With the return of more in-person classes, Ohio University students have been granted one thing we’ve all been desperately trying to cling to throughout the pandemic: human connection.
For The Post staff, having more people back on campus also means we’re returning to a lot of our in-person activities. We have daily meetings to go over stories that will be published the following day, have section meetings and spend late nights in the newsroom creating the print tabloid every week. The newsroom is filled with chatter, clicking keyboards and Posties again. It’s a tremendous feeling.
Although our masthead only lists 27 editorial editors, there are over 150 active members of The Post as a whole. Those numbers will hopefully increase as our formal recruitment events wrap up this week. The bulk of those individuals are reporters and columnists. Other individuals work on our social media pages, take engaging photos or create illustrations.
There are so many Post staffers, a lot of whom work for more than one section, and more contribute to the final products you see within the tabloid or on our website than you may think. Multiple individuals check over stories for elements such as AP style and grammar in addition to fact checking to ensure our readers get the best stories possible.
Once a writer turns in a story, it goes to the respective section editor. That editor will edit the story for AP style, and the story is fact checked for accuracy. The process not only ensures the story is reliable, accurate information for our readers, but gives writers a chance to learn.
From there, a copy editor will give the story an additional set of eyes before passing it along to one of our slot editors, which is the final copy editor who examines a piece. Both of those individuals look at the pieces for AP style and grammatical errors the section editor may have missed. Another round of edits may take place by our managing editor if the story is featured at the top of our website.
But there’s more. A photographer, videographer or illustrator will create a visual to accompany the story, and the story may also be coded for another layer of visual appeal. Once all of this is done, the late night editor will give the story one final look for AP style, grammar and the proper art before publishing it online.
Our work at The Post is highly collaborative. Not only are multiple editors creating the tabloid and editing stories, but many staffs collaborate on pieces. Columnists co-write columns, The Beat staff keeps us up to date on their current favorite songs and numerous visual elements may go into our projects. While the typical story only has one byline, The Post is always a place for teamwork and student growth. Being able to work together in-person again means so much to us all.
Abby Miller is a senior studying journalism and political science at Ohio University and the editor-in-chief of The Post. Have questions? Email Abby at am166317@ohio.edu or tweet her @abblawrence.
