Spring 2025 Online Elsewhere Report
By Richard Cameron
Oh, my! What a spring term! It started with urban fires in Southern California, transitioned to the Donald Trump inauguration, and was followed by Trump Administration chaos (attack on immigrants, attack on DEI, introduction of DOGE, attack on law firms, attack on major universities, the abduction and deportation first of alleged terrorists and then on immigrants and possibly citizens, and the revocation of international student visas). In the meantime, there were music festivals up and down the state; computer bots continued to flood community college campuses with fake enrollments to scam financial aid; major curriculum changes to general education took place; common course numbering continued to kick in; protests against DEI cuts, immigration enforcement, and Trump as king took place on campuses and in communities across the state; and Trump deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles. California community college online student news publications covered it all along with their “normal” news stories.
All of California’s community college online student publications were monitored daily using RSS feeds. Stories were categorized by genre —news, opinion, sports, and features— and by localization —campus, community, or neither. Not measured, unless included in individual posts, were social media reporting and print publications. This report attempts to summarize some of the activity based on the online publication only. It is the tenth semester for Online Elsewhere reports that began as a “one-semester project” in Spring 2020. Previous reports can be found at:
• Spring 2020 - bit.ly/3ZpEgAD
• Spring 2021 - (no report available)
• Fall 2021 - (no report available)
• Spring 2022 - bit.ly/3W3utgP
• Fall 2022 - bit.ly/fall22x
• Spring 2023 - bit.ly/44SgJdx
• Fall 2023 - bit.ly/3U5v2t1 (web) or bit.ly/4ePR0It (pdf)
• Spring 2024 - https://bit.ly/3VYo9Kc
• Fall 2024 - https://bit.ly/3ChM68H
• Spring 2025 - https://bit.ly/46uUEpu (pdf) or https://bit.ly/3IOAzAy (web)
Throughout the academic year I’ve provided monthly reports and tips on how to improve online publications and ramped up efforts to meet with student staffs to review their numbers in hopes of impacting data influenced story decisions. This report, in addition to the normal descriptions of who did how much, includes five special in-depth reports on how story leads begin (first words), story lengths (word counts), in-story links, use of (and non-use of) multimedia, and campus governance. Toward the end of the report, I share data on each publication in the state and include a list of colleges with publications (including links).
I have often included reports that show unique visitor traffic of sites as gathered from the third-party site of similarweb.com, but because of paywall changes to the site was unable to continue that this spring.
Terms and Definitions
As with any research project of this size it is important to define terms used to make categorizations. Only minor tweaks from previous semesters were made in these definitions.
Posts
Any post was considered for inclusion unless it was an obvious duplicate post or was an obvious test post. No other distinction was made. A post might include a story, photographs, and multimedia; or it may include just a brief or a photo. One school even posted individual images/PDFs of print edition pages for portfolio reasons. If a post was later updated, it was treated as a duplicate post. If it was later deleted no adjustment was made, as deletions could be made any time, even months later.
Dates
When posts are made originally, RSS feeds usually date-stamp the posts, even if it occasionally takes a couple of days for it to appear in feeds. If posts were later updated some systems add a second date or time stamp; again, these were treated as duplicates. Some schools routinely posted stories that clearly had been created, or at least started, weeks earlier and retained the creation date on posts; but since posts were monitored daily, they were recorded as actually being posted on the dates they showed up in the RSS feed. Posting dates and times are available with most, but not all RSS feeds.
Late Posts
In most WordPress platforms a story contains a dateline that indicates when it was created, regardless of when it was posted. (Likewise, when stories are updated there often is an updated date added to the meta data.) Most stories are posted within a day of creation. But others don’t show up for days (or weeks), indicating that the publication held on to the story for some time. Posts were recorded for the day they showed up in RSS feeds, but if those dates were three or more days after the creation date they were tagged as “late” posts. An occasional late post is normal, but some publications make a practice of it. For perspective, there were 133 “late” posts for Spring 2025, which was considerably higher than previous semesters.
Times
Along with date stamps are time stamps. Times were recorded and categorized in one of four six-hour blocks of time:
• Wee hours (midnight to 5:59 a.m.),
• Morning (6:00 a.m. to 11:59 a.m.),
• Afternoon (noon to 5:59 p.m.), and
• Evening (6:00 p.m. to 11:59 p.m.)
Two publications (Chaffey and Orange Coast) do not support standard RSS and did not include time stamps; while dates for posts could be determined, time-of-day could not. These posts were not included in reporting posting times but were included in other counts.
Story Type/Genre
All stories were categorized as one of four types: News, Opinion, Sports, or Feature.
Sports was the first bias in determining story type; sports news, feature and opinion stories were categorized as “sports.” Next was News, then Opinion v. Feature.
Many reporters consider only profiles as features, but not for this study. For instance, a story about a club activity would be considered a news story, but if the story primarily focused on the purpose of an already existing club, it was considered a news feature.
The most subjective decisions were with reviews: Was the overall tone more opinion or merely feature? Lists of favorite movies/music/foods/holiday traditions, while obviously opinions, were counted as features; and, as the only sources for those features were the authors, they were counted as “neither” localization unless they had another direct tie-in to campus or community.
Localization
And finally, stories were categorized by one of three localizations: Campus based, community based, or neither/general.
