How to Apply and When etc

What you need to apply:

• A one page CV
• A one page letter of motivation detailing why you would be good for the job
• A portfolio of work applicable to the section you are applying for. (For example written work in your portfolio will not count as much as photographs if you are applying for the position of Pictures Editor) The portfolio should be presented in an A4 format, preferably in a file of some sort. (J1s should see this as a chance to start putting together their J2 applications.)
  

All of the above are due on the 11th of August at 17:00 and must be placed in the box outside of the Activate office (which is on the second floor of the Union Building) which will be marked "job applications".

Applicants will then be called into interviews which will take place in the evenings from the 22nd to the 24th of August. You will be informed when the lists are up to view when your interview time is.

Applications are open to all students regardless of their degree or experience- Activate is a student publication and strives to cater for the informationa and entertainment needs of all students.

Hint: The word "passion" and "passionate" has been banned from being used in both interviews and letters of motivation. It is simply overused, find another word to describe yourself.

Job descriptions are listed below and all of the jobs are availible to anyone who wishes to apply for them except the posts of Editor, Deputy Editor, Financial Manager, Content Editor and Managing Editor as these are reserved for section editors.

News Editor

Brief Outline

As the editor and section head of the news division of Activate, you are responsible for managing, providing and editing content that will fill the first 3 pages of the newspaper; that is including the front page. You are also responsible for ensuring that the relevant articles have relevant images – a task which must be managed in cooperation with the pictures editor(s).

Meetings

Every Monday night there will be an executive meeting in which issues around managing the paper will be discussed. Secondly, content ideas will be discussed and noted by the content editor on the main content whiteboard. Any contentious or possible problems will be discussed with the team as a whole in this forum.

You are responsible for organising a weekly meeting with your news team. Currently that weekly meeting is scheduled on Tuesday evenings at 6pm, in the Activate office. This seems to work well as it maximises the time that writers have to produce their articles.

Every second Thursday, the Thursday preceding paste-up weekend, the team meets with the editor’s briefly to produce ‘dummies’. Theses are essentially rough ideas of where you would like each story to be placed, which is then discussed and loosely decided upon. Exact times of this meeting change and will be detailed after your appointment by the office manager and/or editor.

Paste-up weekend occurs fortnightly during term time. The cycle below will help clarify how this all fits into place, however at this point realise that paste-up weekend requires more time than you think it does, especially for the first few times as the new team gels together. Essentially however you are called in when you are needed however it is wise and beneficial to your pages that you be there as much as you can be.

Features Editor

Responsibilities: Set the three topics for the next edition (2 features, 1 To the Point) and provide clear, written briefs to each writer.

Conduct meetings with the features team and/or individual writers to collate content.

Attend the Pics meeting to brief the Pics editor about your chosen stories and possible photo ideas.

Write captions for each photo used and headlines for each story.

Edit stories thoroughly before submitting them to the Content editor.

Quality control

Meetings: Monday 1900 hrs. (7 p.m.) weekly, at the Activate office to discuss content and general admin with the entire production committee.

Tuesday 1830 hrs. (6:30 p.m.) weekly, at the Activate office with the whole Features team.

Tuesday 1930 hrs. (7:30 p.m.) on the first week of the production cycle, at the Activate office with the Pics team to brief them during their meeting about Features content.

Friday 1300 hrs. (1 p.m.) on the first week of the production cycle, venue at your convenience, to meet with assigned writers and check that they are making progress/troubleshoot problems.

Thursday 1800 hrs. (6 p.m.) on the second week of production before paste-up weekend, at the Activate office, to draw up design dummies (layout) with the Editor, Pics editor and Chief designer.

Section editors must check all their content again on Saturday or Sunday between 1700 hrs. (5 p.m.) and 1900 hrs. (7p.m.).

Deadlines: Activate is published every second Thursday. There are two content deadlines the week before. The first, Tuesday 1300 hrs. (1 p.m.), the writers should send you their stories by email to check, edit and brief them on at the Tuesday evening Features meeting. The second, Wednesday 1300 hrs. (1 p.m.), you should send all your edited content by email to the Content editor

Arts and Entertainment Editor

1. ACCOUNTABILITY:

People accountable to: The Arts and Entertainment Editor will be accountable to the Editor, Deputy Editor and Content Editor on a daily basis. The Arts and Entertainment Editor will also be accountable to the Disciplinary Board, concerning matters of discipline, to which he or she will have to defend or explain him or herself should he or she not adhere to the stipulations of the position at hand.

