THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
Kansan
Users Guide
About the guide
The University Daily Kansas is the laboratory newspaper for the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications. But it is more than that. It is also the student newspaper of the University of Kansas.
It is your newspaper. This guide offers to help for you to understand and use the Kansan to the fullest. But using the Kansan is more than merely being a consumer. A fundamental role of the Kansan.
informed. We want you to help us with the task of keeping our University community informed. You can help us let our readers know what is going on, what is new and what is interesting.
Danny Pumpelly and Lindsay Haynes discuss different advertisements for the Kansan. Pumpelly is the online sales manager and Haynes is a part of the production team.
A fundamental role of any daily newspaper is to keep the community
This guide is designed to answer some basic questions: What is the Kansan? What is a newspaper? what is news? You will find information about pictures, news myths and reader access to news columns.
Laura Roddy, Julie Wood and Cory Graham work on tomorrow's paper. Roddy and Graham are managing editors and Wood is the editor of the Kansan. Photo by Kate Levinson/KANSAN
News staff works daily to get stories, news to KU students
This guide is for you.
An assembly of University faculty criticizes the chancellor's decision not to prohibit ROTC commissioning on campus. Students learn about it in the Kansan the next morning and read follow-up stories the next few weeks.
Our biggest task is choosing the best, most important stories for publication in the Kansan. Many factors go into the decision:
The Legislature votes not to finance the University of Kansas' libraries for the coming year. Thousands of students turn to the Kansan to find out how the cuts will affect them.
The decision to run such major stories and put them on the front page is easy. Not all decisions are so easy.
A blend of hard, breaking news, lighter feature stories and in-depth analytical stories is sought.
A mix of local, state, national and international news is needed.
Consideration is given to what is most appealing and most important to our primary audience, the University community.
Here's basically how it happens;
Putting together tomorrow morning's Kansan is a complex task that begins almost 24 hours before it arrives in the boxes on campus.
The editors, reporters and photographers begin gathering, sorting, reporting and photographing local news as early as 8 a.m. the day before.
Some of the work produces single articles ready for print the next day. Other events will be newsworthy for a longer period of time, forcing reporters to follow developments and write several articles. Some topics involve extensive time and research before reporters and editors can mold them into in-depth articles or series of articles that give readers a look at a particularly important or interesting subject.
In the morning, the editor and managing editors arrive in the newsroom to guide reporters in covering the news. Throughout the day, they take phone calls, read news releases, talk with beat reporters and watch other media sources to ensure that the Kansan reports the day's top stories.
At 12:30 p.m., the editor, managing editors, campus editors, design editor and sports editor review that day's paper to
and discuss stories for the next day. After the meeting the two campus editors help reporters sharpen and focus their stories. Both editors read each local story with a critical eye for completeness, accuracy and fairness.
At 3:30 p.m., a wire editor arrives to begin going through the hundreds of stories from The Associated Press sent electronically each day. The wire editor sorts stories by importance and subject, looking for potential front-page news, stories that should be localized, or stories that the reporting staff may have missed.
At 4:30 p.m. the same group from the 12:30 p.m. meeting meets to discuss what will go in the next day's paper. Participants summarize and promote their top stories, photographs and art work, give editors an idea of what should be considered for tomorrow's front page, news pages, and sports pages.
By 5 p.m., a copy desk consisting of five to eight people is in place to edit copy, write headlines and do other tasks of putting the newspaper together.
Copy editors are the Kansan's last line of defense against spelling, grammar and factual errors. All stories, local and wire, are edited by copy editors, who stay until the last page is finished.
By 9 p.m., the editor and managing editors go home, leaving the paper in the hands of the news editor, although the editor is consulted in most decisions. He checks headlines, layouts, cutlines and keeps an eye on the wires for late-breaking stories. If a late story comes across, the news editor is responsible for getting it in the paper.
About 1 a.m., the pages are sent, mostly by e-mail, to the Lawrence Journal-World. By 4 a.m., the presses have usually been set and are running. All that remains is to distribute finished papers to the boxes on campus.