Campus based was the first bias. If the story happened on campus or at another district campus, it was campus based. If it included a campus source, it was campus based. Even national stories that contained local sources or details were determined to be campus based. Merely mentioning the school, most often in leads, was not enough to be categorized as campus based. Some statewide stories that clearly affected a local campus, for instance California Community College Chancellor news conferences for student reporters, were also considered campus based.
Community-based was the second bias. Often this was subjective. Communities in immediate proximity of campus were included, but at times a story in a regional metropolis a few miles down the road might be considered community based, depending on relevance to the campus community; other times they were categorized as neither. The question was in determining how far "community" extended.
"Neither" or “general” was the catch-all for remaining stories. Non-campus reviews most commonly were considered as "neither."
Stories about professional, semi-professional and NCAA-level sports also were categorized as “neither,” even if the team was located in the college’s service area, unless it was primarily a community issue story, such as the Oakland A’s considering a move to Las Vegas, or involved the college, such as a college night at the Anaheim Angels. “Community” sports tended to be stories about local high school sports.
Tags
Subject tags were added to some stories to better highlight story content. They were not included on all stories or topics.
There were no pre-determined tags, though some became obvious, such as identifying different sports or which media were reviewed or to identify topical trends. Other tags were created to help identify important story content for well-rounded publications; for example, "campus governance" for stories about various senates, boards, foundations, unions, and administrations (except for when administrators were used simply as sources).
Adjusted Weeks/Averages
While most colleges started their spring semesters in mid to late February, not all do, and programs start actual publication at different times, regardless of when the spring term started. Some publications posted stories before the school term started while others took several weeks to get started. Most publications wrapped up the semester in the middle of May, but some went until late June. And some schools continued to publish during holiday/summer breaks, others did not. There were a total of 22 possible publishing weeks between Aug. 1 and Dec. 31 (fall semester) and 24 weeks between Jan. 1 and June 15 (spring semester).
To create a standard method for determining weekly averages an “adjusted week” metric was used. The first week for any publication was measured as the first in which two or more posts were made between Monday and Sunday. Likewise, the last week of the semester for a publication was the one that contained two or more posts. No adjustments were made for holiday periods. If a publication had additional one-off posts outside its adjusted week window the posts were counted toward the total, but the weeks were not adjustedd further.
Campus Governance
One of the roles of any publication is to serve as a watchdog for its community, so note was taken of campus governance stories, such as those that cover student, faculty, and classified senates and unions, board of trustees, college foundations, and some administrative actions. They might be news, feature, or opinion (and, in rare cases, sports) stories.
Multimedia
Four types of multimedia stories were tracked:
1. Stories with or consisting of audio,
2. Stories with or consisting of video,
3. Stories with or consisting of photo galleries in a widget, and
4. Stories with or consisting of animation or interactive tools.
Also included were a shrinking number of animated issuu.com or yumpa.com postings (considered “other”). Once common platforms for storing PDF documents, such as copies of print issues, many student publications have moved away from issuu.com after new pricing policies made them difficult to afford. Also tracked were stories with three or more photos that could have, or perhaps should have, been presented in gallery form; they were not considered as multimedia, though.
For some publications, using a gallery with three or more photos might mean a smarter presentation, but not always. Also noted where multimedia “stories” of all sorts where ONLY the multimedia portion was included or only a short paragraph was added: gallery only, audio segment only, video only, audio introduced with a single paragraph, video with only a single paragraph, gallery with a single paragraph, etc. The strangest, perhaps, were the collections of three or more photos without any explanation beyond a headline.
Posting Patterns
Separate posting calendars were kept for each publication to show how many posts were made on which days. The reports that followed highlighted excessive gaps —defined as six or more days— and excessive post days —defined as six or more posts on a single day.
A posting percentage was calculated for each publication by multiplying the number of adjusted weeks by seven days and then dividing the actual number of posting days by the result.
posting days /adjusted weeks x 7 days = posting percentage
Here is how daily averages work out:
• One day = 14.3 percent
• Two days = 28.6 percent
• Three days = 42.9 percent
• Four days = 57.1 percent
• Five days = 71.4 percent
• Six days = 85.7 percent
• Seven days = 100 percent
Weekly Average
The weekly average was determined by dividing the total number of posts/stories by the number of adjusted weeks. The state average was an anemic 5.5 stories.
Word Count
All posts were subjected to a word count using the Word Count function in Microsoft Word. Excluded were headlines, infographics, photos and cutlines. Subheads, however, were included. Some posts had no text after subtracting excluded elements.
Traffic
Traffic, as measured by the free version of SimilarWeb.com, included visitors to the website during the measured monthly window. While some data on number of pages visited or time spent on websites was available, those numbers were not included in this study. Results were reported in thousands rather than individual numbers, which is how the website reports them. Results were available for most publications, but not all. Again, because of paywall issues on the third-party site, this count was discontinued mid-semester.
Disclaimer
No determination on quality of stories or publications was made, as this was not a goal of the study. Raw numbers included in this report are included for illustrative purposes. Publications should look at the numbers and determine whether they meet staff-determined goals.
Most numbers are expressed in terms of percentage of the whole, though raw numbers are included to indicate how percentages were determined. When raw numbers or ranks are highlighted in this study they are not meant to imply "better" or "worse," but are used solely for comparison’s sake.
