are the fuel powering the engine on which our publications run. Understanding what the audience wants through analytics and demographics lets editors know what readers need and want, and the marketing team makes sure people read and fund.

The reality is that, for people like me to follow their journalistic passions, newsrooms must make ends meet and monitor interest without compromising the editorial content. 

After winning our 2024-2025 yearbook Pacemaker award, several yearbook companies reached out to my adviser. We’ve self-published our yearbooks independently the past four years. But when Jostens offered to print at a reasonable price with more resources, we met as a group and, ultimately, signed back with a yearbook company. 

In the months starting off, Jostens representatives visited the school where I led the sit-down meetings around deadlines, budgeting, price points and marketing. Sitting in and engaging in the meetings helped me understand the publication-to-publisher requirements. 

However, I stood my ground at our price point. Representatives gave us the option to push our book over $100 by December, but I refused. My schools holds the most economically disadvantaged students in the district, and one of my greatest prides of our books was its quality-price ratio.

My adviser stood by my choice and we were able to reduce the pricing to let more of our audience have access at the expense of greater profit for Student Media.

Over winter break I reached out to the marketing department to plan and schedule regular advertising posts. At this point, our yearbook sales were lower than normal and the literary magazine had only just opened. In partnership with the social media and website editors, we hashed out Student Media advertisements once a week and scheduled hundreds of phone calls to previous yearbook purchasers for advertisement. While those corny phone calls can feel useless, making that contact be the selling point.

I strive to be a voice for others but I also encourage others to be their own. I personally welcome writers outside our staff to submit their work for publication. 

We’ve published work from introductory class students and even from the principal, but the most notable was reaching agreement between the audio production class to publish weekly radio shows/podcasts. 

I also look for audience feedback on our publications. On the homepage of our news site, under the About Section there is a page to write a letter to the editors. There, our audience can directly, and anonymously if they chose, provide feedback

Over my three years on Student Media I’ve attended almost every middle school recruitment event. The silly smiles those kids give when I show them the guts behind a good photo warms me. 

Whether it’s freshman orientation or a CTE class fair, I’ve been the face for the future of our Student Media. When I speak with these students I try to give something for them to relate to by demonstrating how diverse Student Media is with athletes, cultures and hobbies. This also encourages future staff diversity. 

But overall, interactions like those stimulate the future of journalism as a whole. I want to help these budding journalists bloom.
Journalism changed my life, and I can only hope to inspire the same in others. 

To learn why I say having a diverse staff is important, visit the Diversity Page.

In our 2025 TAJE Fall Fiesta website critique interview, McCallum advisor David Winter bluntly told us our site lacked engagement. That’s especially a problem in an age of decreasing attention spans. Following Winter’s advice, I explored external websites to incorporate interactive graphics such as KnightLabs and Flourish. 

Since implementing these graphics, I look to use these graphics to add details so readers can interact while expanding the story.

Benson leaves role as principal; Stichler set to return

Sophomore dedication leads water polo team to historic victory

Cheer makes Texas history as national champions

World’s longest serving female DJ leaves lasting Conroe-radio legacy

Students walk out to protest Trump mass-deportation policies

Building a staff-to-audience relationship is crucial for consistent engagement. I want our readers, audience to understand who we are. After finalizing the 2025-2026 editorial council, I interviewed each one and created a short-and-sweet social media post highlighting them and their goals for the publication. 

The post generated engagement from family members, friends and teachers who recognized the editors. More importantly, the post also put a face to the soon-to-be publications of that year our viewers could recognize in the classrooms.

As a journalist, numbers have meaning. Behind every survey response is a person with cognitive thought put behind their answers. Each number holds power; It’s how our local, state and national leaders are elected. 

But those numbers can be fun too – I use it to monitor who’s really interacting with our online website. Starting in 2024, I've published a monthly poll on our online website to track engagement. Polls both give our audience a piece of engagement to feel like they are involved in the publication and also provide meaningful data for our staff.

The 2025-2026 year brought an abundance of change partnering with Jostens, and with that, came drastic changes to the finance end. 

The year before, the staff and I set up an "yearbook order reserve" system built as a buy now, pay later deal. When students failed to pick up their books, that put us in a squeeze. But we squirmed away. 

With the new company and last year’s experience, the marketing team and I pushed phone calls, emails, posts, posters and budgeting tracked through shared google sheets.

To learn more about how I incorporate social media and web analytics for audience engagement, visit the Web & Social Media Page