The Publishing Process
Each issue of The Lawrencian goes through several steps before arriving in the hands of students and staff members. Here's how it's accomplished:
1. Planning - the first step for each quarter's issue is to plan what it will contain. This usually involves brainstorming upcoming school events and coordinating artists and photographers provide pictures to accompany the written content.
2. Drafting - the second step of the issue's creation involves taking pictures, creating artwork, and drafting articles for the paper. This process must be accomplished in a timely manner to allow the editors and layout designers appropriate amounts of time to construct the paper.
3. Editing - Once all pictures have been taken and artwork has been submitted, the art editor will review them for clarity and colorization and work with the layout designers to determine where they will be placed on the pages of the newspaper. The writing editors will work with writers to revise and improve their articles in order to remove errors as well as to provide the most fluent writing possible.
4. Layout - While other staff are creating art, taking photos, or writing articles, the layout designer's job is to work with the editor-in-chief to plan and build the newspaper using computerized tools such as MS Publisher or Google Docs. The layout designer must have competency with arranging text boxes and images in order to neatly present information for readers of The Lawrencian. By the time the layout designer receives the images and articles, they should be edited and ready for placement into the pages.
5. Final Review - Prior to submitting the paper to the printer, it is the responsibility of the editor-in-chief to work with the faculty adviser to review all the pages not only for written content, but for margins, spacing, fonts, and the overall appearance of the issue. All newspapers paid for with school funding must also receive administrative approval prior to being published.
6. Publication and Distribution - The final step of the publishing process is to submit a digital file to the publisher (this is accomplished by the faculty adviser) and plan for distributing the printed newspapers to the school. A few copies should be kept by the adviser for archival purposes, and students in charge of the website should update the information accordingly.