It should be noted, too, that when percentage-of-the-whole numbers are used a high rank in one category, by definition, it means a corresponding lower rank in another similar category: staffs need to establish their own goals.
Posts are harvested from RSS feeds only, unless a site does not support standard RSS. Harvesting from the website itself is more time consuming and it is too easy to miss a new post. Posts that are added to static pages do not show up in RSS feeds.
Spring 2025 summary
Fifty-four student publications posted 4,930 stories this spring, as measured between Jan. 1 and June 15. That was a 10.5 percent increase over the same period for 2024, but still below the five-year average of 5,038.2 stories measured since Spring 2020.
Three publications that were active in Spring 2024 —Monterey Peninsula, Moreno Valley, and Rio Hondo— were inactive (or probably dead in two cases) this spring and one new publication —Solano— was added to the list of publications. Just one known active print publication still does not have an online presence.
By the numbers:
• Localization: 71.9 percent of stories were campus based, 10.6 percent community based, and 17.4 neither.
• Genre: 45.6 percent were news stories, 14.4 percent opinion stories[1], 18.4 percent were sports stories, and 21.6 percent were feature stories.
• Day of week: 23.4 percent were posted on Wednesdays, 16.4 percent on Thursdays, 15.2 percent each on Tuesdays and weekends, 15.0 percent on Mondays, and 14.8 percent on Fridays.
• Time of day: 47.4 percent were posted in the afternoon, 22.8 percent in the morning, 22.1 percent in the evening, and 3.2 percent in the late overnight hours (wee hours).
• Daily posts: There were postings on all but three days (Jan. 1, 2, and 4). They averaged 30.2 stories per day. The busiest day was May 14 (a Wednesday) with 98 posts. The second busiest day was the following Wednesday (May 21) with 87 and the third busiest was the previous Wednesday (May 7) with 83.
• Numbers of posts: Publication postings ranged from a high of 271 to a low of four; the state average was 98.4 stories.
• Adjusted weeks: Publication windows ranged from 23 weeks (of a possible 24) to a low of two; the state average was 16.7.
• Posting frequency: Publications posted 35.5 percent of possible days with the highest percentage being 69.7 percent and the lowest 6.1 percent.
• Excessive gaps: Forty-six publications had at least one excessive gap of six or more days and six had none. The average gap was 11.1 days.
• Excessive posts: Twenty-seven publications had at least one excessive-post day of six or more posts. The average was 4.0 excessive-post days.
• Weekly posts: Weekly posting averages by publications averaged 5.5 stories but ranged from a high of 14.9 to a low of 1.2; the state average was 5.5 stories per publication.
• Multimedia: Forty publications included multimedia in at least one post, 12 had none. Galleries (in a widget) were the most frequently used form of multimedia (n.591), followed by video (n.238), audio (n.58), and other (n.33)[2].
• Campus governance: Forty-seven publications had at least one campus governance story, five had one; publications averaged 6.2 campus governance stories.
•
Campus opinion: Forty publications had at least one campus-focused opinion story, 12 had none; publications averaged 4.4.
Despite losing three publications active last spring (Monterey Peninsula, Moreno Valley, and Rio Hondo) and gaining only one (Solano), overall numbers were up over last spring. Of course, last spring was the lowest spring term since this study began.
Thirty-five publications saw an increase over last spring while just 16 saw a decrease. Fifteen NorCal publications (57.7 percent) saw increases while 20 SoCal publications (64.5 percent) saw them.
More important than the total number of stories, though the two go hand in hand, is the publication’s weekly story average. El Camino, for instance, published 14.9 stories per week during its adjusted publication window. Other leaders included Pasadena (11.8), Orange Coast (11.1), Los Medanos (10.7), Cerritos (10.3), Long Beach (n.10.2), and Santa Barbara (10.2). The state average was 5.5, which was down from the fall semester (6.6), but up from last spring (4.3). The lowest was 1.2.
Most stories (71.9 percent) were localized to the campus. Seven publications —Glendale (96.3 percent), San Diego City(95.3 percent), Laney (95.2 percent), Cosumnes River (93.9 percent), Cypress (93.1 percent), and Grossmont (90.5 percent)— localized to campus 90.0 percent or more of their stories. Leaders in community coverage were Canyons (53.8 percent), Sierra (50.0 percent), and Desert (46.8 percent). Chaffey led in non-campus/non-community stories with 62.9 percent of its stories lacking those localizations. Butte followed at 60.9 percent.
Publications that focused more on general news —neither campus based or community based— appeared to struggle the most. (Aside from connecting the publication with the campus, student miss out on interview practice for their stories.)
New-ish to stories covered this semester included campus and community protest stories. Forty of the 54 publications had at least one protest story; there were 115 stories about protests, 40 of them by Santa Monica. There were 78 opinion stories about President Trump’s actions, nearly a third of them (n.26) by Pasadena.
Cultural/entertainment news stories, opinion stories/reviews, feature stories continued to be popular: Music (n.287), movies (n.221), art (n.159), stage/poetry readings (n.115), books (n.62), television (n.51), video games (n.36), amusement parks (n.9).