People accountable for: All members of the Arts and Entertainment team.

2. OVERALL PURPOSE OF THE POSITION

· Responsible for the gathering and editing of all Arts and Entertainment content for page 8 and 9 of the paper.

· To ensure that all content is in by deadline

· To ensure that all content is submitted in the correct format

· Contribution to planning and design of pages before deadline.

· To facilitate meetings between members of their team and themselves.

· Ensure that there are meeting agenda’s and recording of meeting minutes

· Must ensure their sub-team are selected via some process of selection (at discretion of the Arts and Entertainment Editor)

· Together with Training and Development Manager, must ensure that a training programme is prepared for the incoming sub-team before swot week.

· Acting as a mentor trainer and advisor.

· Should any member of his/her sub-team not adhere to the stipulations of his/her contract, it must be reported to the Staff Manager.

· Provide writers with contact details for sources and interviews.

· Keep track of Arts and Entertainment events in and around Grahamstown

· Socialise and meet potential industry sources

· Keep up team moral and reprimand the team for mistakes and problems

· Set up a system of a conducive working environment for the team and openness in dealing with matters of content and difficult stories.

· Have fun and keep the pulse of Grahamstown’s Arts and Entertainment world

African Affairs

The African Affairs editor deals with news and features relating to Africa that would be of interest to the students on the Rhodes Campus.

Overall Purpose of the Position

• Responsible for the gathering and Editing of all African Affairs content for page 10 of the paper.
• Ensure all content is in by deadline
• To ensure all contnent is submitted in the correct format, according to the activate Style guide
• Contributing to planning and design of pages before deadline
• To facilitate meetings with and between the members of your team.
• Act as a mentor, trainer and advisor
• Should any member of your team not adhere to the stipulations of his/her contract, it must be reported to the Staff manager.

Deadline and Meeting structure

An effective meeting schedule can be accommodated within the two week publication cycle of activate. Meeting are held once a week at the discretion of the African Affairs editor, traditionally on a Monday. The first meeting of the cycle has been used for the purpose of the allocation of stories to respective writers/ writing teams.

The second meeting in week two of the cycle can then be used to review stories before their Tuesday deadline. At this meeting drafts of the stories can be handed in for review and discussion. After this process of criticism the stories are completed and submitted before 13.00 on the Tuesday.

Articles

The page generally holds between 3 and 4 articles with a cumulative word count of approximately 1500 – 1700 words.

You will be expected to control your team and ensure they write and submit factual articles bi-weekly. On receiving articles you need to:

1. Read over them

2. Edit Minor errors

3. Send it back for revision if there are major errors.

4. Verify that the facts are correct and the format matches that in the activate style guide.

Team management

Teams can be managed and extentions afforded if necessary, however it is your responsibility to ensure the stories are in on time without fail. The burden of thinking of article ideas and angles falls primarily on your shoulders, story ideas can however be discussed and developed at weekly meetings, with constructive input from group members subject to your mediation.

Team motivation and contact

Team motivation is an integral component of the success of the African Affairs section. It is your responsibility to ensure the ‘team spirit’ is maintained, as motivated teams are more likely to attend meetings regularly and produce thorough articles.

Your encouragement, constant and efficient contact with team members and to a limited extent the development of personal contact with your individual members in order to create an effective rapport is essential to this process. They need you as much as you need them and your close contact with them is essential in order to keep them informed.

In this regard email is your best friend. Stay in constant contact with your team and be willing to assist promptly when necessary.

Standards

The submitted articles must be in compliance with the activate style guide stipulations. Ensure that when people are quoted their full names and positions/degrees are given, that all sources are reliable and appropriately referenced and that all information is accurate. It is your job to help and assist those members who do not produce work according to standard.

Pictures and Cartoons

It is your job to liase with the pictures editor in order to discuss story angles and what pictures would be best suited to which stories. The African Affairs page also carries a cartoon and close contact with the cartoonist is necessary, providing him/her with rough drafts of the stories well before his/her deadline so the cartoons can be in on time and accurate with regard to the respective article it accompanies.

Sports Editor

The Sports Editor is accountable to the Editor, Deputy Editor and the Content Editor, as well as being accountable for all members of the Sports Team.

