Recently, a few of us here at the Nor’easter News traveled across the country to Los Angeles, California in order to attend a national university newspaper conference hosted by the Associated Collegiate Press (ACP). Although we were able to visit and participate in many cultural aspects of L.A. outside of the convention, we found it most interesting to spend time at the conference itself, where we participated in numerous classes and activities.

The classes we attended at ACP ranged in topic from how to be an effective leader to how to correspond respectfully with any university’s public relations department. We spent time figuring out how to best design a physical newspaper, where we learned the difference between the style of a design (how it looks) and the tone of the design (how it makes you feel), along with the importance of typography as its’ own individual art form. The classes informed us that we should become educated in the laws of our state and the rules of our University, that we should create a competent and autonomous community of writers, and that we should not only dive deeper into news pieces, but should do so with the addition of a strong and encompassing headline.

Overall our favorite class was more like field trip, where we joined several other journalists from all around the country on the L.A. metro in order to tour the Los Angeles Times. This was by far our favorite experience simply because it allowed us to see an organized, prestigious, and multifaceted newspaper production team. We were in awe of the division of their news stories, ranging from sports to major global events, dabbling along the way in photography and a constantly renewed Twitter feed. It was quite inspiring to see the risks journalist at organizations such as the L.A. Times are willing to take in order to receive the most pure and encompassing information.

During our time in conference, we met so many interesting individuals, including college news teams from both the Eastern and Western United States, students with their own businesses, lawyers dedicated to the just treatment of student press organizations, professors in journalism, and–perhaps most interestingly–Khloe Kardashian’s seventh grade teacher. The interactions we had taught us something profound: there are numerous ways to both write a newspaper and direct a newsroom successfully.

Through all of our West Coast adventures, we were honored to represent UNE and simultaneously demonstrate our dedication to the production of the Nor’easter News. We hope to take our newfound knowledge concerning journalism and apply it as successfully as is possible to our constantly expanding newsroom, as well as to every future edition of the Nor’easter news.