charlieardengee
Marketing & Audience Engagement
Setting up a meeting time.
Some examples of the changes we made.
Branding
Every year, we create design guidelines for staff to follow. In previous years, the rules have been pretty loose. In order to streamline our branding and make a cohesive paper, my Co-EIC and I met up with Design Editor Xiaoyi Zhu, Assistant Design Editor Sachiko Goto, and Art Editor Zoey Guo to discuss. We didn't want to go for full-on monotone designs to give designers freedom, but made some color restrictions so readers could easily distinguish between sections. We also created the rule that only the cover story could use creative typography, all other stories had to use Nanami Book for their titles. This resulted in a more professional feel for our publication.
Recently, I also implemented coordinated designs for our one-page spreads that are back-to-back, making the page less distracting and drawing more readers in. Most importantly, it builds the cohesivity of our brand.
As a designer, I volunteered to work on the design for the 20-21 staff merch (left two images). I designed and did the art for the back of the shirt. Health and Science Editor and designer Grace Huang designed the 21-22 merch but as Editor-in-Chief I voiced that we should have the merch be green to match our school colors and streamline branding.
Advertising web content
We dedicated a page in our print publication to advertising web content. We hand out a copy of the paper to almost every student, so our stories get publicity that way. However, with web it can be a little bit more difficult to get the word out there, especially to students that don't have social media. Therefore, this page featured web stories for avid readers of our print publication to check out.
We also strategically implemented QR codes in a variety of ways. On the left, in the opinion article "Managing Mistrust", we used a QR code to link to a google form for readers to propose ideas for guest columns such as this one, promoting audience engagement.
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QR codes also helped ups promote articles on web or relevant links, such as linking the BSU's Instagram page in the spread on the right.
Interactive print media
For our cover story on our school's Black Student Union, we wanted to add something extra special to the issue to make it stand out. We decided to create a poster using our inside cover pages. I designed both the poster and a page with instructions on how to remove it. Students and teachers alike could take out the poster and hang it up at home and around the school. The poster itself listed ways to support Black students at our school, who have recently been feeling unsafe because of racist threats and slurs posted by a West student on social media. We hoped the poster would both foster audience engagement and create a more welcoming environment at our school. Sure enough, multiple posters have been spotted around West.
Distribution
As Co-EIC, one of my responsibilities is that we get as many issues into the hands of as many students and community members as possible. We distribute the paper on our publication days, which are always Fridays or before long breaks. My fellow staffers and I get to school early at 8:15 A.M. and stand at the entrances of the school, handing out issues.
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I was also able to help bring back distribution to local businesses around town. I encouraged other staffers to sign up to do the same, and delivered to quite a few places myself.
Finances
In terms of the financial and business side of things, this is usually delegated to my advisor and the business editors, Ruba Ahmed-Abdelmutalab and Misha Canin. The business editors send out invoices to businesses who have purchased ads from us and organize staff ad sales events. However, I've still tried my best to help in whatever ways I can, whether that be designing ads or laying them out in InDesign to be exported.
An ad I designed for local flower shop Every Bloomin' Thing.