School Newspapers / Magazines

[heatherm6]

Hello,
I'm not a teacher, I run my own business and I am currently working on a project to do with School Newspapers / Magazines in the UK following discussions with a couple of schools. I wondered if anyone would be prepared to give me some comments about the resources currently available for starting a school publication. Has anyone done it and if so, how did you find the process? What were the benefits and challenges and do you think additional resources would be helpful or is this unnecessary?
Any comments would be much appreciated and I hope you don't mind me posting on your forum.
Thanks!

[dtrim]

I have started a couple of student publications from scratch.

Here are the challenges:

Convincing the principal/administration that freedom of expression is healthy for students and the school.
Finding budget money for computers and software
Establishing the new publication with advertisers, setting ad rates, training the student ad staff.
Training a staff while putting out a publication. It's like changing a tire while the car is speeding down the freeway!
Finding a printer who will do small digital press runs with a low cost and a quick turnaround. (I do believe in fairies! I do! I do!)


Here in America, my first ad phone call was to the military recruiters. You can call me all sorts of names, but they bought a full-page ad in every issue and funded our first laptop and software. The military funded my free speech project.

I also found a printer of my dreams here in America: JS Printing. We could send them our .pdfs and receive our paper on newsprint in maybe two days. I loved them.

Best wishes for success,

Diane