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Dobyns-Bennett's student paper launches online edition

Published November 26th, 2009 | 1 Comments

D-B Arrowhead staff member Kiersten Reynolds reads the new online edition of the school newspaper. Photo by David Grace.

KINGSPORT — Dobyns-Bennett High School’s student newspaper The Arrowhead has gone online and has fans on Facebook.

The virtual version — www.dbarrowhead.com — joins the existing six print editions a year (three each semester) that are printed at the Kingsport Times-News roughly every six weeks. The next print edition comes out Dec. 11, but students said the online edition is updated as school news warrants.

The Arrowhead has published in print since at least the 1980s and went online with its own Web site Nov. 11.

“The students are writing much more. They’ve developed their own beat system,” said D-B English and journalism teacher Rebekah Haren, an adviser to the publication.

“It’s much more fast paced,” Haren said, adding that the 1 to 2:50 p.m. journalism classes of the newspaper staff of about 20 often seems to fly by in five minutes.

In addition to making content more timely online, with updated sports scores and late-breaking news, the online edition also allows editors to choose among online articles those that are the best or most appropriate for the print edition.

In addition, the site accepts letters to the editor.

Haren and students involved with the paper said the print version isn’t going away but is shifting its focus to more magazine-type features.

“The print edition is going to be more of a magazine-type project,” said Hannah Marcello, a senior and editor of the print edition of The Arrowhead.

Anna Hein, e-edition editor of the newspaper, and Marcello said reporters are writing more and editors are editing more because of the change, using an application called Google Docs that allows them to shuffle draft articles back and forth among them without worrying about getting the wrong version without edits.

Hein helped choose the software the paper uses to make the Web site.

And like the Times-News and other newspapers across the country, the online Arrowhead also can have uploaded videos, slide shows and Podcasts, all in color compared to the black-and-white Arrowhead print editions.

The Web site also sends out e-mails informing those who sign up for them of new articles. Or Facebook users can choose to become a follower of The Arrowhead via Facebook or The Arrowhead site and get Facebook updates.

“They sky’s the limit on what they can do technology-wise,” Haren said.

The Arrowhead is approaching 300 Facebook fans at last count, including alumni, but Haren predicted that would grow as word gets out.

As for the future, Hein, a two-year veteran of the newspaper staff, plans to go to East Tennessee State University and get a communications degree and have a career in print and online journalism.

Marcello, a three-year veteran of the staff, also plans to go to college in communications but is leaning more toward broadcasting.

“I want to do broadcasting on CNN,” she said.

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I think this is great, but the Arrowhead actually started an online edition about 9 years ago. I guess it wasn't really kept alive more than a year or so.

Well, good to see the re-launch, and I wish more sucess to these students!

Not No | 11/27/2009 - 2:17 PM - ( Comment

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