Critique for Feb. 16 lissue

Hola Javelina Journalists. Nice job on the Feb. 16 issue. We still, however, have a lot of room for improvement. Let's do a page-by-page review.

Page 1: Nice modular layout. That's a plus. Teaser weak, too weak. Why not a photo of our cops handing out, oh, you know, tickets? I know, I'm being sarcastic. Sorry, but this is a critique. Let's see if we can get Paul or Sabrina to work on our teasers ahead of time. It's always good to have it early, oh, you know, to meet deadline and stuff. The other major thing I don't like on this page is the screen and the reproduction of the photo on t he KTAI story. We just have not gotten this right. I think I know how to fix the photos. From now, every photo has to be screened at 300 dpi and made lighter by someone who is in charge of that. Talking to Amanda and Angela, the suggestion was made that Sabrina Reyna be in charge of this. So, every Monday morning, Sabrina will review photos and try to make them as sharp as possible on PhotoShop. I would like for Allen Fisher to help with this, especially with the sports photos. Our photos have been too weak. As for rthe color screens, like just use blue and use white type. I don't know. I'm confused. Fisher (Don) help!!!!! Storywise, we had some very excellent stories which should have some high readability. The story on the MSUB changes by Edwin was very well done. Good reporting. Yes, we needed help editing but the detail was there. Edwin, nice job. Claudia's research into the KTAI story made this a strong "top story." Well done Claudia. Raymond's extra effort on the missing artwork was also well done and Katherine Robinette had a surprisingly good article on our new police chief. Page 1 looks clean, modular and solid. We just need to spruce up here and there and we will have a better looking page.

Page 2: Our "Focus on Us" should be clear and standout. This was nice, but we can do better. Then, the "KTAI jump story" and the "Pilot Project" story seem to jumble up. Next, we're not modular. The "From the Files of the UPD" feature and the "Green Tip" column should line up. The page is nice and has nice tweet but can be much better.


Page 3:A very interesting page with lots of Campus News. Sabrina Reyna certainly worked hard - 3 STORIES! Wow! She and Claudia Garcia and Michael Bolman all had interesting reports. Layout is okay but we do not have a BAP. And, the "bug" on the Black History Month is great except for the "Wolrd Peace" emblem. Paul, can you fix this please? Thanks. Claudia's story was very informative but missed the lead. Remember, no chrnonology. You have to tell the reader what the most important element is first. Okay?

Page 4: With the big "Name Change" forum by our president, we didn't have much room left for other things. But, we got that one column about Sarah Palin and the Fox News cartoon in....they will sure stir things up for the conservative element in our university. We should get some letters, I hope. Yea! I love letters to the editor. Jaime, nice work on the column. The KUDOs article was also solid. Perhaps we should develop its own logo. Don't know. Let's talk.


Page 5: Sports can be much better, layoutwise. The stories are okay and the the lead photo is fine, but we lost too much space with the silly Jav-A-Stats at the bottom. It's ugly, If we're going to use this much space, but some more stuff in there. Please, do a job that will make our readers thing we care. Also, the "Player of the Week" feature must be more attractive. Please, fix this. Oh, and don't use italic so much on a sports page. Okay> I don't know what else to say. The columns are too big. If you are taking or took editing by now you know no column should be more than 20 picas. Don't know what picas are? 6 picas to an inch. Figure it out! Also, why can't we use body text on the sports page? Everyone else does. USE BODY TEXT!!!!! Well, enough. I know you all work hard but we have to produce a product that will make the readers at least think we know what we are doing. They need to be proud of our school when they pick it up if even for a minute. You know what I mean.

Page 6: This is a better page. It's more colorful and we did a good sidebar with "Cassie Talks." Still, a solid photo of this young lady would have helped. Good work.

As for online, we finally got caught up with the Dean's search videos and we posted some of the stories that were left behind. We still don't have a good system in place for this but we're getting there. I expect we will have new site soon, right Michael?

Okay, KUDOs for print??????? Hard. At this venture I feel it should be Sabrina Reyna. She said she stayed up all night working n these stories. Good. But, next time do them early and make deadline. HA. I know, it's "inappropriate."

Online KUDOs to Paul Camarillo for helping us catch up and coming up with some ideas for our streaming video of the baseball games. Good job Paul.