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The takeaway? Pizza makes us more collaborative.
The takeaway? Pizza makes us more collaborative.
No one designs this paper alone.
Whenever I am asked what I will remember the most from working for the paper, it will be this scene: 2 p.m. on a Saturday in the media lab. Our detours editor’s excellent playlist soundtracks the battle between our editorial staff and a 24-page paper. We are fueled by candy wrappers and pizza. Someone inevitably throws up their hands over a particularly stubborn article that refuses to get in line. Just as inevitably, someone else drops everything to help them.
Design has always been something we do together as a team.
It was challenging for me to find artifacts that represented any solo work I did in design. However, it was my personal goal to improve my own design capabilities so I could help respond to our critiques, and it’s been incredibly rewarding to watch those skills transfer to a better and better product every issue.
Transitioning to dominance in design
Transitioning to dominance in design
We heard from multiple critiques, especially during the Nashville convention, that we needed to optimize our layout and design for better readability. For the first three years of The Panther Press, we relied primarily on gray boxes to distinguish stories from one another.
Last year, as managing editor of print, I introduced fixed word count limits on our stories prior to publication. This year, I supported our current managing editor of print to use those word count limits to their fullest. We now have a dominant story on every page, pictures are set in a clear L or U shape, and each page is consistently five columns.
PAGE 6, DECEMBER 2024: Because there was no dominance, we distinguished stories with a gray box. The decks and bylines were also stretched across the page, creating unnecessary white space at the top.
In this example from Dec. 2024, the top story has four columns and the bottom story has three columns, creating a visually unappealing mismatch.
PAGE 6—DEC 2024.pdfPAGE 6, DECEMBER 2025: Now, in Dec. 2025, we have dominance on the top story, eliminating the need for a gray box.
With five clear columns, the design of the page flows better. In previous designs, pull quotes were situated in between columns. Here, it can be placed directly in a column without disrupting the flow of the content.
PAGE 6—DEC 2025.pdf
February 2026 issue layout. The core four will meet after school, often on the Thursday or Friday before the Saturday design session, to put this layout together. It takes at least an hour, and much passionate back-and-forth.
We're always working to improve our process here, but for now, layout is usually done on the whiteboard in the media lab. Stories on pages are denoted with an abbreviated headline + their word count. The green marker from pages 1-16 is my handwriting, but behind the scenes, all four of us were debating what to put where.
Choosing between print and online
Choosing between print and online
Going online instead of print is not a punishment. This is the message we've tried to convey when we've had to make tough decisions regarding layout. In the end, it comes down to these questions:
1) Is this story timely?
2) Are there strong visual elements (color, video) that would be better served with a digital format?
3) Is it well sourced? (3+ sources if story, 2+ if profile)
On the team of core editors, I am the most decisive on whether something goes to print or online. I've been the managing editor of print and web, and now that I'm the EIC, I try to apply that prior experience to layout design. For example, the story on heart health (700+ words) wasn't particularly timely, so we decided to put it online instead of print.
My experience with print told me that its bullet point format, as well as the fact that it didn't have timeliness for a new value, made it better suited for web. My experience with web backed that up, because I know that health and sciences stories often have multiple hyperlinks to academic sources, which aren't accessible on print.
Stories we chose to put online only. I was sad to see some of these, like the "Maris" restaurant review, not make print, but that was one of the tougher decisions we had to make that day. It ended up being better online due to its many food pictures.
Staying mindful of budget
Staying mindful of budget
The two most important ways to stay mindful of budget with this paper are through page number and color.
February was an especially challenging issue — we had enough material for a 28-page paper rather than a 24-page paper, but we ultimately decided that less was more. Quality over quantity!
We try to put visually heavy media on the website. Articles that have strong colors should get a chance to showcase those colors, especially since we only have color on the front, back, and center spread. Having color throughout the entire publication is too expensive, so we have our lead designer maximize the colors we put on the front page and center spread during design sections.
Last year, we started the Green Mile (named for a long row of green lockers in our school), which is a collection of photos from the last couple of months that weren't already covered in the issue. By putting photos on the back, we're able to use the color for more than just text.
Stories that are exclusively online often end up being viewed even more than the ones in print, because we make a point to spotlight them on our social media. This way, design doesn't become censorship. We want every story to be told, because we know how hard everyone works on them. Our print budget may guide our layout decisions, but no story gets left behind in readership.
FEBRUARY 2026 PANTHER PRESS DRAFT.pdfFebruary 2026 issue's Green Mile.
Teamwork on design days
Teamwork on design days
Because of our extracurricular nature, design days have to be done on weekends or after school. For the past three years, design was mainly done by the core four editors (EICs and MEs). This year, we’ve brought on section editors to own their sections and help with design.
On Saturday design days from 9-5, we’re all in the media lab, battling anything from power surges to mice with a god complex.
Instead of sitting at my own computer and staying there for the whole eight-hour session, I have to be on my feet and checking in with everyone. This sometimes means finishing their pages if they have to leave early, or encouraging them to get up and take a walk when they’re getting tired.
Training the next generation of designers
For the February issue, we opened the design session up to all interested reporters, not just editors. We had six new people show up, and I was blown away by their patience. At first, they were just shadowing, but once we let them explore, they quickly picked it up, even designing their own pages and working through the trickiest sections like detours.
Next to me, I had a freshman watching what I was doing. I started narrating as I moved along, and I tried to ask constant questions to check in. I was the first editor to let a new reporter start designing themselves. When she successfully got it, everyone in the room stopped what they were doing to cheer for her. (That's the culture I value so much about this publication!)
I'm excited to see how they continue to grow through the rest of this year and next year, especially since this was the first time we had so many reporters (not just editors!) come to the design session.
Teaching new students is difficult. Navigating InDesign requires a lot of focus, but now that we have so many people that do their part in learning how to use it better, design goes much faster and much more smoothly.
Editors at September 2025's design session.
Jane and I working on design for the February issue.
Design of specific pages | DECEMBER 2026
Design of specific pages | DECEMBER 2026
In the December issue, I worked on pages 14-17. This was our first issue with dominant design, and at first, it was extremely tricky to puzzle out.
I couldn’t just add or subtract more columns to fit a story, and having a balance between graphics and pull quotes was more important now than ever.
Whenever I got stuck, I would change pages. The benefit of designing multiple pages is that there’s always a new challenge to work at, and the solution I use for one page can often be applicable to another.
Design forces me to think creatively about how to fit stories, but also reminds me to be more intentional about the stories and graphics that are selected for publication.
Design of specific pages | FEBRUARY 2026
Design of specific pages | FEBRUARY 2026
In the February issue, I worked on pages 6-9 with my freshman, Jane. Building on the previous issue's dominant design, we worked together to keep that dominance cohesive throughout our pages.
We practiced choosing photos for stories as well. Sometimes, stories will come in with a full album, and when we put articles in print, it's the designer's job to decide which photos are best. Specifically, for the MLK day of service story on page 8, we tried to choose photos where the students are in action, rather than posed in front of a sign.
I remember Jane leaning into the screen at an alarmingly close distance by the time we were at the bottom of page 8, so together, we got up and stared out the window to readjust our eyes.
"Design is really hard. And annoying," she said as she squinted into the distance. "But it's also kind of fun?"
I couldn't agree more.
DEC 25-pg14.pdfFEBRUARY 6-9.pdfPage updated
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