Marketing and Audience Engagement

Student Input

The Statesman regularly interacts with the LHS student body and surrounding community. Many of our stories and the digitized school announcements regularly contain surveys sent to all students for their feedback, which we later incorporate into the story. These allow students to influence how stories are written and have their voice heard.

This year, the editors started a new idea wherein, for our March issue, all stories written would be ideas from LHS students. We sent out a survey and collected over a hundred results, and the result was an issue that more accurately reflected student interests, needs and desires.

The Statesman allows submissions to its annual literary magazine as well, which is replete with work and ideas from across the student body. It is truly a great way of learning more about LHS's 2,000 students.

Interactivity

Our stories also often frequently include interactive elements. We love to have quizzes in stories, whether it be informational or recreational (e.g. "guess the teacher"). On our website's front page, we have frequently posted polls on current local or school events for students to answer. Sometimes the results will be incorporated into later stories, but sometimes they are merely interesting pieces of information whose results reveal much about the school and its students' opinions.

Statesman Scare Affair

The Statesman organizes the annual Scare Affair. For Halloween, students can pay $1 to earn a sticker that allows them to dress up in a costume. All proceeds go entirely to the Statesman, and we've earned hundreds of dollars from each year we've organized the event. The Statesman also determines the winners of this "contest" from multiple categories, such as "scariest" and "most creative." Winners receive a gift card. Much of the student body participates, and this interactive element (along with all the others listed above) greatly bolster readership and audience engagement.

Door Decoration Contest

We have also hosted door decoration contests for Ad Rooms (homerooms) , posting pictures to our social media and awarding the winners judged by staff members. The practice seems to have greatly bolstered student engagement and interest in the Statesman.

Student Submissions

The Statesman always welcomes students to submit story ideas if they have any suggestions. We have a location on our website for that purpose, but when Homecoming was occurring, we encouraged students to send in their best Homecoming photos for a chance to be featured in our upcoming issue. We spread this message out on the website and on social media, and it was received quite positively.

Advertising

Though the Scare Affair is significant for funding, its primary purpose is to augment our interaction with the student body. On the other hand, our primary source of funds comes from advertising, be it in our paper issues or on our website. The Statesman has partnerships with several universities and local businesses, such as USD, SDSU, Frontier Climbing and Boss' Pizza. We maintain close contact with these organizations to ensure the continued success of all groups involved.