It is the job of the Sports Editor to gather and edit all sports items for pages 15 and 16, and to ensure that all the content is in by deadline. The content also needs to be in the correct form and be of a high enough calibre to add to the quality of the newspaper. The Sports editor must contribute to discussion with the designers involving the layout of the sports section. There is also the job of facilitating and planning regular meetings between the sports team. For the team itself the section head is also a trainer, adviser and mentor. The Sports Editor must also work closely with the Pictures Editor to ensure the section has the correct balance of text and pictures. The characteristics required to fill this position are that the person be informed, extraverted and knowledgeable about sport. The position requires that the Sports Editor be hard working as it is a full-time job. Although there is a lot of work involved there are an equal number of rewards as well as a great deal of experience to be gained from the position.

Chief Sub-editor

Subbing is one of the most crucial stages in the production of any publication. As a chief sub, you are required to be part of the team that painstakingly checks all content to ensure that the style is suitable to Activate and the section without limiting individual style. Subs also check for any grammatical or spelling errors and that consistency in format (dates, times etc.) is maintained throughout.

As chief-sub editor, all the final decisions fall ultimately to you. Although you will have a team of subs working with you, it is your responsibility to make 100% sure that all the subs are subbing everything to the same standard. It’s essential to keep your team dedicated and motivated. Subs who simply glance over pages quickly because they’re too lazy to think of a better phrase for ‘in order to’ are not worth having on your team, so train and encourage them to do things properly.

The chief sub is responsible for keeping the Activate Style Guide up to date and ensuring that all writers and subs make use of it! It is his/her responsibility to know the existing style guide off by heart (No, we’re kidding. Just know it well. Really well). You will quite likely find that there is a word, phrase or agenda that isn’t currently covered in the style guide. It’s your job to make a decision on what style or format will be used and to add it to the guide. If you can get all the writers to stick to the style guide, your job will be much easier!

When the new batch of subs arrive in February, it is the chief sub’s job to arrange workshops and training to ensure that all the subs are familiar with the subbing symbols in the style guide and know how to correct common errors.

The Assistant Chief Sub-editor’s position fills the same as the chief sub, although the final responsibilities fall to the chief sub.

How it works: meetings, subbing sessions, and what happens on paste-up

Meetings

Activate is produced every two weeks. Every Monday there is a meeting for all the staff. That includes the news, sports, features, African affairs, arts & entertainment and pictures editors; the head designer; the chief and assistant chief sub; the marketing and advertising managers and the executive committee. At the first meeting of the cycle, the previous weekend’s paste-up is evaluated and preliminary story ideas are pitched for the next edition. On the following Monday, all stories, pictures, graphics and cartoons are finalised.

Subbing Sessions

African Affairs and Features are subbed on the Wednesday night during the second week of the production cycle, and Sports and A&E the next Thursday. Because of the nature of news, we sub it as late as possible, usually early on Saturday morning of a paste-up weekend.

Keep in touch with your team via email and remind them when you’re going to be subbing. Keep an attendance register; you’ll need it at the end of the year when subs ask for reference letters.

The content editor will edit the stories for satisfactory content and have them printed and ready for you and your team to start subbing by 7pm on a Wednesday and Thursday night. Once each story has been carefully subbed by about three subs, the chief and assistant chief sub can begin the process of making the relevant changes on the computer. This means that long after your subs have gone to bed, you’ll be tearing your hair out looking for synonyms (or rolling on the floor laughing at some of our writers’ idiosyncratic styles!).

Put all the subbed content into a clearly marked file on the computer so the designers can access it easily.

Paste-up

We aim to print at least three drafts of every page so that by the time the paper goes to the printers on Monday morning, everything is perfect. You can expect to be in the office all Saturday, Sunday and Sunday night during paste-up. It’s crucial that there is a sub in the office throughout paste-up to clarify changes with the designers and the editor. You’ll often have to cut paragraphs or write an extra few lines so that stories fit on the page.

The kind of person you need to be

The chief and assistant chief sub-editor need an eye for detail, a good grasp of English grammar, efficiency, dedication and a willingness to work long hours. If you’re going to survive a year as a sub, you’ll also need a good sense of humour. You need to be able to train and work with a team, many of whom are just doing it to get into J2. The chief sub and his/her assistant need to get on well – you’ll be spending a lot of time together. You need to be confident and able to criticise writers for poor work and section editors for not getting stories in by deadline. You must be able to take criticism constructively. If can do all this and keep your head while those about you are losing theirs, you will be a sub, my son/daughter.

