APPLICATION FOR EDITORTerm: Spring-Summer A 2009
NAME: Michele Boyet DATE: Friday, October 31, 2008
YEAR: Senior MAJOR/MINOR: Public Communication / Sociology GPA: 2.8
REFERENCES: Seth Liss, Sun Sentinel deputy online editor (408) 464-0085; E-mail: [email protected]
J.D. Vivian, FAU English Instructor and Palm Beach Post contributing editor(561) 499-1094; E-mail: [email protected]
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1. Describe any academic, professional and/or extracurricular experiences that qualify you to lead the University Press.
I joined the University Press staff the first week of my freshman year and have been working at the paper ever since. During my time, I have held just about every position – from copy editing to business management – and have spent much of the last two and a half years in management. I understand what it’s like to be a new person in our chaotic newsroom, and I am able to use my experience to recruit and keep new staff members.
Outside of the UP, I am a part-time associate online producer for the Sun Sentinel, working closely with writers, editors and photographers to maintain local, up-to-date coverage on www.Sun-Sentinel.com. I also work the Saturday night shift alone, with the sole responsibility of maintaining the site and launching the Sunday edition online.
I have freelanced for the Palm Beach Post’s Residences section and the Sentinel’s College View. I have also done freelance public relations writing with Pollack Communications for 13 area Forum Publishing publications.
I know what it takes to run the UP because, for the past eight months, I have been its leader. As editor I have implemented a new foundation for the paper, hired an almost completely new staff and raised awareness about the paper on all campuses. Under my direction, the paper has gone from horrifically bad to pretty decent – but I need more time to make it great.
2. Describe a major strength and major weakness of the University Press this semester.
Strength Our greatest strength this semester has been the staff’s willingness to try new, unique things. From writing to design, we have worked together to take on big, bold ideas like an “unsafe” safety issue, a special issue on a controversial on-campus art exhibit and an election issue that doesn’t mention the two major presidential candidates. All of our “big” ideas have come from brainstorming as a group and working together to come up with the best – and most innovative – way to do things.
We were not afraid to redesign our cover – which we did several times – trying full images, text and even illustrations. Since the size of the paper also changed this semester, we created a new style guide so our publication has more of a news-magazine type of feel. Although a minor change, for the first time in the UP’s history the logo has been in the lower right corner.
During my tenure, I was – to my knowledge – the first editor in chief to print the word “cunt” in the paper, and had a completely journalistic purpose for doing so. We got some heat, but in the end we covered an on-campus art exhibit differently than any other local publication. In fact, FAU’s Ritter Art Gallery is considering extending the duration of the exhibit due to the UP’s coverage, but has not decided by the application deadline.
I plan to build on this strength by continuing to foster an open-door creative environment. As long as stories have journalistic backing and ideas have purpose, I think it’s best to try them out, see how they go and learn from our mistakes. I believe it is always better to be over-the-top and bold and to take chances for the right reasons, rather than to be boring and simple.
WeaknessThe paper’s greatest weakness this semester has been the staff’s overall lack of experience. Most of the staff members are very young experience-wise and are still learning how to do the journalism needed to be successful, as well as how to perfect their crafts.
The UP offers the perfect form of hands-on experience and I believe everyone – from writers and copy editors to photographers and designers – has come such a long way since the start of the semester. I’d like to continue that growth by bringing in guest speakers, professors and professionals in the field. As editor, I will also continue holding weekly writing, photography and design meetings.
At the rate we are advancing now, I think the UP will not just be “good” next semester, but this staff has the potential to make it great.
3. Describe the single most important goal you want to accomplish as editor, and detail exactly how you will do so.
The most important goal I’d like to achieve this semester is to build on what I believe is our greatest strength so far. I want the UP to continue to be the type of newspaper that takes chances and does things a little differently. I want to maintain the creative environment we have established and use brainstorming sessions to come up with big, bold ideas on how to cover things uniquely, while still maintaining a level of professionalism.
We already operate differently based on our resources alone. We don’t have a journalism school, we have very limited support for the School of Communication and we’re in a very large media market. We will never be like the Alligator at University of Florida, but we can cover FAU differently than any other publication in our area.
I also think the news-magazine style of our publication caters not only to our audience – who would rather read Time Magazine than the New York Times – but to our staff, most of whom would rather break into the magazine industry after college than work for a newspaper.
4. What novel methods will you employ to ensure the University Press covers every FAU campus?
I honestly believe there are no longer any “novel” methods for covering all of FAU’s campuses. What it comes down to is communication: visiting the campuses, talking to the Student Government leaders and forging relationships with students and advisers at each campus.
In my opinion, the best way to cover the campuses is to increase awareness about the UP. I was shocked this semester to find out that certain campuses were not receiving the paper, were getting the issues late, or had distribution bins left unfilled. The managing editor and I have visited the Jupiter, Davie and Fort Lauderdale campuses on several occasions, speaking to classes and making contacts at each campus. We also brought two new distribution bins to the Jupiter campus, including one now at the residence halls.
We have had several stories this semester about events on other campuses and covered other multi-campus stories, but we can always do more. It really comes down to just being present and making contacts, and the only way to successfully do so is to travel to the campuses and meet directly with the students. I will continue to enforce the importance of this with my staff, as they are reporters, designers and photographers for the entire university, not just the Boca Raton campus.
5. Which is more important, the University Press newspaper or its website? Your answer cannot be “both.”
Although I love the web, and even work as an online producer for www.Sun-Sentinel.com, I feel that the newspaper is more important. From my experience with the web, I feel a newspaper’s online presence would be nothing without the print edition.
Newspaper Web sites serve many purposes. Other than posting breaking news and sporting results, and being a forum for commentary, I think the most important job of a paper’s site – especially the UP’s – is to take what is in print and add to it, complementing it with other stories, images and interactive features.
At the UP, we use the paper to promote the Web site. I feel we haven’t done that enough this semester, and I hope we can do more this semester to package items and have special web-exclusive features that we promote in print. The web is the way of the future, but I think it is also important to be selective when deciding whether a story is best suited for print or for web. I think the UP currently has a strong multimedia person in charge of the web, and has been very successful in making that delineation and using our Web site to best serve the students.
Overall, I feel that without the initial print stories and the success of the paper, our Web site could not operate.