The Kansan operates, looks like, and has the same goals as other daily newspapers, but students produce it. The top editors are paid, but reporters and copy editors receive class credit. They go home every night knowing that their classwork will be distributed to more than 11,000 people the next morning. Then the process will begin again.
Kansan advertising allows news to remain in business
The University Daily Kansan is a $1.1 million enterprise.
Kansan advertisers reach thousands of readers with their messages and, in the process, provide a vehicle to publish the news. About 90 percent of the Kansan's operating revenue comes from advertising.
The Kansan is an investment for its advertisers, and staff members see themselves as business consultants. They strive for optimum customer service. Staff members also seek to provide relevant advertising information for students.
Members of the advertising staff spend days juggling client calls, appointments, classes and office hours at the Kansan Business Office. 119 Stauffer Flint Hall.
Business hours start at 8 a.m. and end at 5 p.m. After taking time for dinner and
study, members of the creative staff head back to the office for at least two hours to prepare their ads for publication. By 4 a.m., the presses start rolling on about 11,500 copies of The University Daily Kansan.
Working on the Kansan advertising staff is a full-time job that allows students to gain practical experience in advertising. Students typically work 30-40 hours each week.
The 60-member staff includes 40 account executives and 12 student managers. Each account executive is responsible for a list of clients and handles all aspects of customer relations, including selling, planning, creating and implementing advertising campaigns.
Student managers assist account executives in their sales efforts and are experienced staff members.
National awards the staff has received in the past three years from the College Newspapers Business Advertising Managers Inc. include best overall newspaper (1997), best training program (1998) and best in-paper campaign for the "Sit Down Norm" poster published during basketball season (1999).
The advertising department offers clients many free low-cost services, including photography, original art, access to market research information, free creative assistance and desktop publishing. Additionally, registered student organizations receive discounted rates. Online advertising also is offered in the forms of banners, contests, coupons, sponsorships, special-section placement and job-search capability.
He keeps us printing
William Thomas looks over his list of things to do for the night. Thomas is the production supervisor for the Kansan. Photo by Kate Lewenson/KANSAN
What goes into The University Daily Kansan?
The Kansan is devoted to covering campus news and serving as the newspaper of record. Off campus, in the city at the Statehouse in Topeka, and elsewhere, the Kansan's coverage is directed at events that affect and concern the University community.
Our goal is to offer a wide range of vital news and features, including knowledgeable coverage of lifetimes and the arts.
Page 1
The front page is the showcase for our most important and most interesting stories. The front page usually will include breaking local, state, national, international news and human interest topics. We try to find the local angles on national and international stories. The front page usually will
Page 1
include photographs and graphics to illustrate a story or depict an event on campus.
Page 2
Page two is the home of the police record, on campus listings and local and national news briefs.
The Opinion page provides a wide forum for contributors — from government officials to professors to students — to voice their opinions about specific issues. The Opinion page runs articles, columns, cartoons and letters that represent various viewpoints about issues so readers can hear all sides of an argument and make up their own minds.
Opinion
We encourage readers to write
Editorials are written based on agreement of members of the editorial board. They reflect the opinion of the Kansan about issues.
guest columns or letters to the editor. The public clash of opposing ideas is particularly crucial in a university environment.
Nation/World
The Nation/World pages contain national and international stories of significance. We realize that the Kansan is the primary source of information for many of our readers. These pages are important to keep readers informed about important events outside of the Lawrence area.
Hilltopics
Hilltopics is the feature page that appears in the *Kansan* on the
back page of the "A" section on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Features stories are longer articles that focus on a variety of topics ranging from quirky hobbies to profiles to indepth investigations of campus and national issues. Friday's page focuses on entertainment and includes movie, music and book reviews.
Sports
The Sports section contains news of local, regional and national sporting events. Although the primary focus is on complete coverage of the Jayhawks, Kansan sportswriters also keep you up-to-date on club sports, individual and professional sports.
The UDKi is an interactive web
UDKi
Tom Eblen works at his desk. Eblen is the general manager of the Kansan.
Photo by Kate Levenson/KANSAN
site that posts not only content from the newspaper, but publishes original stories as well. And it doesn't stop there. You can
find job listings, movie times, games and contests on the site along with links to other interesting places on the Web.