Assistant Chief Sub-Editor

The assistant chief sub-editor's job is to assist the chief sub-editor in running the sub-editing team and in sub-editing content after team meetings and on paste-up weekends. The duties of chief and assistant chief sub-editor are otherwise nearly identical, so see the chief sub-editor's job description for more detailed information on these.

The only differences between the chief sub-editor's duties and those of the assistant chief sub-editor are the following:

The chief sub-editor has the final say when the chief and assistant chief sub-editor disagree on an editing decision.

The assistant chief sub-editor may be asked to fulfil more basic service tasks for the chief sub-editor or the sub-editing team, such as making sure that hot water is available during meetings for tea and coffee or taking register at sub-editing meetings, but it is up to the chief sub-editor to decide on these tasks.

The assistant chief sub-editor is also required to deputise for the chief sub-editor when he/she is not available.

Hint: The assistant chief sub-editor should work out some form of replacement system with the chief sub-editor to ensure that when he/she needs to leave paste-up sessions to have a meal or for some other engagement, the assistant is at paste-up to deal with sub-editing decisions in his/her absence. There should always be at least one sub-editor present at paste-up when draft pages need to be checked.

Pictures Editor

Basic Function:
The photo editor is responsible for organizing and editing all images for Activate. The position includes running a team of photographers, providing them with training and constantly striving to improve the quality of photographs and graphics which appear in the newspaper. The photo editor maintains close ties with all other section editors in order to stay up to date with stories requiring photographs, thereby ensuring that photos are always relevant and appropriate to the stories in Activate.

Experience:
The photo editor needs to have experience in various different areas of photography, should take photos regularly, and must be familiar with Adobe Photoshop and photographic editing and formatting. The photo editor should ideally have fairly good knowledge about photographic equipment and technique, as he/she should be able to answer questions the team members may have and is expected to train and guide the team throughout the year.

Specific Duties & Responsibilities:
1. Responsible for the quality of photographs that are provided for Activate.
2. Ensures all required photographs are brought in on deadline and are ready for the designers during paste up weekends.
3. Responsible for all editing and formatting of photographs for Activate before they are handed to the designers.
4. Responsible for running a successful photo team, which includes providing training in the form of regular workshops and critiques aimed at improving the skills of the team members and thus the quality of images produced. This responsibility means it is not acceptable for the photo editor to be the main photographic contributor to the newspaper, but he/she should rather build a team which is capable of producing images of publishable quality.
5. Responsible for passing duties on to the assistant photo editor and always ensuring there is a reasonable and apt distribution of work load between the assistant and oneself. This involves fostering a good relationship of communication with the assistant photo editor, and aiding the assistant in developing their skills and knowledge of photography and post-production editing.
6. Responsible for conducting a weekly photo team meeting, attending the weekly Activate staff meetings, being present for dummies every second week and being available during the entire paste-up weekend.
7. Responsible for creating graphics and organizing cartoons as well as photographs.
8. Responsible for keeping close contact with other section editors in order to ensure photographers are assigned to last-minute stories and other events which may crop up.
9. Responsible for responding to readers’, sources’ and colleagues’ calls and emails immediately and always representing Activate professionally.
10. Responsible for maintaining high ethical and journalistic standards, and abiding by university and student publications’ laws and policies.
11. Expected to be an active photographer, thereby keeping practiced in the field of photography.
12. The photo editor should act as a mentor, trainer and advisor to the photo team and should be active in putting forward photo ideas and developing ideas for photographs alongside the other section editors.

Assistant Pictures Editor

Overall Purpose of the position

• Is in charge in the absence of the Photo Editor
• Responsible for the gathering and editing of all photographs for the entire paper
• Assist staff in developing photo/graphic ideas
• To ensure that all content is in by deadline
• To ensure that all content is submitted in the correct format
• To ensure all pic credits are included and correctly spelled
• Contribution to planning and design of pages before deadline
• Keeps minutes during meetings
• Assist staff in developing photo ideas
• Responsible for ensuring that all photos catalogued
• Responsible for attending weekly staff meetings and training as required
• Inform editor when written warnings need to be issued
• Responsible for photographers meeting deadline
• Performs other duties as assigned by Activate Editor or photo Editor
• Acting as mentor, trainer and advisor
• Take minutes during the weekly meeting
• Meet photo team weekly to collect images at deadline
• Send weekly e-mails to team informing them of meetings etc.
• Check e-mails bi-weekly and forward relevant and important emails to the photo editor
• Refer problems and issues relating to or arising from team members to the photo editor
• Be an active photographer for Activate to keep practiced in photography
• Edit photographs with the photographer in conjunction with the Photo editor
• Liase with team members to ensure photographers are available for specific assignments. This includes ensuring a photographer is available for any last minute assignments, which may arise or have been set by the section editors.
• Respond to readers’ and sources’ calls and emails in an immediate and professional manner, in the event that the photo editor is unavailable

