It’s easy to read this paper and imagine a few reporters and editors in Weiler late at night writing, editing and designing the entire paper. We work in a hierarchical staff structure, and, as such, it’s easy to attribute the bulk of this paper to the managing team that often signs these editorials. This, however, is certainly not the case—in theater terms, this paper is an ensemble show. We would be nothing without our staff and its immense dedication, skill and commitment to the paper. With that in mind, we want to dedicate our last editorial of the year to thanking our staff, the simultaneous superstars and the backbone, of our publication.
This year in our editorials, we have addressed our parents, our teachers, our fellow students and the administration. In our last issue, we turn to our staff.
Chronicle staff: thank you for caring about quality. Thank you for letting us see your articles two or three times even when you feel like we’ve nitpicked and made more than enough comments. Thank you for rewriting your features and getting new interviews the day before when we ask. Thank you for rearranging your entire page when we complain about the photos being square. Thank you for staging and restaging and then spending hours after on Photoshop editing. Thank you for remembering the picas, the folios and the descending headlines.
The Chronicle can be an extremely time-intensive commitment for students and it is truly inspirational to see how much time you put into it. You skip tournaments, rehearsals, family commitments, studying for tests and more to make layout.
Before we arrived in Weiler for the first layout of our sophomore years, former Editor-in-Chief Sammi Handler sent an email quoting former adviser Kathleen Neumeyer who noted that while students were excused for Harvard-Westlake productions and athletic events, “requests to be excused for other obligations should be limited to White House dinners, arraignments, major surgery, audiences with the Pope and the like.”
In spite of not sending a similar email to all of you this summer, thank you, staff, for still abiding by these standards. It is because of the time you dedicate that the Chronicle is able to succeed at the level that it has. It is because of this time that each and every month we are proud to publish our issues.
It means so much when we come to Weiler and see snacks and stuffed animals covering the room. We love seeing your friendly, excited faces even at 9 p.m. on Friday nights and 9 a.m. on Saturday mornings. Thank you for writing us kind speeches just because it is tradition. Finally, thank you for letting our friendships continue outside of Weiler, for supporting us and waving to us in the hallways inside and out of layout.
With a tiered position structure and ordered masthead, it’s easy to think this paper is run by very few. In reality, our staff of nearly 80 works together to take photos, write articles, edit pages and eventually distribute our paper. Next time you read the Chronicle, we hope you’ll remember the ensemble. We always do and always will. Thank you, staff.
