BY KATHY CHANG
Staff Writer
Metuchen METUCHEN – It’s varsity writing at its best.
The staff of St. Joseph High School’s newspaper, The Falcon, is hand-picked from the student body. And it takes a lot to make the grade.
The Falcon has won first place for the past four years in the American Scholastic Press Association’s nationwide contest. The contest is judged by journalism professionals, who critique the paper in six major categories.
“These guys are dedicated, and I can truly rely on each and every one of them,” said The Falcon’s faculty adviser, Dr. Martine Gubernat.
Gubernat considers a position on the newspaper staff to be the equivalent of varsity English.
“Not everyone makes the cut, but to make it fair, everyone has to try out every year,” Gubernat said. “If someone doesn’t make it one year, they can try out the next year.”
To try out, students submit both an original news and feature story, which are evaluated by Gubernat and editors.
Falcon staff members meet and work on their own time. The newspaper is not produced through a journalism class at the school.
“It’s outstanding how responsible they are,” Gubernat said.
Producing the paper is a team effort that ranges from 25 to 28 students. This year there are 21 staff members.
“If one writer misses a deadline, it affects everyone from associate editors right up to Dr. Gubernat,” said editor-in-chief Tom Bacsik. “We count on everyone being responsible.”
The paper includes eight editors and 13 staff writers who produce six papers each school year.
There are four-page papers in September, November, February and April and eight-page editions in December and May.
“The editors and I get together for an hour to come up with ideas,” said Gubernat. “Then they assign the ideas to the writing staff.”
The staff writers have a week to write the articles and send it to their assignment editor via e-mail. Usually each of the editors will get three to four articles.
“The editors have two days to look over and send the articles to the editor-in-chief,” said Gubernat. “He reads through all the stories.”
After Bacsik reads through all the articles, he only has a weekend to lay out the paper.
“It is very little time, but most of the editor-in-chiefs I’ve worked with don’t like to ask for help and somehow always manage to get it done,” Gubernat said.
Laying out the paper is a tedious task because Bacsik has to make sure everything fits and matches up.
“Once that is done, I look over it,” said Gubernat. “The more eyes on it, the better.”
After the mock-up of the layout is complete, the articles and photos are burned onto a CD and taken to be printed at Media Trends in Metuchen, where the final layout is set.
“Usually a week later, they send us the proof sheets,” Gubernat said.
The proofs are sent to the editors via e-mail and they print them and make corrections overnight if needed.
“The next morning, I look over it and put all the mistakes onto one page,” Gubernat said. “It’s amazing how many mistakes there are even when there are so many sets of eyes on it.”
If there are only a few edits, Bacsik will phone in the changes to Media Trends. If there are many, it’s easier to drop off the red-inked proof sheet to the printer.
Sometimes, this process can happen more than one time.
“This past issue, we had to have three proofs done,” said Gubernat.
Once everything is corrected, the paper is ready to be printed.
“We have the papers in 24 hours,” Gubernat said.
Elections for the upcoming year for editor positions are held before the last issue in May comes out.
“The newly elected editor-in- chief does the May issue and the five issues the next year,” said Gubernat.
Every editor-in-chief sets his own goals.
“My goal was to have the paper come out in color, which has never been done before,” said Bacsik.
The May 2006 issue will include some color photos in the eight-page layout.
“The front, back and pages four and five will be in color,” he said.
Bacsik, a senior, started as a staff writer on The Falcon as a freshman and became associate editor after his sophomore year.
“My brother was editor-in- chief and I saw him go through it,” said Bacsik. “My goal was to become editor-in-chief.”
Not only is Bacsik editor-in-chief, he also takes four Advanced Placement classes, is a member of the National Honor Society (NHS), president of the French NHS, and head manager of the school volleyball team. He works as a chef in a New Brunswick restaurant on the weekends.
And how does Bacsik, who is headed for the University of Notre Dame in Indiana this fall, handle all the work?
“I’m still trying to answer that question,” Bacsik said.
For more information visit www.stjoes.org.