Basic function

Assistant Pictures Editor is expected to act both as a photographer, as part of the photo team and as an assistant to the Photo Editor in the overall running of the team and production of photographs for Activate. This includes reporting to the Photo Editor and helping wherever needed, and taking on the majority of the administrative work to ensure the smooth running of the team. This means the Assistant Pictures Editor is often required to liase and communicate with the photo team members and to deal with more run-of-the-mill issues.

Experience

As Assistant Pics Editor, one has the opportunity to learn various skills throughout the year, both in terms of photography and digital editing and in terms of running a team, etc. However, it is necessary that the Assistant Editor has experience with photography and some understanding or digital editing skills prior to taking the position.

Marketing and Advertising Manager

So welcome to the best and most exciting position on the Activate team! This position involves you being friendly, open to criticism and other ideas, innovative, super organised, have access to resources and good at apologising as well as kissing some butt!!! This is not a position where you will need journalistic skills, but you will need to know what is potting behind the media scene. Don’t panic, you’ll learn all of this as you go along! I carried a file with me all the time that had the rate card, contract and paper deadlines, almost every where with me in case of a potential advertiser! So now for the nitty gritty stuff!

Duties:

It is your job to uphold the image of the paper! You love the paper, you love the paper, you love the paper. You will defend it when people are mean and you will be there for it when times are tough! You and your team are the face of the paper never forget that!

You will be expected to know the background of the paper, so that you can easily promote the papers image and inform advertisers of their market. You will also need to know about all the procedures of the SRC, i.e stamps on posters and how payment works! Don’t be afraid to bugger up, I had no help and found my way around pretty easily. You must liaise with your financial manager, office manager and Megan in the SRC accounts office. At the end of the day although there is a financial manager you are the one who knows where, when and how the money is coming in and mostly going out. You must keep records of payments as well as invoices etc.

It is important to keep up good relationships with your advertisers! They are the client and they are always right. Smile even if you want to smash someone’s face in. Grahamstown is small and if you piss someone off the news will get around and then the proverbial poo will hit the fan in an uncontrollable way. If there is a problem you apologise profusely and do everything in your power to make it right!

You are the one who makes the cash for the paper, gets freebies, organises events, makes sure advertisers pay as well as designing adverts and making them look good in our so hot right now paper. You need to continuously get new advertisers and try and land some permanent advertisers. As far as marketing goes, you need to make people aware that Activate is the greatest student paper that was ever printed! You and your team will do distribution as well as advertising every new edition that graces Rhodes University. Basically you have to increase the readership so that every single student on campus is reading, talking and sleeping Activate every 2 weeks.

Assistant Marketing Manager

This job is, as the name suggests, primarily an assistant job, requiring both initiative and organisation. A person applying for this position will need to have people skills as well as creative ideas. It is also essential that you are able to work with others, as you will have to work very closely with the Advertising and Marketing Manager. It is a new position though and as a result is not clearly defined. However, as assistant marketing manager you will help in both the marketing and advertising fields of Activate. On the marketing side it entails helping with the organising of functions (such as the Cheese and Wine), ensuring there is sufficient advertising for the paper and partaking in the distribution of it fortnightly. In terms of advertising you will assist with finding clients to advertise in Activate, as well as the placing of the adverts in the paper. A lot of the work you do does depend on your Advertising and Marketing Manager and what you two deem to be the most efficient ways of dealing with various tasks.

Chief Designer

The Chief designer is accountable to the deputy editor and the editor.

The Chief Designer must ensure that the newspaper is designed in a way that is both easy to read and conforms with the publication design style set out as well as making sure it is packaged correctly and written to a CD for the printers on time.

The Chief Designer should be proficient in both Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Indesign and must have some experience drawing and interpreting page dummies.

Committments to the newspaper will be attending one meeting a week and then running a dummy drawing session every second week. In addition to this the Chief Designer runs the paste-up weekend. This entails driving the layout process by interacting with the Pictures Editor, the Chief and Deputy sub editors and the section editors to get the newspaper laid out in a timely and efficient manner.

