Penn Manor High School‘s student newspaper, Penn Points, made history today as it launched the 1st 2009-2010 “edition” totally online. Students in Mrs. Susan Baldrige’s High School journalism class have been working since the start of school on a 100% digital, print-free news magazine. Their work and dedication has produced a truly outstanding student news site and blazed a trail for future high school journalism classes to follow.
Moving to a fully online digital news magazine has a number of advantages. Besides the obvious environmental savings gained from not printing tens of thousands of paper pages a year, the newspaper staff will also realize significant efficiencies in publication speed. Specifically, the concept of scheduled “editions” is largely gone; students may publish stories directly to the web as soon as the article is finished. The net result is a student news magazine with the flexibility to publish stories in a much more timely fashion.
Additionally, a fully online student newspaper provides digital delivery to the local community and the entire world. In the past, Penn Points readership was limited to students and staff at Penn Manor High School only. In contrast the online addition may be read by anyone with Internet access. Further, the Penn Points team has made the decision to permit story feedback via the blog comments tool. Comments are open for anyone to use, however, Penn Points editors will continually monitor and approve comments before they are posted live.
Congratulations to Mrs. Baldrige and her student team for taking a risk and trying a new approach to journalism. Check out Penn Points Online and let the student writers know what you think!