After 59 years of newspaper publications, The Shield is debuting a new dimension of the newspaper: an online version. The website, macshieldonline.com, is starting out small but will continue growing over this year to bring the voices of McCallum to the internet. Online editor Baron Heinrich said this new media will enhance the paper by allowing the staff to cover and publish events as they happen and giving more room for featuring opinions.
“Readers can expect to find many more staff opinions about things both inside and outside McCallum,” Heinrich said. “Columns are really fun to read and write, but we need to focus on news in the actual newspaper. The website gives us the space to expand. We will also cover school-related news more often on the website because we’ll be able to feature it immediately after it happens. The print newspaper only comes out once every six weeks, and by then some school events are old news. With the website, we’ll be able to cover events while they are relevant. I really want to have the website constantly updated with the latest McCallum news.”
Stories on the website will include online versions of the stories published in the newspaper as well as stories unique to the website. Readers will also be able to view a virtual version of the print newspaper. As the staff of The Shield explores this new media, they look forward to expanding boundaries and moving toward a more active publication. Editor-in-chief Grace Frye said it’s important to start a website to make the paper more convenient and fun.
“Many people aren’t really aware of the news going on in McCallum,” Frye said. “The website is a way to get it out there and also make it more accessible to people. People may not want to read a full-length newspaper story because they’re not interested or they don’t have time, but with the online version we can add more fast news and fun stories.”
The website will also help The Shield adapt to the challenging world of journalism, she said.
“Journalism is evolving towards multimedia,” Frye said. “Many newspapers have online versions now, and I think having an online publication will really help us move forward into the future. I don’t want to get rid of the print newspaper, but the online and paper version together will really benefit McCallum and also the community. Now, local businesses, families and friends can all see what’s going on in the school.”
This article was published in The Shield on Oct. 4, 2012.