This position is excellent experience as it pushes you to hone your skills and knowledge of, not only the computer programs used but also newspaper design conventions and interacting with people on a professional level.

Assistant designer

Designing is a good job for anyone who is creative and wants to be a part of the vision and producion side of putting a newspaper together. It involves an eye for how a page should look and how best to make it appeal to the eye of the reader so that they will want to read the articles. Therefore designing is a very visual job and you work with the text as well as the images.

Design is a great part of the production process not only because it is fun and creative but also it gives you the oppotunity to see the whole process of putting a newspaper together. You get to be around the photographers and the writers so therefore designing gives you a chance to watch and learn about the other sections of production.

As an assistant designer you are involved in dummies and paste-up weekends which are both bi-weekly. The assistant designer is not only involved in designing the newspaper and learning how to design but he/she is also involved in helping to train all the newbies. Therefore it is a lot of hard work but every edition is something that one is proud of.

Editor

Managing people is like herding Cats- It’s difficult

- Anonymous

For me, working in the media is all about people- your staff, advertisers and most importantly, your audience. Working with people for the People is what being an editor comes down to.

The position of editor is incredibly interesting and diverse. It puts you into contact with a myriad of people and allows you to experience things you might not otherwise have the chance to.

It is also very demanding and you must be willing to dedicate a lot of time and energy to the job both inside and outside the office. At times people may attack you and the choices you have made in the newspaper, its quality etc. You must stand firm and remain calm even though you want to scream and shout.

In essence, the editor is the public face of the newspaper and therefore needs to behave as such. This ties in with a framework of accountability that sees the public holding the editor responsible if they like or dislike something. Hence you have to involve yourself in every editorial and administrative decision that you feel is big enough to warrant your attention- thereby trusting the staff to do their jobs and, in turn, the staff trusting you to lead them in a manner that does not undermine them.

Always remember that you are both the editor of a newspaper, which deals with what goes in the paper and how the messages get across, and the chairman of a society with limited resources and this falls under the more administration side of things.

You have to know when to be a facilitator to the process and when to be a dictator- preferably more of the former than the latter. My style of running the newspaper has been with a servant leadership outlook- what can I do to make the job easier and thus minimize the margin for error and maximize productivity and quality. The question I asked myself is: how can I add value to what we have?

Always remember your limits but don’t let those become a burden and don’t let the limits you see in others work against them. Rather let them be an opportunity to work with the people who have expertise in fields you are not altogether familiar with.

For example: I don’t know much about photography but I do know what I want- hence I trust Lauren to do her job and together we can discuss how best to use the pictures she has.

However, you have to do all this while maintaining an eye on the rudder of the newspaper and where it is being steered- at times you may need to step in and make a few adjustments but the trick of doing that is to make other people think that it was their idea, or that they had a hand in it. Hence, you must have a clear and coherent vision about what you want to achieve during your time as editor. A lot of this vision will be accumulated as you go along and learn things in the job, but you must have a good base to work off from the start, one that the staff can buy into and see themselves as part of so that they too can help improve the newspaper.

So, raw skills are not only what you need to be at the helm of a newspaper. Skills are important yes, but the ability to listen to people before acting, take in their ideas and use them while keeping your head and seeing the bigger picture is a challenge that must be met.

Being open to any story, any idea or any suggestion is important. Weigh everything you hear, see and experience with your own moral compass and the shared vision you have for the newspaper.

Lastly, and I know I am sounding like a stuck record here, stand by your staff as you stand by your decisions. You may be called into question for what has been in the paper and you must know that you can defend it and justify is to the gates of hell and back, because that’s where your staff should want to follow you.

The duties of the editor are as follows:

Editorial:

• To chair weekly editorial or diary meetings where content ideas for the paper are brainstormed. You need to therefore:
• Maintain a good balance between structured debate and ranting.
• Hear people out and make sure everyone who wants to have their input heard can do so.
• Make sure that the briefs are the stories are clear and understood before everyone leaves.
• Don’t forget about pics and graphics and facilitate discussion on the look of the newspaper not just the text.
• Once content is in, ideally have a meeting with the content editor who will report back on the copy submitted and thereby brining certain problems to your attention so that they can be sorted our before paste-up weekend. This is the time major changes need to be made and the rudder can be nudged a bit.
• Oversee the paste-up weekend by interacting with the chief designer and photographer. Make sure that the sub-editors have done their jobs and that the look and feel of the paper is coming out in the right way.
• Make sure you read over the final copy before it goes to print and that the print deadlines will be met.

