Friday, March 13, 2009

FEb. 10 Kudos

This was an excellent issue with good photography, good reporting and decent layout. Page 1 set the scene with the coverage of the nearby Kingsville fire by Greg Stelfox. Greg took excellent pictures and we were able to run three of them. The picture of the cross amidst the burned debris is excellent and the photo of the inferno that was a series of houses also shows the ferocity of the fire. I wish we had shown more of the cross and run the photo bigger, but space constraints and breaking news stories kept us from that. Speaking breaking news stories, Jaime Gonzalez's story on the TAMUK scholarships being safe for now was very well done. Jaime tracked down some sources from the TAMUK Foundation and he and J.C. Reyes talked to President Tallant about the consequences of funding these scholarships to be able to come up with a solid story. Well done Jaime. J.C., thanks for the help. Kristie Vela's " batty story" sprung up at the last minute and was covered well. J.C. also did a very good story on the name controversy. In short, a solid and crisp page 1 loaded with news and information and just the right graphics. Angela did a very good job with layout considering the amount of news we had for pi.
Page 2 was a well-designed, again. The standing features - Green Thing and Things Your Mama - are starting to look crisp and permanent. JC's review on "The Boss" was well done. The only thing wrong here was the "Focus on Us" photo. Again, we have people's behinds. Why? Perhaps it's time to abandon this feature. Good campus news on page 4-5. We need to do more of this type of reporting the every day events of our campus. Opinions was a wonderful mix of opinions and columns and, I must say, quite readable. Kristie's column is sure to draw some controversy. Wow Kristie, that took some courage. JC, sprinklers....really? Sports had one great photo by Greg Stelfox and good coverage. Jav-A-Stats help. Mark Molina and Adriana Trevino (albeit with some help from the old pros JC and Jaime) combined for a g ood story on recruits. Nice graphic, also. The features page on the "Hardy Man" as a good touch. Perhaps it was a bit much, but it was the introductory article and I think it's well done. Jav-a-Style should be a keeper, but I'm not sure if every week should be the norm. Try every other week? Katrina and Savannah did a good job with this. As for KUDOs, this week it goes to four staffers who contributed significant articles to our publication. The winners are Adrian Trevino, Mark Molina, Katrina Alejandro and Savannah Martinez. Well done and congratulations.