Men’s sports got slightly more coverage than women’s sports (57.2 percent vs. 42.8 percent) where gender was important. Men’s baseball (n.232), women’s softball (n.139), and men’s basketball (n.126) were covered more than other sports. (Again, each sport was counted separately, so roundup-style stories were counted multiple times.) Women’s wrestling, the darling novelty last spring, still got coverage, but not nearly as much as last spring.
Thanks to its regular pro-con opinion packages (double your opportunities!), Pierce led all publications in the number of campus opinion stories with 25. Other leaders were Los Medanos (n.19), ElCamino (n.17), Palomar (n.17), and Long Beach (n.15) Just three-quarters of publications (n.40) had any campus opinion stories/editorials/ columns. Long Beach probably had the strongest campus opinion stories.
Campus opinion stories included editorials, columns, and letters-to-the-editor that covered campus issues. Merely mentioning the college, or students in general, as being concerned with a general student-related topic did not qualify. In addition, all "roving reporter" stories were all counted as campus opinion, regardless of the question, because they involved campus sources.
Increasingly, publications are presenting stories in another languagefor their diverse readerships, and it is not always in Spanish; this spring there were stories in Tagala/Filipino and Japanese as well. Five publications had a total of 75 stories in another language. American River and Palomar led the way with 22 each. Most of the stories also had English versions. Based on the posting patterns, most appear first to have been written in English and then translated to another language, sometimes days or weeks later. If publications want to provide stories in another language some issues they should consider include:
· Translation is a value-added feature for the reader, but at some point, you want to see reporters interviewing and writing in the other language and then translating to English; there are media jobs for those that can write in the non-English language originally.
· Translations, regardless of direction, work best when both versions are released within a day of each other, if not simultaneously.
· Linkbacks to the other version should be included both ways; it is becoming common to put linkbacks on the translation, but not yet on the original version; again, posting both versions simultaneously will make that easier. (The same philosophy of linkbacks should apply to pro-con opinion packages, too.)
How do you start writing a new story? What is the first word you use? I thought I saw a pattern emerging as I looked at students' stories, so this spring I took a closer look. I recorded the first word of text of every story I could for the semester. Not every story had text. I did not include headlines or cutlines, so those multimedia story presentations without a story (or transcripts) were excluded. It turns out that of the 4,930 stories 146 (just under 3.0 percent) were excluded for lack of accompanying text.
Common words were counted separately, but for comparison’s sake some proper nouns were grouped together to create such possibilities as college-name, person-name, movie-name, game-name, etc. For college names, all versions of the name were included in the combination. Hence, Sacramento City College, Sacramento, City College, and SCC were all considered “college name.”
Studies of English word usage[3] show that the most common word used to start a sentence is “the,” and that proved to be the case in the remaining 4,784 stories. It was the first word used in 20.8 percent of stories, or just more than one in five. In retrospect, “college-name” being used as the second-most common starting word (13.0 percent) was not a surprise. Likewise, “person-name” ending up in the third slot was not a surprise. It got interesting from there, though, and when patterns were reviewed publication by publication there were some surprise patterns.
Overall, it probably does not matter what the first word of a lead is on a story-by-story basis. Where it starts to matter is in the patterns. Do you (or your writers) tend to fall into patterns and overuse a word? Does variety in your writing matter? And are there some words that probably should be used more or less than others? For instance, in my journalistic training I was taught to embrace variety and avoid some kinds of leads, such as “when” leads that start with a “when” statements on the theory that when something happened usually is NOT the most important way to start a story: “what” and “who” tend to be more important. I used that philosophy throughout my newswriting teaching and newspaper advising.
That is why I was surprised to find that the fourth and fifth most common words used to start stories were “on” (6.2 percent) and “in” (4.2 percent); “on” most often leads to a “when” statement and “in” most often leads to a “when” or “where” statement. Now, 6.2 percent and 4.2 percent are small amounts, so why obsess? Well, I then looked at those words on a publication-by-publication basis and broke down the population of stories into first words used in news vs. opinion vs. sports vs. feature stories, and the patterns offered some concerns.
For the record, “the” remained the most common way to start a lead in each genre and “college-name” and “person-name” exchanged places as the most common second and third words when reviewed statewide. The patterns become starker with some publications, especially when looked at by genre. And that is where this study might be most helpful. Some publications will want to become aware of their patterns and consider changes. Like with other aspects of the overall Online Elsewhere study, having combined knowledge of what you unconsciously produce might aid in awareness of better writing and reporting. (One has to take into account, though, that with some publications, when viewed by genre, the population of stories is so small sometimes that the pattern might be suspect as a “pattern.”) To view each publication’s patterns, see the chart at the end of this section, but here is a general summary of each publication.
All publications
“The” is the most common first word, though it is used to start sports stories (33.4 percent) more than in other genres. It was my noticing this pattern, especially with some publications, that led me to start this study.
American River
The Current used “the” more than twice as often (38.9 percent) with sports stories than with all stories combined (15.7 percent). “College-name” (18.4 percent) was preferred in news stories and “person-name” and “nationwide” (10.5 percent each) in feature stories. There was less pattern in opinion stories.
Bakersfield
The Rip preferred “college-name” as the starting word in all types of stories (26.8 percent), in news stories (18.4 percent), and in sports stories (a whopping 80.0 percent, or four in five stories). “Person-name” (22.2 percent) led most often in opinion stories and “in” (15.4 percent) in feature stories.
