ALYSSA BUMP
Editor in Chief
CHLOE KOWALYK
Managing Editor
Are you reading this magazine and thinking to yourself, “Wow, I wonder how I could get involved with SUNY Fredonia’s award-winning student-run newspaper that aims to inform the campus and local community?”
Luckily, you can! And it is not difficult to get involved.
What experience is required to join The Leader?
Students do not need to be a specific major to submit work or join The Leader. Students do not need to be a specific class level to join, or have prior experience in the world of print journalism. No experience is required, and we encourage anyone interested to come forward.
Students can be involved as much or as little as they please, but we greatly appreciate regular contributors, as they are likely to move up to an e-board position in the future.
We pride ourselves on being an open learning environment for students, providing them with real-world experience in the comfort of a college environment. The only requirement is a good attitude, a willingness to try new things and prompt replies when working on a tight deadline.
Writing for The Leader
The Leader has five different sections students can write for: News, Life & Arts, Sports, Opinion and Scallion, our satire section.
News focuses on important and time-sensitive articles that pertain to current events happening around campus and the community. The upcoming editor of the News section is Brianna Howard; she can be contacted at howa1130@fredonia.edu via email.
Life & Arts houses articles about campus life events, music, arts and performances. There is currently not an editor for the Life & Arts section. The position is currently being filled by Alyssa Bump; she can be contacted at abump@fredonia.edu via email.
Sports covers both SUNY Fredonia sporting events and national level sports, as well as athlete profiles and sports commentaries. The Sports Editor is Tyler Pacos; he can be reached via email at paco8086@fredonia.edu.
The Opinion section is a space for students to share their opinions on relevant issues or topics. This section also houses Letters to the Editor, which are opinion pieces that can be submitted by anyone. Letters to the Editor must be 350 words or less and have a deadline of 4 p.m. on Friday prior to print. “From the Desk of” pieces are also located in this section, which are opinion pieces from e-board members of The Leader. Any articles requesting to be submitted to the Opinion section can be sent to leader@fredonia.edu and abump@fredonia.edu.
The Scallion is the last section of The Leader and is dedicated to creating satirical articles relevant to Fredonia or current events. Matthew Baum is the Scallion Editor; he can be reached at baum0866@fredonia.edu.
Copy Editing
Copy editors are responsible for reviewing all written work submitted by writers. The editors will use AP Style to ensure consistency and follow regular journalistic guidelines when reviewing work that will be published. Copy editors also ensure information is clear and well-written.
Additionally, they fact check key information, such as dates, spelling of names and places, and statistics. All articles go through the copy editing process, which is why it is important to submit articles on time.
For this role, some prior knowledge of AP Style is preferred, but not required. It is also preferred that copy editors own a copy of a recent version of the AP Stylebook. Anyone interested in copy editing should contact leader@fredonia.edu and abump@fredonia.edu via email.
Photography
The photography section of The Leader is responsible for taking compelling images to compliment articles and to create photo galleries. Most covers of The Leader are also photographs. The Photo Editor is Derek Raymond; he can be reached at draymond@fredonia.edu via email.
Photographers are responsible for picking up photo assignments where they may need to attend events, or take images of people, places and things on campus.
Photographers are not required to own a nice camera, as cameras can be rented out on campus through the ITS Service Center Equipment Checkout System. However, many images can also be taken on smartphone cameras.
Graphics and Art
Our graphics and art team is a vital part of The Leader. The graphics and art department is responsible for creating original artwork and visual graphics to accompany articles being published both in print and online.
Examples of graphics and art include drawings, graphs, diagrams and comics. These aspects help to make our paper look more interesting and colorful. Also, it can help a reader better understand a story to have a visual representation of what the writer is talking about.
Our upcoming Art Director is Quinn Spook; she can be reached at qspook@fredonia.edu. The Leader is always looking for artists to join our team. Interested students should contact the Art Director if interested.
Layout and Design
The Leader uses Adobe InDesign to put together each print issue. Experience with InDesign is required to fill the role of Design Editor, but those interested in design should still be encouraged to reach out to shadow our Design Editor. It is recommended that anyone interested in design enroll in COMM-346: Editing & Design to garner more experience. To enroll, students must have junior or senior standing.
