Everything you ever wanted to know about... History The Lantern is a community newspaper for the campus and surrounding geographic areas. Chartered in 1881, The Lantern is one of the oldest college newspapers in the country. The Lantern became an integral part of the School of Journalism in 1914, serving both as a laboratory for journalism students and the official newspaper for the third-largest single enrollment campus in the country. Today, with a daily circulation of 28,000 papers during the regular school year and a readership of about 75,000 per day, as well as a presence on the Internet at www.TheLantern.com, The Lantern is the third-largest college newspaper in the country. Our Reporters As a laboratory paper, The Lantern is produced by beginning, intermediate and advanced student journalists who serve as reporters, copy editors and photographers. Most of our staff reporters have never done the job of a journalist before, and they are learning as they go. We hold them to high standards, develop their skills...and then they leave and go off to get good jobs. Some of them even become professional reporters. But none of our reporters are paid, and the vast majority of our reporters are only around the newsroom for twenty weeks at most. We are now in the process of an exciting change at The Lantern: we're letting students into the newsroom earlier in their college careers, and we hope they'll stick around and work for us throughout their time at Ohio State. Our Mission The official mission of The Lantern is to help train and give experience to students preparing for careers as independent and responsible journalists, to provide a source of news, opinion and advertising about and for the university community and to offer that community a forum for the exercise of its freedom of expression. What We Cover and Why Student reporters submit two story ideas per week to their section editor, who then decides what should be covered. Sorting through all of these ideas and deciding what's news on campus is a big job, and each section editor has full control over his or her section and its content. We realize that if professional reporters can be criticized for failing to adequately cover facets of their own communities, then Lantern reporters will have a threefold difficulty: they are new reporters without contact networks; they are students with only a few years' exposure to Ohio State; and they are often covering complex and research-based issues. David Cross, Editor in Chief for autumn 2005, reflects on this difficulty in a column about arts coverage, as just one example: "The School of Music brings talented and often world renowned musicians to student's doorsteps. However, as a journalist and an editor knowing how to cover these events is difficult. I realize that while flipping through the pages of The Lantern there are CD reviews and concert reviews of more recognizable musicians, but when it comes down to it, finding a qualified individual to cover the School of Music is more than difficult; it is nearly impossible. Multiple issues tie into this. Those who are interested in covering the school are often times inside the school itself. This leads to conflicts of interest. The only other approach would be to send an inexperienced writer to cover an event that they know little about. And though it is a journalist responsibility to immerse themselves inside a subject for the benefit of readers, for some reason OSU's School of Music still seems to be overshadowed by other programs...What I find difficult about classical music is that I know nothing about it, and would almost see it as a disservice to allow students to cover events that they would have a higher likelihood of misinterpreting than normal." A New reporter + ever-changing staff + complex issues = challenges in covering the news! But you can help us help you... How to Submit a Story Idea The vast majority of our story ideas come from student writers. Anyone is free to contact us with story ideas, either by mail (The Lantern, 242 W. 18th Ave., JR 271, Columbus, OH 43210), phone (292-5721), fax (292-5240) or e-mail (lantern@osu.edu). The phone will most likely be picked up by a student reporter in the newsroom, who will (we hope) either take a message or know how to help you. Faxes will be forwarded if they are addressed to a specific reporter or editor. Section editors do not have voice mailboxes. If you're interested in targeting a story idea to a specific editor, the best bet is to call and ask for the editor's name and e-mail address, or look at our masthead and look up the editor on OSU's "Find People" search. If you see a reporter in The Lantern who is regularly covering good stories, feel free to look them up and send them story ideas, too... They always appreciate it! Remember, however, that our staff turnover is so rapid that your contacts with reporters will have to be rebuilt each quarter. Help Us Cover Your Event Because of the wide range of programs and events planned for students at OSU, we get a deluge of press releases each week for award dinners, banquets, and lecturers. We turn many of these tips into good stories, but you will have a better chance of getting your organization or issue covered if you think about how your story idea involves a real person at OSU that we can talk to, if you provide contact information for this person, and if you tell us in your press release why this might matter to our readers. Your event is important, but our readers will ask us why they need to read about it and how it connects to their lives. If you can help us answer those questions (and maybe even provide a connection to a pressing local, national, or global issue, or some statistics!) you'll be well on your way to crafting a great story idea or press release. Our Copy Editors Our editors consult both the Associated Press Style Guide and The Lantern Style Guide in checking our copy, and most of these editors have already been reporters for at least one quarter for The Lantern. Most of our copy editors work two three-hour evening shifts a week in the newsroom. They write the headlines and double-check every article. Our copy editors, however, are not paid, and are also learning their craft. That's not to make excuses, however. We regret every error, but we also expect