Butte
“The” was used more than twice as often in sports stories (28.6 percent) than all stories (12.1 percent). “On” led in news stories (25.0 percent, or one in four). “Person-name” tied “the” in use (12.0 percent each) in feature stories. Interestingly, but not surprising, “movie-name” (14.3 percent) led in opinion stories, which gives one other clues on story selection.
Cabrillo
The Voice’s numbers are small, but “college-name” tied with “are” (question leads?) and “after” (15.4 percent each) for most common first words. “College-name” again led with opinion stories (again, 15.4 percent). There was just one online opinion story, but “as” (28.6 percent) led with feature stories.
Canyons
Canyon News stories tend to be narration scripts for its videos attached to all but one story. “The” led with all stories (17.5 percent), news stories (17.0 percent), and feature stories (16.7 percent). There really were no patterns with opinion or sports stories, which were few.
Cerritos
“College-name” led in one of five (20.1 percent) overall stories and more often in news stories (35.2 percent). “Person-name” led in just more than one in four opinion stories (26.1 percent). “The” led in just fewer than one in four sports stories (24.4 percent). Many of the Talon Marks’ features were first-person features and started with “I” (13.6 percent).
Chabot
Again, working with a small population of stories, “on” led in overall stories in nearly one in five (18.2 percent) of stories and in half of news stories (50.0 percent). There were no patterns with opinion and feature stores, but “the” led in half of sports stories (50.0 percent).
Chaffey
The Breeze had a small population of stories, but “the” led in four of the five breakdowns: all stories (20.0 percent), news stories (18.2 percent), opinion stories (33.3 percent), and feature stories (16.7 percent). Interestingly, “to” led with sports stories (33.3 percent). “In” shared with “the” in news stories (18.2 percent).
Citrus
“College-name” was the favored way to start all stories (33.7 percent), news stories (40.0 percent), and sports stories (56.3 percent, or more than half the time). “Movie-name” led opinion stories (20.0 percent) and “the” led feature stories (16.7 percent).
Contra Costa
The Advocate was another publication with a small population. “The” was the leading first word in all stories (25.5 percent), opinion stories (36.4 percent), and sports stories (36.4 percent). “Last” (a when statement) led in news stories (23.8 percent), and “counseling” and “person-name” tied in feature stories (25.0 percent each).
Cosumnes River
“The” was the most common first word in all stories (36.7 percent), news stories (31.1 percent), sports stories (a whopping 75 percent, or three of four stories), and feature stories (14.3 percent). “An” and “person-name” tied with “the” for the top feature story spot (14.3 percent each). There were no patterns with opinion stories.
Cuesta
“The” was used as the lead word in three of four sports stories (75.0 percent), in a third of all stories (34.0 percent), and more than a third of feature stories (36.4 percent). “College-name,” though, was used as the lead word in just under a third of news stories (32.3 percent). There was no pattern with opinion stories.
Cypress
“The” was the lead word in more than three of every four sports stories (78.6 percent) but dropped to just under two of five for all stories (38.2 percent). “College-name” led three of five news stories (60.0 percent). “As” led with feature stories (40.0 percent) and there was no pattern with opinion stories.
DeAnza
While “the” led all stories (25.8 percent) and news stories (27.1 percent), “person-name” led opinion stories (13.8 percent), “college-name” led sports stories (9.1 percent), and “in” led feature stories (14.3 percent).
Desert
The Chapparal’s small population of stories showed no patterns with opinion and feature stories, but “the” lead in all stories (23.8 percent), news stories (34.6 percent), and sports stories (a whopping 50.0 percent).
Diablo Valley
The Inquirer showed a lot of diversity in first-word choice. Across all stories, “on” and “in” led just 6.2 percent each. “When” and “college-name” tied at 11.1 percent each with news stories. And “on,” “in,” and “as” tied at 11.1 percent each to lead feature stories. There was no discernible pattern with opinion and sports stories.
East LA
“The” was the most-used first word in all stories (22.9 percent), news stories (31.6 percent), and feature stories (23.8 percent). “College-name” was most prevalent in sports stories (23.3 percent), and “movie-name” in opinion stories (12.5 percent).
El Camino
“The” was the most common first word in all stories (12.3 percent), sports (15.1 percent), and feature stories (7.0 percent). “When” tied with “the” in feature stories with 7.0 percent each. “College-name” was the preferred first word in news stories (31.6 percent) and opinion stories (10.5 percent). “As” tied with “college-name” in opinion stories (10.5 percent each).
Foothill
“The” was the most common first word of all stories (15.4 percent), sports stories (a whopping three out of four times; 75.0 percent), and feature stories (15.0 percent). “Person-name” was another popular first word in feature stories with 15.0 percent each. “On” was used as the first word in just more than one of five news stories (22.2 percent). There was no pattern with opinion stories.
Fullerton
The Hornet used “the” as the first word consistently in all types of stories (18.3 percent), news stories (27.8 percent), and sports stories (25.8 percent). “Person-name” (8.2 percent) just edged out “business-name” (7.7) as the preferred first word in feature stories; the publication runs a lot of local business features. There was no pattern with opinion stories.
Fresno
“The” was the first word of just short of half of sports stories (46.7 percent) and just fewer one of five feature stories (19.2 percent). “College-name” (13.0 percent) just edged out “person-name” (12.0 percent) and “on” (11.0 percent) among all stories as the preferred first word. “On” led, however, with news stories (22.6 percent). “Person-name” led in just more than two of every five (22.6 percent) opinion stories.
