Colour commentary: Learning what it’s like to work for a student newspaper

Colour commentary
Sports Editor Nicholas Di Giovanni gives his take on his latest in sports with his weekly Colour Commentary

Valuable lessons gained in two years as Sports Editor

Two years ago, when I started as the Sports Editor of The Concordian, I really didn’t know what to expect. I had just finished my first year in journalism and didn’t have much experience with handling a publication. I also didn’t know what it was like to write for a newspaper, which is a declining industry.

Two years later, as I’m writing my final Colour Commentary, I can safely say my experience in this role has been surreal, and I learned quite a bit while doing it. Sure, people don’t pick up physical newspapers as much, but we’re still trying to put our best content out there.

The biggest thing I learned was time management, and how to roll with the punches. I remember before my first issue in August 2017, I sat in front of my computer trying to figure out how to get everything done. When the stories I wanted in that first issue had setbacks, I panicked. I kept questioning how I would have my section ready in time or how I was supposed to do this for the rest of the year.

Each week during the first year, I learned how to deal with those problems. A dozen issues in, I got the hang of it; I planned my content in advance, and always had stories prepared. That’s the challenge of working with a weekly newspaper—stories might be timely, but you need to get things done.

Having other student journalists write stories also taught me how to be patient and how to deal with people. I always felt like the writers and I were part of a sports section team, so I wanted to treat everyone properly. It can be intimidating, especially for first-year students, to approach the student media, so I hope they felt welcomed.

Publishing a newspaper is a team effort, and I’ve been lucky enough to work with some of the best teammates anyone could ask for. I see how hard the other section editors work, making their pages look fantastic every week. Each editor brought a different style, but all together, the paper was second-to-none.

We definitely wouldn’t have had such fantastic teams the past two years without our Editor-in-Chiefs, Katya Teague then Maggie Hope, and our Managing Editors Alex Cole and Candice Pye. Of course, our Production Editor Loreanna Lastoria made everything look so great.

I want to thank Mackenzie Lad, Alex Hutchins, Kirubel Mehari, Hannah Ewen, and Gabe Chevalier for spending countless hours at games taking breathtaking photos. I wouldn’t have published anything without those. Without our copy editors the past two years—Valeria Cori-Manocchio, Katerina Gang, Kylee Ross, Rebecca Luger, Victoria Lewin, Katelyn Thomas, Juliet Booker, and Kayla-Marie Turriciano—our articles wouldn’t have been so easy to read. I also have to thank the copy team for making me a better writer.

The Concordian teams of 2017-18 and 2018-19 absolutely killed it, and I’m looking forward to what this paper will do in the future.  

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