errors because they are part of the learning process. If you find an error in the paper, please feel free to contact us at lantern@osu.edu. Joining the Staff Accepted students will register for COMM 421.03 (COMM 423 in Spring '06) and earn course credits working side by side with experienced Lantern reporters and communication majors. The course includes on-the-job training, guest speakers, and workshops tailored to students at various skill levels. Students who are not accepted may be considered for freelance work, which could lead to publication and a stronger future application. Our Section Editors The Lantern employs about 10 paid editors, and this editorial staff changes almost every quarter. You can find our current lineup on our masthead. Most editors sign a two- or three-quarter contract, depending on their position, and most positions are designed to demand about 20 hours a week of work. Our editors, however, will tell you that they are usually in the newsroom much more often, and the work is very demanding. It requires focus, the ability to supervise a large staff, and the daunting pressure of blank pages to fill - every single day. Section editors manage their reporters, assign stories, deal with staff problems, edit content, write for their section and other sections, serve on boards that govern The Lantern, coordinate freelance assignments, and use graphic design software to lay out their pages. It's not for the faint of heart. Some editors, such as the editor in chief and the news editor, are in the newsroom from 3 p.m. until 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, which doesn't leave much time for a social life. Most editors come from the students who have taken The Lantern class, but this doesn't mean that all editors are Comm majors. We invite anyone to apply, and we typically advertise the open positions during the third or fourth week of the quarter for the following quarter. Our Opinion Page The Lantern's opinion page is a vehicle for sharing positions of the student editorial board and a community forum for both regular columnists and letters to the editor from our readers. The opinion page appears in the campus section on Mondays and Wednesdays. We do not print every letter to the editor we receive. The Opinion Page editor will try to select letters that clearly express sentiments voiced by many letter-writers. Letters to the Editor can be submitted on any topic, and can be sent through our e-mail address, through The Lantern Web site, or by mail. We are required by our policy to confirm that the person who signed the letter is actually the sender. It is best to keep letters under 400 words. Columns are the longer pieces that typically run in the center of the opinion page. These are regular freelance positions selected in advance. Ben Presson, Opinion Editor in autumn 2005, explains: "Columns for the opinion page are written by individuals who are selected based on sample writings submitted to the opinion editor at the end of the previous quarter. After a columnist submits a column for publication, it is lightly edited for content and style by the opinion editor, and then passed on to copy editors for heavier editing and headlines." The calls for columnists are published at the bottom of the opinion page in the last weeks of a quarter. An opinion editor may also choose to run a guest columnist who will write once or twice a quarter if he or she contacts the opinion editor and has a compelling topic or if there is a specific need. Finally, the editorials typically run on the left-hand side of the opinion page, under the names of The Lantern editorial board members. The editorial board is selected from among Lantern editors. Ben Presson explains the process of writing an editorial: "Topics for editorials are intensely discussed and debated, after which, they are voted on by a group of five editors who comprise The Lantern editorial board. Editorials are an important attribute of newspapers used to voice opinions on important issues in the news or local community. Any stance the paper takes in editorials is approved by a majority vote among the board, and all five members contribute in the writing of editorials." The Nuts & Bolts The Lantern is put together by students in the newsroom, which is located in the Journalism Building Room 271 at 242 W. 18th Ave. We meet every day at around 3 p.m. to start planning what will go in the paper for that evening. When a reporter finishes a story and types it into the newsroom copy system, it is edited by three student reporters, laid out on the page by a student editor, and then checked over for errors by student editors and the adviser. The process usually ends at around midnight, and sometimes even later! Electronic versions of each page are emailed to our printer, which is located in Lancaster, Ohio. Delivery trucks make the trip each morning back up to campus to stock the hundreds of racks around and beyond campus. We publish five times a week, Monday through Friday, when school is in session at Ohio State. During summer quarter, we publish twice a week. Our Funding The business side of The Lantern employs 10 full-time staff and is responsible for generating enough income through advertising to support administrative costs, reallocation to the university, equipment, printing, production, salaries, wages and distribution of the newspaper, which is printed at a printer in Lancaster, Ohio. The Lantern is 100 percent self-funded through advertising and does not receive any money from the university, the State of Ohio, student tuition, or fees. Display advertising for the paper is sold largely by student account executives on a commission basis. The Lantern also employs hourly paid students who help take ads and produce the paper. In addition, we have partnered with Columbus State Community College's new student newspaper, Cougar News, and our business staff provides administrative and sales support for that publication. Our Web Site & Online Archives You might not know that the archives of The Lantern are free and searchable online. Go to our Web site and register, which will give you access to the archives as well as the option to sign up for a daily e-mail listing links to top Lantern stories.
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