Glendale
“College-name” was the most popular first word in all stories (13.0 percent), but twice as popular with news stories (35.3 percent). “Person-name” and “college-name” tied as the leading first words with feature stories (9.7 percent each). There were not enough opinion or sports stories to develop a pattern.
Grossmont
The Summit’s story population was too small to develop patterns in opinion, sports, and feature stories. “The” was the most popular word among all stories (19.0 percent) and especially with news stories (33.3 percent).
LA City
The Collegian had no online stories this semester.
LA Valley
“The” was the first word of choice in 23.1 percent of all Valley Star stories, 23.5 percent of news stories, and 20.0 percent of opinion stories. There were no discernible patterns with sports and feature stories.
Laney
Most of the Peralta Citizen’s stories are news stories, so there were no discernible patterns for opinion, sports, or feature stories. “The” was the first word of choice for all stories (38.1 percent) and news stories (31.6 percent).
Las Positas
Nearly one in three sports stories (32.4 percent) started with “the,” and since the Express was heavy with sports stories, it is not surprising that “the” was the most used first word in all stories (19.8 percent). “College-name” and “the” tied for the lead among news stories (15.4 percent each). And “as” was the first word in half of the four feature stories (50.0 percent).
Long Beach
The Viking broke with most other publications and used “college-name” most often as the first word of its leads. “College-name” led among all stories (31.0 percent), news stories (36.2 percent), and opinion stories (33.3 percent). “The” was the lead word on a third of sports stories (33.3 percent) and a third of feature stories (33.3 percent).
Los Medanos
Nearly half of the Experience’s sports stories (47.1 percent) and started most often with the word “the.” “The” was also the leader among all stories (20.8 percent), news stories (11.8 percent) and feature stories (9.4 percent). “As” was the leader among opinion stories (13. 8 percent).
Monterey Peninsula
The Lobo News had no online stories this spring.
Moorpark
The Reporter had a small population of stories this spring but showed a preference for the word “on” (“when” leads”) in all stories (43.3 percent), news stories (40.0 percent), and sports stories (a whopping 70.0 percent). There were no discernible patterns for opinion or feature stories.
Moreno Valley
The Herald had no online stories this spring.
Mt. San Antonio
“College-name” started just more than a quarter of all sports stories (26.7 percent), but “the” was the preferred first word for news stories (17.4 percent) and all stories (15.0 percent). There were no discernible patterns for opinion and feature stories.
Mt. San Jacinto
More than half (53.8 percent) of Talon news stories started with “the” and one in five of all stories started with “the.” “As” was the preferred way to start opinion stories 28.6 percent of the time. “In” was preferred with feature stories 12.5 percent of the time.
Orange Coast
“College name” was the first word of sports stories (43.9 percent), all stories (41.2 percent), news stories (21.0 percent), and opinion stories (18.2 percent). Feature stories showed a shared preference among “following,” “some,” and “person-name” (9.5 percent each).
Palomar
Telescope writers turned to “the” for the first word of their leads among all stories (18.2 percent), news stories (16.4 percent), opinion stories (10.7 percent), and sports stories (30.6 percent). Only with feature stories did they looked elsewhere, preferring “in” 14.3 percent of the time.
Pasadena
Courier photographers ran a lot of feature photo galleries with one-paragraph lead-ins. In one of five features (20.0 percent) those leads started with “Courier photographers.” Otherwise “the” led in all stories a whopping 55.4 percent of the time. That meant it was the preferred first word with news stories (12.5 percent), opinion stories (17.6 percent), and sports stories (37.9 percent).
Pierce
“The” and “college-name” were the preferred first words for the Roundup. “The” led all stories (18.3 percent), sports stories (26.3 percent), and feature stories (13.3 percent). “When” was also popular among feature stories (13.3 percent). “College name” led among news stories (10.3 percent) and opinion stories (26.3 percent).
Rio Hondo
El Paisano had no online stories this spring.
Riverside
Three in 10 news stories (31.3 percent) and one in four sports stories (25.0 percent) started with “the.” “Game-name” was the most popular way to start opinion stories (18.2 percent.) There was no discernible pattern for feature stories.
Sacramento
“Person-name” started two-thirds (66.7 percent) of opinion stories and a third (32.0 percent) of feature stories, but “the” led one in five (20.0 percent) of all stories. “With” was the most popular way to start a news story (30.6 percent) and “college-name” led sports stories two in five times (40.0 percent).
Saddleback
“The” started 27.5 percent of all stories, more than half (52.6 percent) of news stories, 44.4 percent of sports stories, and 27.3 percent of opinion stories. Only in feature stories were other words preferred: “when” and “college-name” tied for most preferred with 9.7 percent each.
San Diego City
Two-thirds (66.7 percent) of The City Times’ opinion stories and half (50.0 percent) of its sports stories start with “the,” so it is not a surprise that a fifth of all stories (21.7 percent) start with “the.” While “the” featured prominently (14.5 percent, third-most) in news stories, the publication’s regular events calendar starts with “Looking for” and that accounted for 17.4 of its news leads. “College-name” was the preferred way to start feature stories (23.1 percent).
