when the University sent out the emails to only male black students, we were the only paper to print the email along with the article."


Keep coming back for more interviews with the Buchtelite staff!

Have a good day!

David

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