The Milton Measure: The Real Scoop

It’s three o’clock on Friday afternoon. Jess unlocks the door, throws her book bag on the ground and excuses herself as she sits down at the computer. “I’ll just be one second, I have to send an email to the section editors.”

One by one the staff assembles. Dina grabs a notebook and settles into a tattered recliner. As the other board members find stools and couches arranged around the perimeter of their small office, they chat about issue number two, which included an interview with Head of School Robin Robertson, commentary on the California recall election, and an article entitled “Teachers are People Too.” It was “ill,” “awesome” and “hot.” “We’re back on top,” exclaims one board member. “People are talking about the Measure again.”

The Milton Measure, Milton’s official student newspaper since 1894, is published biweekly. Each 12-page issue of M2—as the Measure is sometimes called—takes two weeks of hard work on the part of 40 dedicated students advised by faculty member Larry Pollans (history).

“There’s no "continued" line on the Doc. Rob story.”

“There were a bunch of Measure’s left outside the library. Will someone help me get them when the meeting is over?”

The new templates I’m working on should cut our total production time in half.”

In full swing now, the board meeting turns to a heavier topic, personnel issues. “People are angry because we had to cut sports.” They debate the issue and decide to focus on keeping time-sensitive information such as sports; when space is tight they will cut more general pieces and run them in the next issue.

According to co-editors in chief Dina Guzovsky and Jess Kerry, communication between the members of the Measure staff on issues like the athletic articles is what helps create a great paper. “At times we have to cut articles because of space constraints,” explains Dina. “It’s difficult for us. We know the articles represent a lot of time and effort on the writer’s part, but space and budget are a reality.”

When Jess and Dina began planning for the 2003-2004 year, they decided to focus on open communication between the board and the staff. “If an article is cut we write a letter to the writer or speak to him or her in person. In past years the Measure lost some writers because the editors didn’t communicate,” says Dina. Personnel issues are sticky. We’re not the New York Times; we have to deal with staff members professionally, so the quality of the paper doesn’t suffer, but outside the walls of the Measure office, these are our friends and classmates and we want to be supportive and inclusive.”

The board begins to work on the editorial plan, “The faculty series went over well in this issue, let’s start there.”

With help from their faculty advisor, the group identifies faculty members to interview. Senior of the week is up next— Jessica Cheng is an easy choice. Managing editor Megan Bailey take notes as the board bats around ideas and assigns stories to writers. They’ve gathered story ideas from phone calls to the office and scuttlebutt in the class [online] conferences and they discuss the timing of each article carefully, trying to find the right mix of opinion, news and features for their next issue.

With the editorial plan firmed up the Measure board calls it a day a little after 4 p.m.
In the next two weeks each member of the Measure staff will carve out time to interview and write. Once the articles are submitted, section editors fine-tune each story . Two members of the Measure board then edit each story and finally with only four days until circulation, Jess and Dina meet with the production editors to layout the issue. This Friday, Jess and Dina’s careful planning, subtle management style and staff teamwork will once again result in a another fantastic issue of the Milton Measure.

“We (the board) want the Measure to do more than report what’s happened,” explains Dina, we want it to generate discussion.” The editors hope advertisements soliciting letters to the editor will help make the Measure a place for discussion, but they have not yet received any.