San Diego Mesa
Seven in 10 (71.4 percent) Mesa Press sports stories start with “the.” And while “the” shares the lead with “in” among news stories (18.2 percent each), “the” leads all stories in just one of five stories (21.7 percent), still the leading word. “College-name” is the preferred first word in opinion stories (15.8 percent) and “in” is the preferred first word in just fewer than one of five feature stories (18.2 percent).
San Francisco
While “college-name” led as the first word in news stories 23.3 percent of the time, “the” was a more preferred way to start all stories (27.1 percent), opinion stories (27.8 percent), sports stories (46.2 percent), and feature stories (22.2 percent).
San Joaquin Delta
The Collegian bucked the trend of most publications in showing that it preferred the “when” statement lead starting with the word “on.” “On” led among all stories a fifth of the time (22.5 percent), news stories approaching a third of the time (31.4 percent), and sports stories more than a third of the time (36.4 percent). With feature stories it preferred “in,” often the start of a “when” lead 9.7 percent of the time. There were not enough opinion stories to develop a pattern.
San Jose
The City Times had a small population of stories but preferred “college-name” with all stories (22.7 percent), news stories (40.0 percent), and feature stories (40.0 percent). “The” was the preferred way to start sports stories half the time (50.0 percent). There were not enough opinion stories to develop a pattern.
Santa Ana
El Don showed a diversity on ways to start stories. Just 7.8 percent of the time did it start with the word “the” (all stories). “District” led news stories 11.8 percent of the time, “with” started sports stories 18.2 percent of time, and “the” started feature stories 12.5 percent of the time. There was not a discernible pattern among opinion stories.
Santa Barbara
“College-name” dominated sports stories as the first word 55.6 percent of the time. But it was the word “the” that led in most other categories. Among all stories it led 26.3 percent of the time, among news stories 31.3 percent of the time, and among feature stories 14.3 percent of the time. There was not a discernible pattern among opinion stories.
Santa Monica
“On,” a “when” statement, was the preferred first word among all stories a quarter of the time (25.9 percent) and nearly half the time among sports stories (47.6 percent). While “on” accounted for the first word among news stories only 12.2 percent of the time (third most), it led most of the Corsair’s many protest coverage stories. “College-name” led among news stories more than a third of the time (35.6 percent). “For” and “when” led among feature stories (8.6 percent each). There was not a discernible pattern among opinion stories.
Santa Rosa
“The” started nearly two-thirds (65.2 percent) of the Oak Leaf’s sports stories and more than a quarter of all stories (26.4 percent). However, “college-name” dominated first words in news stories more than a third of the time (35.6 percent). The publication ran a lot of restaurant/bar reviews, so “business-name” (7.7) was the leader among opinion stories. While “from” and “for” were used to start feature stories twice each, there really was no discernible preferred first word.
Sequoias
“The” was the preferred first word among all stories 15.9 percent of the time, among news stories 21.6 percent of time, and among feature stories 21.4 percent of the time. (Given the number of “teacher features,” the later was a surprise.) “College-name” was the leader among news stories (21.6 percent) and sports stories (20.0 percent).
Sierra
The Roundhouse had just four stories for the semester, so it was difficult to detect patterns. Each story started differently.
Skyline
While “the” led among news stories more than a quarter of the time (27.8 percent), “college-name” was the leader among all stories (23.0 percent), largely because nearly two thirds of sports stories (64.0 percent) started with “college-name.” “Therapy” and “person-name” tied for leader among feature stories (16.7 percent each).
Solano
A quarter of news stories (25.9 percent) started with “on,” but “the” dominated as the preferred first word among all stories (25.5 percent), opinion stories (42.9 percent), sports stories (33.3 percent) and feature stories (27.3 percent).
Southwestern
The Southwestern Sun had a small population of stories, but showed diversity in news, opinion, and sports stories; no discernible patterns were detected. Among all stories “person-name” led 11.1 percent of the time and among feature stories 36.4 percent of the time.
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Beginning reporters today continue to ask the question I did when I was learning to write for newspapers: How long should my story be? I looked at the word count of all the stories this spring to see what the standard is among community college student online publications.
I copied the stories —sans headlines, editor notes, pull quotes, and cutlines— and dumped them into Microsoft Word’s Word Count feature, even taking into account the 3.2 percent of stories that had no words: usually multimedia stories where just the multimedia are presented with a headline. I also looked at each publication’s word counts and how they dropped into eight sub-category lengths.
It turns out that the average story, ranging from the low of zero to a high of 7,501 words (from Saddleback), was 563.1 words. In fact, a third of all stories (33.3 percent) fell between 400 and 599 words. Another 39.0 percent fell between 200 and 399 words, meaning that seven in 10 (72.3 percent) of stories fall between 200 and 600.
Of course, online the length of an online story is unimportant as far as design goes: a story is a story. Other considerations, such as reader experience, should dictate story length; a 25-word story might be the best choice. The 3.2 percent of stories with zero words is okay, just not a great reader-relations strategy. (See a longer rant in the section talking about multimedia stories and another in the section about sports stories.) Another 9.3 percent had fewer than 200 words, again many of those accompany multimedia.