Right now, the position is open and being filled by Alyssa Bump, who can be reached at abump@fredonia.edu via email. This position is offered with internship credit, and more information can be found on Handshake by searching “Newspaper Design Editor The Leader.”
Business and Advertising
An integral part of The Leader’s ability to function as a news organization is our business and advertising section. Our Business Manager is responsible for filling out requisition forms, completing payroll, creating our budget and finding ads for our print issues.
We also offer internship credit through our Business Manager position. Our current Business Manager is Breanna Orologio, who can be reached at borologio@fredonia.edu.
Web Editing
Web editors are in charge of our website, fredonialeader.org. They are tasked with uploading our stories online each week and must adhere to posting deadlines. Additionally, our web editors upload PDF documents of our issues as they are released for online access. Web editors also ensure that the webpage is functioning properly and address any errors that may come up throughout the semester.
Currently, our web editor positions are open, and the positions are currently being filled by Alyssa Bump, who can be reached at abump@fredonia.edu via email, and Chloe Kowalyk, who can be reached at ckowalyk@fredonia.edu via email.
Our website is created with WordPress, and experience with web design on WordPress is preferred but not required.
Social Media
Social media is important to The Leader as it is vital for our communication with students and other readers online.
The Leader is active on Facebook (@LeaderFredonia), Instagram (@leaderfredonia) and Twitter (@leaderfredonia). Posts are created in correlation with upcoming stories, and are posted with a link to The Leader’s website (fredonialeader.org) so that viewers can read the full story.
Our social media manager is tasked with creating eye-catching posts to help advertise stories, upcoming events and updates. Posts are typically uploaded multiple times a week.
In addition to regular posts, the social media manager is also responsible for creating polls and “verbatims,” or questions for the audience to answer on Instagram and Facebook stories. This is a great way to connect with our readers and let them voice their opinions. We may also use story functions to get our reader’s opinions to include in some stories.
Our social media manager position is open, and is currently being filled by Alyssa Bump, who can be reached at abump@fredonia.edu via email. Most social media posts on Instagram are created with Canva. Experience with Canva is preferred but not required.
Public Relations
The public relations position is known as the “PR and Event Chair.” With this position, students are required to plan events for The Leader and fill out Student Association event forms. This requires communication between Editor in Chief Alyssa Bump, Managing Editor Chloe Kowalyk and the social media manager.
The Leader hopes to hold four events per semester. This allows us to meet with our writers, staff and other students who may be interested in joining the paper.
Last thoughts
Joining The Leader can benefit students in many ways. Campus media outlets such as The Leader gives students an opportunity to get involved in their campus community and write stories that can create change.
The Leader leads to opportunities, connections and lessons that will advance a student’s experience and ability to enter a career.
Additionally, joining The Leader looks great on a resume, and helps students stand out against other job and internship candidates. Having experience with AP Style, writing, photography, editing, design, social media, business and art are all important skills for many careers — not just journalism.
With that, The Leader encourages any and all students to join The Leader, make lifelong friends and gain the necessary experience to succeed in their future careers.
Our mission and history
The Leader seeks to provide responsible communication in order to inform the campus and local Fredonia/Dunkirk community. It prints what it deems proper to maintain the free exchange of thoughts and ideas.
The Leader gives a voice to the student body by providing students with a well-established platform to publish their work. In fact, The Leader is nearly 130 years old, as it was originally founded as The Normal Leader in 1892.
This past year, The Leader printed six issues per semester, with an average of 32-pages per issue. The Leader normally prints 1,000 copies per issue, which are distributed to our newsracks located in all academic buildings on campus, as well as select locations in the Village of Fredonia. Our website, fredonialeader.org, garnered nearly 40K views according to Google Analytics during the duration of the past academic year alone.
The Leader also received several awards from the 2021 Best College Newspaper Contest by the New York Press Association, earning first place in design and second place in general excellence, news story and photography.
In addition to providing timely news to the area through its publication, The Leader offers hands-on experience to students in modern print and online journalism and business operations. Members gain and practice skills in journalistic, editorial, artistic, photojournalistic, advertising, digital, social media and business positions.