Hi-Tide Goes Online

 It’s a year of change at Boca Ciega High School, and a new building and a new principal are only part of the equation. The school paper, Hi-Tide, also changed this year. After years of printing out a physical newspaper – and some where the school didn’t publish any paper at all – the Hi-Tide embraced the digital age this month.

 Instead of buying a paper, students – and parents and community members as well – can read all the news that’s fit to post online at HiTideOnline.com.

 Although the school newspaper became online-only at the start of the school year, newspaper advisor Lisa Fuss told the Gabber that using a content management system (similar to what the Gabber and many daily newspapers use) helped students create a dynamic site where they could more easily control the content.

 Fuss cites funding as one reason for switching to the online-only format.

 “The last few years, students wrote stories but (there were) no funds to publish papers,” she explained. She took over the newspaper and decided to make it an online publication.

 Students control the advertising, online maintenance, and content. Fuss wants her newspaper staff to publish new content every week.

 Student journalists – 17 in all – research stories, interview people, and write their stories on classroom computers. The entire staff meets holds a weekly budget meeting to decide which  stories they will post online in the coming week. Stories range from features to opinion pieces. Staff also covers sports, reviews games and addresses other issues facing students.

 Next, co-editors Danielle Mahaney and Serena Thomas, both juniors, review the stories and edit them. They also handle a lot of the photography, Thomas explains. While the newspaper staff must shoot photos for stories they submit, articles that deal with subjects larger than Bogie (such as national sports and video game reviews) use stock photos. The editors find these photos.

 Two other students handle ad sales and site administration. Fuss asked Ryan Patton to assume responsibility for advertising and marketing. He started selling online ads over a month ago. The ads, which start at $40 a month or $75 for two months, pay for the site as well as field trips.

 Zach Stoler takes care of the technical end of running the site. Stoler, a junior, runs his own IT business. He also created a trolley web page for the Gulfport trolley several years ago and hopes, he says, to work with Gulfport’s IT department again. Today, someone neglected to sign out of a computer and lost part of an article. Stoler works his IT magic to find an earlier draft in the system and Fuss reinforces the importance of logging off the content management system at the end of class.

 Fuss calls Hi-Tide a “work in progress” and credits the school’s new principal, Michael Vigue, with making it possible for change to take place. Last year the students didn’t have the chance to publish a paper; this year, they’re publishing every week. She has hope for Hi-Tide as an online paper. She has hope for her staff.

 “We’re trying to establish a vision,” she says. “We’re finding our way.”