Production Cycle

Working Environment

La Voz, the student newspaper of De Anza College, provides a working newsroom environment for students to learn the skills of publishing a newspaper. At La Voz (Spanish for "The Voice"), student journalists decide on the newspaper's content and meet weekly publishing deadlines.

The life cycle of a feature article is often three weeks, which means that student journalists may be working concurrently on several stories. However, news and current event stories usually complete the cycle in a week or less.

Assigning the Story

Editors meet weekly to develop leads and proposals for new stories.

At the meetings, editors create assignment sheets, which explain the basis of the stories and provide initial contact information.

Editors next assign the stories to individual reporters.

Research and Interviews

Reporters then begin to research and gather background information for the proposed story.

Interviews contribute personal experiences and verify information. Reporters and photographers often work together on the story.

Editing

Reporters sort through their notes and write a draft of the story for their editor.

Editors next carefully check the story for any weaknesses – they are looking for a story that is accurate and readers will want to read.

Reporters may have to return to the source and ask the right question, fact check or simply clean up a jumble of words. Clear, relevant writing is the goal.

Advertising

Paid advertisements help meet the expense of publishing a weekly paper. Business students can become involved in the administration and advertising responsibilites of the paper, and graphics arts students may design ads.

Layout

Editors become skilled in word processing and graphic design as they position stories, select photographs and design the pages, functions which contribute to having the story noticed and read.

Wednesday and Thursday nights the newspaper staff works late to finish stories, layout and other critical details prior to Friday morning's final copyediting session. The pages are then sent electronically to the printer.

Reading La Voz Weekly

New editions of La Voz Weekly are delivered on Monday mornings to the De Anza College campus. Check out La Voz online.