Why Horizons is a Magazine

Halfway through the writing process of every issue of Horizons, we devote a day to discussing several drafts of the articles students are working on. The workshop has a few purposes. The people who volunteer to have their stories reviewed are able to get more suggestions for their writing (though they also typically have to endure a fair amount of criticism). Newer students have the benefit of hearing editors and veteran students explain their journalistic reasoning. Everyone has a chance to weigh in on some of the trickier aspects of writing a news report.

One of the stories we looked at during our Feb. 20 session covered the controversy over Bridgeport’s handling of cleanup after an early February snowstorm dumped an historic amount of snow on the city.

I was leading the discussion, and pointed out to the class that the article referenced a meeting that Mayor Bill Finch had scheduled for that week. The reporter had written the meeting would happen in the future.

“When you’re writing your stories, think about when the paper will actually be coming out. By the time anyone reads this, this meeting will be long over,” I said.

One of the Pub I students objected. Everything they were being taught about news, she said, centered on the idea that it had to be happening now to be relevant. Why would anyone want to read about a storm that happened weeks before?

Professor Karyn Smith replied that the student was right, and that the staff needed to think about how to keep their stories relevant. I added that the storm wasn’t something people would forget any time soon. The costs of cleanup would have ongoing repercussions. The mayor would be conducting storm response assessments, as would the state. People would continue to question the city’s administration. The storm itself would remain historic for perhaps years, until a bigger storm came along. Those were the places to focus.

It was heartening to hear one of the Pub I students display her knowledge of journalistic principles. Her insight showed she had already internalized some of the lessons we had been teaching.

She also had a point. Although Horizons bills itself as a newspaper, I’ve thought of it for a long time as a magazine. It only comes out a three or four times per semester, and the reporters are forced to think in terms of longer periods of time that conform more closely to those of magazine production. After the first few weeks of the semester, which are spent primarily acclimating students to the idea of reporting and writing news, the production process takes approximately one month per issue. That’s magazine production time.

The process for producing an issue of Horizons generally takes approximately a month

 and involves a number of people working together.

Graphic by Brandon T. Bisceglia.

At one point when I first became editor-in-chief, I even tried to push the paper further toward the magazine paradigm. At the beginning of one semester, I announced my intention, suggesting senior staff writers and editors take on more in-depth reporting assignments. I approached several of my own stories in this manner. Some took up several pages of the final product.

The experiment had limited success. I met my goal of a forty-page issue only once, but the paper generally hovered around 32 to 36 pages while I was there. A few of the editors took on some daunting enterprise reporting.

For the most part, however, things stayed the same. We still called ourselves a newspaper, and the bulk of the stories kept their earlier length and style. I soon stopped worrying about how to frame the content, instead concentrating on fostering the basic skills most of my staff was trying to learn.

Student turnover played a major part in the failure of that effort. At a two-year community college like Housatonic, many students have full-time jobs, children or other priorities. Moreover, staff members leave just as they are becoming competent and confident enough to handle more complex reporting. It was, perhaps, overzealous of me to expect otherwise.

Nevertheless, Horizons is a magazine. Just don’t call it that.