Administrative:

• Chair a weekly executive committee meeting in which the following should be discussed:
• The budget and how much money is available/ is needed.
• The overall direction the paper is going- I like to use the exec meetings as a time to bounce ideas off the exec staff who ideally should all be (and in my case are) senior staff.
• Problems and challenges in general. For example: how can the paper reach a wider audience? How can we increase our funds? Is the equipment in the office working properly? How are the training programs going? Etc.
• Also staff problems and how to overcome them.
• In both meetings emphasis should be give to solutions and problems seen as challenges to be overcome.

In both meetings emphasis should be give to solutions and problems seen as challenges to be overcome. You must maintain your decorum at all times and ensure others maintain theirs.

At the conclusion of the paper cycle you must oversee the distribution process. Emphasis must be given to the fact that if the paper is not effectively distributed, all the work done before that is wasted as no-one gets to see it and the information doesn’t reach the audience.

Financial Manager

The Financial Manager is accountable to the managing editor, the deputy editor and the editor.

Responisbilities: To liase with the marketing and advertising manager on what advertising has been booked and handle the invoices pertaining to this.

To keep track of and handle any transactions the newspaper may need to make and to ensure that the account is fully up to date.

Dealing with the SRC accounts clerk- the person who will ultimately handle the money for the newspaper.

The financial manager should be prepared to come to one meeting a week (On Monday evenings at 6:30pm) and put any extra time in if need be in order to complete his/her duties.

Role as Activate Deputy Editor (to be read in conjunction with the Editor’s duties)

The role of deputy editor is a demanding and immensely rewarding. It will take up a large portion of your time and you need to manage your time as productively as possible.

Your duties are divided into two. On one hand you have a number of similar duties as the editor and on the other you have a number of duties specific to you position to fulfil. A number of these fall into the category of support and ensuring that there are areas of concern the editor has not missed out on.

As editors you are the leaders of the group and the rest of the staff will look to you for advice, guidance and re-assurance. It is important to maintain a calm front despite how you feel. You represent the paper and need to conduct yourself in a professional manner with the staff, the student body, administration and the rest of the Grahamstown community.

Meetings: As Editors you must facilitate a weekly meeting, which has been held on a Monday evening for the past few years. In this meeting you must cover all issues pertaining to the paper as well as run through content. It is a good idea to prepare an agenda for each meeting in order to make meetings succinct and successful. Also have each meeting minuted so that you can keep records of what has been discussed and achieved. As editors, you chair the meeting and must maintain decorum. You can devise your own system for the running of meetings. Perhaps all questions should be kept till after the agenda or perhaps you would rather allow people to debate an issue as you go through the agenda. The important thing is for you to maintain control of the meetings at all times and not allow them to turn into an open forum for debate – this is not the time for an open forum – it is a weekly content meeting. You must also facilitate a weekly executive meeting where issues such as the paper’s finances and staff matters are raised. I would suggest that at the beginning of each staff meeting, you run through what was discussed in the exec meeting to allow for transparency with the rest of the staff. It is also important to keep a record of meeting attendance. People need to excuse themselves from a meeting before the time and need to have a valid excuse. “I was tired” is not good enough as everyone has other commitments. See the Activate File for occasions on issuing warnings.

Paper cycle: Week one begins with the Monday night meeting where content is first discussed. The content must be in by the Tuesday and Wednesday of the next week depending on whether it is news, sports or the rest. Sports and news and pics have an extra day to the rest of the content. Subbing takes place on the Wednesday and Thursday evening so that designing can start on the Friday. The paper is collected on the Monday morning around 10 am and returned on the Thursday around 11am to be distributed at lunch time on the Thursday. The dining halls should be targeted first. They are busiest at 12:15. The rest of distribution occurs once the dining halls have received their papers. This is obviously a blue print and does not always go according to plan. At times, the paper may be delivered late or content may arrive late. In such cases, the necessary people need to be disciplined or in the case of a late delivery, it must be taken up with Goshawk. Each case is different and must be dealt with accordingly. Distribution in the dining halls works best when the paper is handed out to people at tables and in queues. This is more interactive. People can see who Activate members are and you will know that they actually received the paper. The dining halls differ in size. With regards to distribution the numbers of papers that go to which areas, are really up to your discretion. We have always targeted large numbers of papers at the library and the larger dinning halls. Distribution works best in groups of three where one person drives and two people go along to help distribute. It is also a good idea to let two groups of three deal with the dining halls as one group of three may struggle to do all the dining halls and still catch the majority of people. One of the weak areas around distribution is the oppidans. A new method of delivery for the oppidans needs to be devised.

