Tribune field trip enlightens journalism students

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Mr Haggerty’s journalism students were able to sit in on a meeting of editors.

On Wednesday April 22, my Journalism classmates and I were able to visit The Chicago Tribune to take a look at how professional journalists identify their top stories for the front page and make choices for web content.  The five students from our class were accompanied by our writing coach, Mr. George Vrechek, who arranged the visit, as well as Journalism instructor Mr. John Haggerty.

Meredith Friedberg, our group’s host at the Tribune, began by taking our group on a quick tour of the various newspaper departments. One stop along the way was the Editorial Board conference room, where President Barack Obama and many other notable political figures have met the Tribune editors to set forth their positions on various issues. Friedberg pointed out the very chair the president had occupied when he visited the Tribune last fall, and we had the opportunity to take turns trying it out ourselves.

Next, we were ushered into a meeting room (called the “fishbowl” because it’s surrounded by glass) where the various department editors gather each day to choose the content for the next day’s front page.  Seeing how they communicate with each other, and how their individual points of view are considered by the Editor in Chief and Managing Editor, was fascinating to me.

The newspaper’s online version provided data as to the number of people clicking on a story and how long they spent reading each article which helped the editors decide what stories were of the greatest interest to readers.

Junior Matthew McKay found the editorial meeting fascinating and much different than what he expected. “They were able to use social media to determine what were the popular stories and who was looking at what.”

Looking at the next day’s Tribune the following morning was very fascinating. Most of the stories that had been discussed in our presence were on the front page of the newspaper; that was amazing.

As senior Myles Talton remarked, “It seems as if as soon as we left, they started publishing articles.”

The Chicago Tribune field trip definitely sparked an interest in journalism among the class.  Talton admitted that because of this experience he will consider journalism as a minor during his college career.

This was a great opportunity for my classmates and me. I hope that the students in this class next year are able to experience the same thing we did.

Matt McKay takes a seat in the same chair that President Obama used in the Tribune board room.
Matt McKay takes a seat in the same chair that President Obama used in the Tribune board room.