PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, MARCH 23, 2018
KeizerCommunity
KEIZERTIMES.COM
Student newspaper going online
By DEREK WILEY
Of the Keizertimes
Located on a wall in jour-
nalism teacher Ryan Somer-
ville’s classroom are all 68 is-
sues of The Piper he’s advised
since coming to McNary
High School in 2007.
McNary students have be-
gun planning the fi nal edition
of its student newspaper as The
Piper is moving online.
The change came out of a
conversation Somerville had
with Principal Erik Jespersen
on how to make the student
newspaper world class.
“This isn’t a bad thing,”
Somerville said. “We want to
take the newspaper into the
21st century and get it online
and become timely again.”
Beginning with the 2018-
19 school year, McNary will
offer a media productions
class, taught by Somerville and
Jason Heimerdinger, where
students can work on online
news but also produce videos
and podcasts.
“I’ll be in charge of con-
tent and he’ll (Heimerdinger)
be in charge of technology,”
Somerville said. “My kids can
have all of the technology stuff
taken off of their plate and fo-
cus on the news and making it
more timely.”
Somerville currently teach-
es two journalism classes dur-
ing one period, with 12 stu-
dents working on The Piper and
another 18 in Fundamentals
of Journalism.
Somerville started the fun-
damentals class two years ago
out of the same conversation
with Jespersen.
“I wanted to do that so
the kids could enter the pub-
lication class having already
learned the fundamentals,”
Somerville. “It gives me the
time to really prep them.”
The Piper staff has already
started posting stories online.
When Sen. Ron Wyden (D-
Ore) visited the school last
month, McNary had a photo
on its Website before he left
KEIZERTIMES/Derek Wiley
Sixty-eight issues of The Piper, McNary’s student newspaper, dating back to 2007 are on the wall in journalism teacher Ryan Somerville’s classroom. The Piper,
which started in 1965, is printing its fi nal edition this spring, but will still exist online.
campus.
Reporter Lauren Mur-
phy wrote a short story after
school and then a longer one
over the weekend that was on
the site Monday.
In the past, the story might
not be in The Piper paper edi-
tion for another month.
“Right now we’re not
timely at all,” Somerville. “I
stopped fi ghting that battle a
long time ago. I’d rather put
out quality and teach the kids
how to do real journalism.”
McNary spends about
$3,000 a year printing 2,000
copies of each of its eight is-
sues. But The Piper isn’t going
online to save money.
“Whatever we do it has to
be spending neutral,” Somer-
ville said. “I haven’t been told
that the budget is being cut.”
Somerville would like to
do a magazine each semester
so students can learn InDesign
and still see their writing in
print.
The Piper is currently post-
ing its stories online at mc-
nary.salkeiz.k12.or.us under
announcements but Somer-
ville would like to see a sep-
arate space for The Piper on
McNary’s site. Each story is
promoted on the Celtic Ter-
ritory Twitter and Facebook
page.
“Going online, my sense is
our readership is going to be
wider but thinner,” Somerville
said. “On paper, every kid in
the school has the opportu-
nity to read it. It’s handed out
in class. When they have the
option to look at it on their
phone, less kids in the building
will read it but more people
out in the world will read it.
“Our challenge is going to
be marketing it here in the
building, making sure every
kid in the classroom likes the
page and shares it, making sure
teachers are liking it and shar-
ing it. And then put out timely
material that’s good and build
the readership that way.”
While Somerville believes
going online is best for The
Piper, the former Ohio news-
paper man who has put out
student newspapers for the
past 21 years as an advisor will
miss seeing the physical paper
each month.
“It’s been diffi cult for me
to let go. I plan to keep those
up for a while just to show
kids how it used to be done
and hopefully I’ll grow it
there with the magazine,” he
said looking at the wall of past
issues. “There’s a lot of history
up there. I think the goal of
the newspaper is to tell the
rough draft of history at Mc-
Nary High School and we’ve
done that.”
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