Moses Lake High School student paper improves

Goal is to win awards for upgraded publication

MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake High School student newspaper has a brand new look this year, thanks to a splash of color and an editor with a knack for design.

The monthly publication, "Chief Events," is being distributed to students for the second time this year Tuesday.

Faculty Advisor Robert McCaffery said in addition to a redesign of the paper, full color on the front and back pages is another feature added this year.

"In 1994, we did one color picture on the front page," McCaffery said.

The picture cost $300 to run in color, and now it is more economical, he said.

The newspaper won first-place awards from 1995 to 1997 from the American Scholastic Press Association, McCaffery said he wants to see the newspaper start winning awards again. He plans to submit the Oct. 2 edition and an issue from last year to the competition.

McCaffery credited the newspaper's new, more graphically oriented design in large part to Editor Josie Daschel.

"I always looked at our paper and it could have been improved," said Daschel, 17, a senior at Moses Lake High School.

She joined the newspaper last year as a reporter and then worked as a photographer.

Daschel enjoys designing pages and can spend hours at a time working at a computer. After graduation she is considering a career in graphic design, but her ambitions fluctuate from political science to psychology.

"It's always changing," she said.

Daschel uses photographs to break up text and make the pages more appealing. She noticed the school's former design used a lot of head shots, which she reduced.

"We have a great staff and they write well," she said.

This is the first year students delivered the newspaper's pages for printing on disk, rather than bringing in pages by hand.

The newspaper is printed by the Columbia Basin Herald. Daschel said she wanted to print closer to home.