Dear readers,
We hope you are enjoying the last issue edited by the Class of 2013 Editorial Board. Deemed by ourselves as the greatest Editorial Board in the history of PHS, we ask you to brace yourself for some serious decline in quality. Just kidding. By next issue, you will be looking at the work of the next editorial board that will continue to grow and improve this publication.
Our first mission began this year in October with the launch of TPHNews.com, our school’s first ever online news website. Built by our first web editor, Eric Lee, the site allowed for real-time coverage, reader participation, and a broader scope of content. The website reached a wider audience and eliminated all the space restrictions of a print paper. With the site we could post longer stories, videos, photo galleries, and publicize them on social media.
Our timing couldn’t have been better, for soon after we launched came the FSL media firestorm that blindsided our school with the force of a freight train. We remember showing up to school one morning to see news cameras pointing at us. By nighttime, half the nation had heard sensationalized accounts of FSL. We saw it as our duty to clarify the misconceptions by interviewing Principal Rich Kitchens twice to walk through his letter, and by speaking to 40 students with knowledge of the league. Our work culminated in an online exposé that was reposted by the Oakland Tribune and San Jose Mercury. Our satisfaction came from revealing the truth about FSL and our school and we would like to thank all the students who helped us along the way.
On a lighter note, we have had our share of fun doing random shenanigans like our Harlem Shake TPH edition. At the start of the year, we wrote down a list goals such as reaching 300 Facebook Likes and having our ACL editor Daniella Mohazab date a particular student at our school. We have surpassed our 300 likes goal, and Daniella is close to winning his heart. We even had to trick some people in Arkansas to click on our website link to reach our goal of having a site visitor from every state.
Though running the website and newspaper simultaneously has been challenging, we have been rewarded with new readers. Just last month, Peter Hession’s story on Cal football coach Sonny Dykes was linked by ESPN.com and read by over 1,000 people across the nation. Julia Swensen’s story on SnapChat receives a steady flow of readers from who knows where. Alec Petty’s story on Chubbies shorts is also strangely popular. For a journalist, there is no greater satisfaction than knowing your story has been read and enjoyed by a wide audience, and we are now on track to reach over 50,000 page views for our site by the end of the year.
Even more satisfying is when we are able to feature the one-of-a-kind personalities at our school. Though it is our duty to write about budget cuts and board meetings, what we find truly interesting are the stories of students who are passionate about collecting socks, who live completely alone in a foreign nation, who love to perform magic, or act in feature films. We hope that every issue of the paper, you have learned something new about a fellow student at the school. That has been our ultimate goal.
Thank you PHS students for doing the amazing, fun, crazy, and stupid things you do that make our stories interesting. Thank you to the teachers who we interview over and over again, yet you still always make time for us. Thank you custodian Rick Flaxman for your awesome guitar playing. Thank you graphics artists that have made our newspaper beautiful. Thank you to the students who have worked with us even when we asked seemingly stupid questions. Lastly, we wish the 2014 editorial board the best of luck. May your year be filled with scandals and breaking news.
Stay classy,
Your Class of 2013 TPH staff members
#TPHSWAG
P.S. If you think you might even have the tiniest interest in writing for the paper, taking photos, or drawing graphics email editors@tphnews.com. We would love you to join our team!
