Iny Li's NSPA Marketer of the Year Portfolio

Hi, I'm Iny Li from the Burlingame B.

As a junior at Burlingame High School and second-year journalism student this year, I have explored nearly every aspect of journalism my school newspaper program, the Burlingame B, has to offer --- whether that's covering breaking news, page-designing, writing social media captions, or editing other peoples' articles, I've had the opportunity to do those and anything in between. But stepping into the role of Business Manager this year opened a completely new side of journalism for me. From organizing numerous fundraisers with local businesses to selling subscriptions at school events, I managed advertisements, subscriptions, and fundraisers for the B. After months of hard work, our program truly flourished this year compared to past years.

Scroll down to see how I helped set the Burlingame B up for long-term success.

Initiatives

A half-page advertisement I designed for Bigz Boba, a local business, was published in our February issue.

Selling Advertisements

One key source of income for our program is selling advertisements to local businesses. This year, I was determined to sell the maximum amount of advertisements we could fit in our print newspaper; in the past, our paper only had two advertisements at most -- and I was determined to change that. In the six issues we've published this year, each issue has always included 2+ advertisements, with sizes ranging from business card, quarter-page, and half-page advertisements. Throughout the year, I consistently met up with business owners to discuss advertising plans, digitally designed advertisements, and had a running list of local businesses that I would periodically contact and sell advertisements to. Just from advertisements alone, we earned $1,420 this school year.

Dennis Murphy, a local realtor, has consistently purchased a business card advertisement throughout this school year. With long-term supporters like Dennis Murphy, I keep tabs on which businesses have bought advertisements with us previously and contact them earlier in the school year to reserve a space for their advertisements if they wish to buy one from us. This allows me to organize which advertisements are going in the paper and communicate them to the editors.

Earlier this school year, I reached out to allcove San Mateo to see if they were interested in buying advertisements with us. After sitting down and discussing what their advertisement plan was, I introduced what advertisement sizes we could offer, how advertisements look on our print newspaper, and payment information. Since then, allcove San Mateo has purchased both quarter and half-page advertisements with us.

Last year, we began offering online advertisements to interested businesses. With options including header and sidebar advertisements, we have consistently had 2+ online advertisements throughout the school year. Especially since our print paper has limited space, as more businesses began purchasing advertisements, I discussed with business owners about expanding their advertisements onto our website: a more convenient means of advertising for businesses like Bigz Boba that have different monthly events to advertise.

These analytics were from our SNO website. This header advertisement, purchased by a local makeup artistry business, Makeup by Deena, garnered a total of 498,021 views and 641 clicks after being posted on our website for 6 months. As of May 27, 2025, the advertisement itself has also received thousands of views and 2-4 clicks per day. Our other header advertisement from allcove San Mateo has garnered a total of 400 clicks from users.

On the left is the Squarespace website we use to organize all subscriptions and advertisements. I use the following link to refer local businesses and interested subscribers for payments. This website is linked to a shared spreadsheet between me and our school accountant, where I check in with her weekly to either make deposits to our account, track donations, add subscribers to our growing mailing list, or make a note of which businesses have made payments for their advertisements.

Fundraisers

Throughout the school year, I organized a total of 6 fundraisers -- double the amount from last year --- for our program: a bake sale, tabling at our local Winterfest in Burlingame, and fundraisers with Chipotle, See's Candies, Cherrydale, and Blooming Vase, a local flower shop. These events not only gave us a consistent source of income but also gave my peers a chance to participate and contribute to our cause.

2024 Annual Winterfest Tabling

On December 6, 2024, I led a group of my classmates to table at our city's local annual Winterfest, an event where different school clubs and local organizations sell baked goods and treats for the holidays. Before this, my advisor and I had contacted the city to reserve a spot for our program. On the day of the event, I worked with my classmates to boil water to sell hot chocolate, I created a signup sheet for my peers to bring goods and volunteer during the event, and I worked with our school accountant to set up payment methods like Apple Pay and a cashbox. That night, we fundraised a total of $396 from selling goods like cookies, brownies, rice krispies, hot chocolate, and juice.

Bake sale on the Ave

On March 9, 2025, I organized a bake sale in Burlingame downtown for our paper to raise money. Prior to the event, we posted on our social media page and asked our class to repost it on their Instagram story highlight to spread the word about our fundraiser.

For about four hours, a couple of my peers and I set up with sweet treats like scones, brownies, cookies, Rice Krispies, muffins, and juice to sell. During that time, not only were we able to sell many of our homemade goods, but we were also able to pass out our paper to the community, talk to many Burlingame High School alumni, and receive generous donations. From that day, we raised a total of $400.

Collaborative Fundraisers

From April 17 to May 2, I set up a Yumraising fundraiser with See's Candies for our program. With the support of our peers, families, and school staff, we were able to raise a total of $207.05.

On May 6, I set up a fundraiser with our local Chipotle to raise money for our paper. We sent out schoolwide emails and flyers encouraging peers to go in person and order food to support our program. From this, we raised $87.79.

Because our school was hosting our junior/senior prom dance on May 17, we decided to partner with our local flower shop to fundraise money through the sales of corsages and boutonnieres. After 2 weeks of fundraising and encouraging peers to go support us, we raised a total of $252.75.

Our largest and most successful fundraiser was with Cherrydale, an online catalog fundraiser that allowed families to order a variety of different items and food. For nearly a month, we encouraged our school community and families to consider donating or buying goods to support our program. From this fundraiser alone, we were able to raise $746.70.

From the mentioned 6 fundraisers above, we were able to raise a grand total of $2,090.29. All this income has been used to fund our print newspaper and online website, plus attend journalism conferences like the Seattle JEA/NSPA National High School Journalism Convention from earlier this Spring, which are amazing learning opportunities for the students in our program.

Subscriptions

Another way our program gets income is through subscriptions. This year, through school events like back-to-school night and open house, I was able to talk to parents, families, and even our school staff about our paper and sell subscriptions. We had also sent several schoolwide emails and promoted our subscriptions on our social media platforms to further engage with the public and our followers. With a grand total of 90 subscribers this year, we have been able to raise $3,600 just from subscriptions to our paper.

Reflection

Being in journalism for the past two years has been one of the most rewarding and memorable experiences I've had since attending Burlingame High School. The community, the creativity, and the challenges inspired me to step up as Business Manager this year — not just to support our publication, but to give back to the classmates and advisor who pour so much into it every day in class.

For advertising, I tracked and communicated with local sponsors, designed custom ads for businesses that lacked the resources to create their own, and coordinated placements across print and digital platforms. For fundraising, I set up and promoted events with both national brands and local stores, using social media to maximize visibility. With subscriptions, I organized credit card sales, matched subscribers to their correct addresses, and managed deposits alongside our school accountant. These responsibilities taught me invaluable lessons — not just in marketing, but in leadership and problem-solving. This experience gave me an appreciation for what it takes to run a publication behind the scenes from a business and financial perspective.

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