By definition, news is "an account of an event or happening." Actually, a reporter or an editor judges information against a set of criteria. These criteria, called news values, include timeliness, proximity, magnitude, consequence, prominence and unusualness. Also, progress, conflict and human interest might enter into the equation (I hope not too much conflict.)
For example, suppose your club has scheduled a campus meeting (proximity) for one day during the week following publication of The Ranger (timeliness). Red McCombs (prominence) will speak on the topic "How to Make Money," (consequence) and the meeting is open to the public (magnitude). As a special incentive, the first 20 people to attend will receive a $10 bill (unusualness).
Get the idea?
News stories come in two forms: advance and followup.
An advance story usually emphasizes "who, when and where" about an event that will happen. A followup story provides information about "what, why, how and so what" and appears after the event. Interest will be minimal in a followup story of a meeting or speech that simply relates that so-and-so met or spoke. In these cases, the important information is what was said in the speech or what business was (or was not) conducted at the meeting.
Deadlines
Your club or organization reporter must learn to deal with newspaper deadlines. Copy deadlines for your publication should be set and followed. For example, Monday preceding the Friday publication and distribution. If a group wants advance publicity, it may want to plan to get information to a beat reporter or a news editor two weeks in advance of the date of the event.
What's a beat reporter?
Editors should assign a reporter to cover each group on campus (as well as departments, administrative offices and myriad other things). That is what a beat reporter is. Your officers and/or sponsors should be contacted regularly by the beat reporter assigned to your group. Just because a group MEETS isn't newsworthy. What it does new or different or important to readers makes news. Be sure that your beat reporter gets tipped about events in ample time for coverage, and they should not be a part of the group they cover.
What about features?
You may know of a club member or faculty sponsor who is interesting or who has done unusual things. This would make a feature possibility. Many such feature stories are free of deadline requirements. Unlike "hard news" they may be used at any time in your publication. But often, a feature will have a news peg, such as a story about an interesting exhibit at a museum timed to coincide with the opening of the exhibit. Look at this feature about women participating in Roller Derby (photos by Julie Ann Sanchez for The Ranger.
Look for hobbies, collections, travels, jobs, leisure activities and anything else that is unusual. The key word is "unusual." Someone once said there are no uninteresting subjects, only dull and uninteresting writers. If you begin to look carefully, you will find many ideas. Then, it will be up to The Ranger reporter to agree with your assessment and develop the ideas. Chances are good that the story will at least mention that your feature story subject belongs to so-and-so club; thus, you get additional publicity.
The advantages of features include the opportunity to get additional space for groups, the possibility of greater reader interest and the chance to humanize a sometimes dull subject.
Back to top
What about photos?
Perhaps it would be easier to tell you what we DON'T want in a photograph.
Do not run group pictures, award presentations, grip and grin shots (someone shaking hands and offering a check to another person at the time with both grinning at the camera), signing photos, Castro shots (people lined up against a wall and "shot") or pictures of people sitting at tables or doing "nothing." Photographers should look for a fresh approach, the human element, compressed information and a unique view. They also will aim for spontaneity, honesty and truth.
Each photograph in your publication should attempt to accomplish visually what stories do verbally; however, words must accompany the picture to make a complete communication.
Thus, the photographer must always know (or will ask) what is happening in the photo and who is in it - spelling their names correctly and identifying them (by class and major, usually).
The photographer also looks for "dynamics" in images. These are action, reaction, interaction, mood, motion and emotion.