You also need to ensure that outside publications receive copies of the paper. This is doen to ensure they know who their competition is and furthermore in sending it to publications to SL you establish a good name and contacts for the future of the paper.

Public interaction: As Editors you will receive a lot of mail, both complaints and criticisms. I have replied to every e-mail received as this is an indication that people on campus care about the paper and have concerns. Make time to reply to these e-mails or phone-calls and be open to criticism. People may even stop you on the street to talk to you about something they liked or did not like – make time for these people. Never be too good to deal with people who have something to say about the paper but at the same time there is a limit to explaining. Some of the decisions you make do not need to be explained – i.e running with a controversial story. If the story is in the best interest of the student body then who do not owe any other explanations. You will also need to be accountable for your staff. When one of your staff members behaves in an unprofessional manner you must deal with the situation. ALWAYS listen to your staff first and hear their side of the story before disciplining them. The customer is not always right when it comes to the media and while you must take complaints into account, it is important to back and support your staff too.

Never forget you and editor are the face of the newspaper, people are always watching and unfortunately often judging.

Deputy Editor Specific duties:

As previously stated your duties are very similar to those of the editor, it is often up to the two of you to decide on what each is best on and find away to utilise each others strong points. The editor is one person and can not think of everything and do everything your major job is to ensure all areas are covered. You will often be the person who has greater contact with the staff and production end of the paper, while the editor deals with finance, business decisions and various contacts in and outside the university.

You need to be the co pilot of a common vision. You are the eyes the editor can not have elsewhere.

Number one piece of advice:

Try work as equals, do your bit, be willing to have a point understand that your point will be taken into consideration but the editor does not have to utilise it. Argue if need be but always come back with an understanding you are on the same team.

Most of all between the two of you find out who is good at what and handle those areas i.e. if you are better at handling complaints and dealing with irritating people then do it, people see the paper as you.

Content Editor

The fundamental role of the Content Editor is to assist with decisions surrounding what stories get published in the paper. To this end, the Content Editor must liaise with the editor and the section editors and discuss the merits or potential pitfalls of each story that is to be considered for publication. The Content Editor must at all times remain vigilant of hazards such as defamation or unfair comment, and work towards eliminating incidences of these from the newspaper.

During paste-up the Content Editor must adopt the mindset of a typical reader and attempt to assist in making the newspaper as interesting and relevant to as wide a range of readers as possible. He or she must assess the relevance and strength of each story and work towards maximising its effectiveness, by thinking of appropriate headlines and blurbs and by making sure key aspects in the story are explained well, and trivial aspects are removed.

The Content Editor receives content from each of the section heads on the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday preceding each paste-up weekend. He/she must then read through all the content, checking for defamation and relevance and possible expansion areas, and notify the editor should there be any problems or suggestions. Once the content has been looked over it goes to the subs.

As the Content Editor is a member of the Executive, he/she must attend Exec meetings which precede usual meetings, and participate actively in the perpetual discussions of the role of the paper, where it is and where it’s going, how it can improve, etc.

Managing Editor

Every publication needs someone to sort out the admin business. This is what the Managing Editor does. This position is vital to the paper as s/he makes sure that everything that is needed for the production of the newspaper is in the office and working properly. The Managing Editor also ensures that all staff and team members are kept up to date about things they need to do and upcoming events. The staff is the most important part of the production process and the Managing Editor therefore also deals with staff problems. If staff members have issues with their work, the paper or each other, the Managing Editor can assist in finding solutions to their problem.

The Managing Editor fulfils these functions:

Keeping the office neat and organising repairs (via the appropriate department)

Taking minutes and emailing them to the staff

Keeping the staff and Activate members up to date with notices and events

Liaising with Goshawk Printers about collecting the CD and delivering the papers

Organising distribution and being there to make sure the correct numbers of papers go out to the right places

Posting papers to other publications

Ensuring that the computers are working and taking them to IT when there are problems

Buying paper, stationary and any other equipment the office might need (Albany Business Machines has everything you will need)

Organising the staff weekend away at the beginning of the year and any other casual staff events