Inside The Colby Echo: what it takes to publish a weekly student newspaper

To Colby students and faculty, it might seem like The Colby Echo magically appears in newsstands across campus every Thursday, spreading news to the information-hungry masses. In reality, though, getting a newspaper to print is a laborious affair that involves the blood, sweat, and tears of many a student reporter and editor. 

“As the premier newspaper of Central Maine, we hold ourselves to the highest of standards,” Editor-in-Chief Heather Jahrling `21 said. “As a full-time Editor-in-Chief and part-time student, I spend around 18.77 hours per week on the paper.”

The Colby Echo staff’s week starts off with the budget. The budget is where the section editors put story ideas for their respective sections — News, Local News, Features, Arts & Entertainment, Opinions, and Sports. Reporters and contributing writers then sign up for the stories on the budget. Editors often write articles too.

It’s a quick turnaround for articles. The budget usually goes out on Wednesday or Thursday and articles are due Monday at midnight. Each article needs to have at least two interviews as well as a photo. This can make getting articles in on time a definite challenge.

“Sometimes, I’ll learn about news over the weekend that I think we need to cover, which that’s a super quick turnaround” News Editor Sonia Lachter `22 said. “Boy, can that be difficult! Luckily, The Colby Echo staff is always willing to lend a helping hand.”

Sports editor Will Bedingfield `22 disagreed.

“It’s not hard, actually,” Bedingfield said. “It’s really easy to write articles.”

Once articles are in, they go off to our copy editors. The copy editors do what we call “firsts” — first passes at editing. The section editors then go in and approve or reject the changes, then the copy editors do “seconds,” or a second round of edits. The seconds usually happen during the paper’s layout night on Tuesdays, which starts at 6 in The Colby Echo office in Bob’s basement. Some articles take longer than others to edit, much to the chagrin of the Head Copy Editor, Conall Butchart `22.

“It feels like I keep having to re-learn how to read every Tuesday,” Butchart said. “I wish our reporters would do the same.” 

The lucky Colby Echo loyalists who show up to layout nights are called the layout staff. They consist of the Editor-in-Chief, the section editors, the copy editors, and the layout editors. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, attendance is unfortunately limited to the layout staff; during a normal year, reporters and contributing writers would be allowed to come and mingle.

The office is a ... special place, to put it one way. The walls are plastered in scribbles and writings from staff of years past and empty beer bottles line the room. There are stacks on stacks of old newspapers, dating back to the early 90s, and a completely defunct dark room filled with dried-up bottles of chemicals. 

There used to be couches, but The Colby Echo staff deemed them a safety hazard and removed them. 

Regardless, this windowless pit is where the magic happens. Layout editors take the submitted articles and put them into InDesign, placing pull quotes and fixing spacing well into the late hours of the night. 

“We’re really dependent on the writers and them getting their stuff in on time,” Local and Features Layout Editor and unofficial DJ Eliza Pohle `22 said. “It can be really frustrating when I can’t lay things out because writers haven’t submitted their articles. But it is really fun seeing how everything comes together and spending time with everyone!”

Once the articles are formatted into their respective pages, the layout editors send the pages to the printer so the Editor-in-Chief can make final edits for grammar, style, and layout. The EIC then gives the edits back to the layout editors, who make the necessary changes. After doing this for every section, the paper is (usually —  or at least sometimes, it’s a toss up) without error and ready to be printed.

The EIC sends the finished PDFs to local printing company Masthead Maine via a program called Fetch, named after its icon of a dog running with a harddrive in its mouth.

“Our software program from 2003, FETCH, keeps me up at night,” Jahrling said. “I will forever be scarred by that little dog icon.”

The Colby Echo prints 400 paper copies each week, which are picked up and distributed across campus on Thursday mornings by the distribution manager. Then, the process starts all over again: the budget is sent out, articles are written and edited, pages are laid out, and a paper is printed, week after week. It’s a Sisyphean effort, The Colby Echo staff eternally pushing the rock up the hill for minimal wages and little campus appreciation. 

“I know The Colby Echo is bad for my health, but I love it,” News Layout Editor Mady Hand `22 said. “There’s no way being in this room for four or five hours every night is good for me.”

If you’re interested in joining this happy little family, please reach out to The Colby Echo at colbyecho1877@gmail.com. 

~ Sarah Warner `21