The Rubicon, Online
St. Paul Academy and Summit School
Each year, the National Scholastic Press Association recognizes excellence in student media with scholastic journalism’s preeminent award, the Pacemaker. Pacemakers are awarded in each category of publication — online, newspaper, yearbook, magazine and broadcast.
Teams of media professionals judge entries based on the following criteria: coverage and content, quality of writing and reporting, leadership, design, photography and graphics.
NSPA contacted Gitanjali Raman, Javier Whitaker-Castañeda and Boraan Abdulkarim, staff members of 2016 Online Pacemaker recipient The Rubicon for a Q&A. The Rubicon is the newsmagazine of St. Paul Academy and Summit School in St. Paul, Minnesota. The Rubicon is advised by Kathryn Campbell.
NSPA: What were the goals going into last year and how did you ensure those goals were met?
Gitanjali Raman, online managing editor: Going to the year, my main goals were to increase the size of our audience online via social media. I ensured that the goal was met by posting daily on two different social media platforms. With the daily social media posts, an increase in our audience was seen.
Javier Whitaker-Castañeda, managing editor: The goals going into last year included expanding our online content and horizons. We began to create more video and interactive content and it was rewarding to see a growing social media presence.
Boraan Abdulkarim, editor-in-chief: With our print and our online publications, our philosophy has always been to use success markers as motivation to keep growing instead of reflect on how great we are.
We acknowledge successes, but we hold ourselves to remarkably high standards and normalize those standards, in everything from timely coverage to placing hot links in stories consistently.
NSPA: Tell us about a moment you will remember most about this staff.
GR: I will always remember how hard working and driven this particular set of people are. Our editor-in-chief stayed late every night to make sure the newsmagazine went to print.
Our online editor-in-chief would spend countless hours perfecting the layout and learning HTML code so that the website would look beautiful. And I will always remember my dedication to making sure that social media posts were classy and relatable to our audience.
BA: I remember all the times we had to be dragged to lunch because we couldn’t tear ourselves away from our computers. Our staff’s focus and work ethic surprise me every day.
JWC: We have a document where we collect staff quotes — in proper AP and Rubicon style of course — for if anyone says anything ridiculous and/or funny. It’s always fun to reflect on the quotes.
NSPA: What does the Pacemaker mean to you and your staff?
GR: The pacemaker was a goal that I wanted the staff to win ever since I heard about it sophomore year. Now that we’ve achieved this prestigious award, in my senior year, I am beyond excited to see what future staffs create and design.
JWC: Our online process and content has been improving and expanding rapidly and the Pacemaker gives validation to our methods and ideas. I hope to see an award winning online page next year as well.
BA: The Pacemaker affirms what we already know as a staff: that we don’t do things just because others do them and we don’t hold back just because something hasn’t been done before; we set the pace for ourselves and consequently for others, too.
NSPA: What was the toughest moment you faced last year? The most rewarding?
JWC: Some tough moments for our staff have been generating content at a consistent pace. Some of the most exciting moments for me are when I see public interaction with our social media or our website.
BA: The toughest moment for our staff was sticking to plans — but the nature of journalism is spontaneous and adaptive, so I don’t think it was a loss to diverge from previous plans.
The most rewarding experience has been to see staff writers get creative without prompting and experimenting with new forms of online reporting just because they want to.
