STAFF CHANGES

As the incoming advisor this year, I was both nervous and excited about returning to the school newspaper. Nervous that it would be too much to juggle, and excited to work with students who liked to write and to hear what they wanted to write about. I also knew the previous advisor left the club in great shape and that the returning members were genuinely great people. And although I was the advisor for about five years in the past, a lot had changed with the technology surrounding the digital publication since I left.

But the returning members put my mind at ease right away and I knew it was going to be a good year. I just did not know how good good would be!

Of the returning six members of the greenwavegazette.org four were seniors.

• Nivetha Aravindan,  wrote many articles about community events in addition to school based articles. She was always willing to cover what was needed.
• Allison Dennehy  wrote many spotlight articles and covered school events. The “Allisons” (she and Allie Mac) were responsible for putting together the print edition: selections, layout and putting into publisher. Allison also procured all the ads this year, updated the bulletin boards, and distributed papers around town.
• Morgan MacNeil-Berry  covered a new artist and was herself the subject of an article this year.
• Marc Vento brought humor to the meetings. His topic included fashion.

The other two returning members were juniors.

•  Allison MacLeod  had contributed a good deal to the club over the years, and this year was no exception. Allison’s reporting covered a range of topics and even brought her into Boston to review a play.
• Giovan Soares wrote on politics and covered an unsung hero feature. As an editor, he along with Allison helped new members with AP style questions.

Several of the above returning members trained the newcomers on how to use the SNO site, which is the web host for the online school newspaper.  Their direction and participation are reflected in the success of the school newspaper. They led well by example. I cannot thank them enough for their leadership.

This year’s new members include sophomores Erielle Amboy who came on primarily as a photojournalist, but also wrote longer, interview-based articles often covering art. Cam Curney wrote on a variety of topics including technology/science. He also went behind the scenes (and on the roof!) to cover events about the school building (not many get to go on the roof of the school!). His reporting also brought him to the JFK Library. Freshmen Arianna Akusis covered a few different topics, while Kathryn Genest primarily wrote theatre reviews, covering musicals and plays inside school and outside of school, Abby Joyce  a prolific writer, covered a variety of topics. Elizabeth Roy primarily covered sports, but also wrote on other topics of her interest. Alison Santosuosso covered current events in the school and nation. Yani Soares covered both school and community events. Andrew Vasquez who joined in semester two, covered an article about arming teachers, and Lidia Videl, a talented artist, who also joined later in the year as the cartoonist.

Since the start of the school year, the staff of 16 met every Tuesday to discuss events, brainstorm ideas, analyze data, review contributor’s work, write, revise, and edit their own stories. Occasionally pizza and snacks were part of the mix.

Being a part of this upbeat and encouraging group was enjoyable!

The newspaper club is open to new members who enjoy writing (or photography/art) and are not shy about covering stories. If this sounds like you, the newspaper is a great club of which to be a part. The meetings are weekly but not mandatory. When someone cannot make a meeting, they simply communicate that via group email.

AWARDS

The newspaper received two SNO distinguished sites badges this year. The Green Wave Gazette is one of only three MA newspapers to receive badges this year.

• The first badge was for site excellence. “To earn this badge, a news staff must customize their homepage beyond the initial SNO design with a clear sense of purpose for every element on the homepage” (SNO site). There were 23 criteria that had to be met. The Green Wave Gazette is one of only two Massachusetts school newspapers hosted by SNO to receive this badge this year.
• The second badge was for continuous coverage. To earn this badge, the newspaper had to meet 11 criteria under the headings developed, continuous, and sustained coverage.

AUDIENCE

The audience grew significantly. In fact, this year the number of page views (the number of times stories in our paper are accessed) has more than doubled since last year. The total number of page views for last year 2016-2017 rose to 33,408, an 11% increase from the previous year. This year the number  of views has more than doubled. From September 2017 to now, there have been 78,455 views. The reason for the increase may be in part the weekly publishing on a variety of articles, usually school related news.

This year, 55.4% of the audience was new, while 44.6% were returning visitors. The newspaper has a feature for people to sign up by email to have the newspaper delivered to their inboxes.

Since June of 2013 when the paper first began publishing on the SNO platform, there have been 191,915 page views overall.

Although the Green Wave Gazette has viewers from around the world, such as (in order of viewers) the United Kingdom, Canada, the Philippines, South Korea, Peru, Azerbaijan, China and India, 95% are from the United States.

Of the US audience, 82% of are from MA, mostly in the Abington and Rockland area, with a high number of views also coming from Boston, Brockton, Weymouth, and Hanover (in that order). Other states with a fair number of people who read the Green Wave Gazette are NY, CA, TX, FL, PA, NJ, and CT.

PUBLICATIONS

In addition to the online newspaper, which was funded by local businesses who purchase ads, a grant from the AEF enabled the staff to put together and publish a colored, high-gloss “best of” edition in the spring. This print edition contained a sampling of articles they selected that they thought the community would most enjoy. They delivered these copies around town to Bemis Drug, Abington Bank, Independence Insurance, Morgan and Morgan, the public library, and the town hall.

The newspaper’s social media presence on Twitter and Facebook has also grown. Abington Athletics, Abington High School, and Dr. G. have been strong advocates on Twitter, while the former adviser Mr. Jim Dorman has been instrumental in maintaining the Facebook presence.

THANK YOU!

The Green Wave Gazette would like to thank its readers, supporters, and contributors. To all who share our stories on social media, you are appreciated. Our top Twitter fans (retweets) are Abington AD, AHS, and Dr. G.

A big shout out to Mrs. Crowley, the Library Media Specialist who opened her library every Tuesday for our meetings. She also frequently commented on the articles themselves, as did several readers (shout out to Marilyn Weber).

An huge shout out of thanks goes to to Mr. Jim Dorman,  the previous adviser. The newspaper would not have gotten off to such a positive start this year without all he did to bring it here.

Thank you to the secretaries Mrs. Minnehan, Mrs. Z. and Mrs. Kelliher who handled grants, dues and billing. Thanks to the Abington Administration for allowing students to have a voice.

The newspaper thanks Mr. Bill Marquardt and Dylan Magararu ’19 for allowing us to freely use the pictures and graphic design of said pictures in many of our articles.

And, thank you to the AEF for the generous grant that covered the print costs and to our ad sponsors Abington Savings Bank, Bemis Drug, Independence Insurance, and Morgan and Morgan. Without them there would be no newspaper. Be sure to support these local establishments.

Enjoy reading what is linked in this article!

[Note: a small part of this was revised for clarity at 6:30 AM on 6/12/19. Edited again at 10:05 for minor errors]