Sierra had the longest word-count average, with each of its stories averaging more than 1,000 words (avg. 1,067.5). Southwestern (avg. 882.9), Laney (868.6), Santa Monica (avg. 858.9) followed. Canyons had the lowest average at 266.9 words. El Camino was closest to the state average with its own average of 567.1 words.
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One of the small things every online publication can do to improve and separate itself from a print edition is to include text links in stories. In-story text links can link to sources, email addresses (mailto:), external websites, related stories, Google forms, online documents, definitions of unfamiliar words, social media, cool resources, and more.
Links can be standalone, a single word, or a complete sentence. (Hint: multi-word or longer-word links seem to be more visible than single, short-word links, such as "here.") They take no extra technology, and with most blog programs used by news publications are relatively easy to include ... if student reporters will just go an extra step. (Creating publication policies encouraging the adding of links in online versions could help.)
Just how many California community college student online news publications use in-story links? I looked, and it is more than one might think. Links occurred in just more than a third of all stories. Only two active online publications —Canyons and Southwestern— had NO stories with links.
For this portion of the study, I looked at links within stories (and cutlines, though that happened rarely). I DID NOT include automatically created links, such as story and photo bylines automatically generated by the online platform. I DID include byline- or contact-style links at bottoms of stories because they obviously were manually created. See the chart below for a rundown of how many stories each publication had that included links.
Of the 4,930 stories posted online this spring, 1,801, or 36.5 percent of stories, had at least one link. Sierra had links in all four of its stories, so led all schools in percentage of stories with links. Three other publications —Moorpark (96.7 percent), Laney (96.7 percent), and Glendale (90.7 percent)— had at least one link in 90.0 percent or more of their stories. The number of links in stories ranged from just one —34.3 percent of stories with links had just one— to ElCamino’s 48 in one story. The average number of links with stories that had links was 4.1
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Since the vast majority of content on student online news publication sites is text-based stories prepared exactly as one would for print, one of the major ways an online publication can distinguish itself as a distinct publication is to tell some stories, or enhance some stories, using multimedia techniques, yet nearly a third of publications (n. 14) had no multimedia of any kind.
Four categories of multimedia were measured: audio, video, photos galleries (in a widget), and other. I also looked at stories that easily could/should have used multimedia in at least a gallery format but were presented in print-centric format.
There were 897 stories with multimedia of some kind, which represents about 18.2 percent of all stories and a 53.2 percent increase in use of multimedia over Spring 2024. It was not uncommon for multimedia stories to contain more than one multimedia element, such as two videos or a video and a gallery.
Santa Monica was the multimedia leader with 130 stories when all four categories were combined, followed by Orange Coast (n.105), Santa Rosa (n.83), Canyons(n.79), DeAnza (n.69), Fullerton (n.45), and El Camino (n.41).
Publications using multimedia should consider reader experience in how they are presented. Include a story of some kind with multimedia to help the reader assess whether to invest time viewing or listening to the multimedia; at least 40 stories presented multimedia with no other text other than a headline, giving the reader inadequate information about the content.
Another way publications can help readers with audio and video stories is to provide transcripts, which are easily produced these days with programs such as otter.ai. Currently only three publications —San Diego City, Cerritos, and now DeAnza— are regularly trying to include transcripts. Perhaps the best option for including transcripts came with a June story by DeAnza: Cupertino erupts in a sea of pink pedals.[4]
One further note about the multimedia discussions below: When counting multimedia stories each story was counted only once, but with some numbers below, especially when calculating the length of audio or video story elements or the number of photos displayed in gallery widgets, EACH audio clip, video, or gallery was counted separately; it is not uncommon for there to be a mix of galleries, audio clips, and videos in a single story. One Santa Barbara[5] stories, for instance, included 18 audio clips.
The number of multimedia stories jumped significantly toward the end of the term as multimedia reporting classes submit their final projects for possible publication. This is understandable, but the goal should then be that experienced staff members continue to use their new multimedia skills more throughout the term in subsequent semesters.
Audio stories
Fifty-eight audio clips were measured for length. The longest clip was just over an hour long at one hour, one minute, and six seconds. The shortest was just 19 seconds long. The average was 18 minutes and 59 seconds.
Audio clips included clips from interviews/meetings, song samples, broadcast news style features, and full-length podcasts.
Fullerton ran the most audio stories (n.9), followed by Long Beach (n.8), Cerritos(n.7), San Diego City (n.6), San Diego Mesa (n.5), Palomar (n.4) and Santa Barbara (n.4).
Video stories
Not all videos created by students may show up in this study if they were created in social media applications. First, unless they are presented on the website in a standalone story they will not show up in RSS; a simple link likely will not show up. Second, Instagram and TikTok videos inserted into stories using an insertion code do not always display in some browsers. Publications probably should view their own stories in a couple of browsers after posting stories to assess effectiveness of presentation.
Video clips included movie trailers, short TikTok and Instagram videos (including roving reporter style[6] videos), video podcasts, and broadcast news style videos. Two hundred and two videos were measured for length. The longest[7] was two hours, 21 minutes and 55 seconds while the shortest two were just three seconds long each.[8]
Canyons was, far and away, the leader in use of videos. Videos were included in all but one of the Canyon Call’s 80 stories. DeAnza was second with 26. Other leaders were ElCamino (n.21), Mt. San Jacinto (n.11), American River (n. 10), Fullerton (n.9), and San Diego City (n.8).
Gallery stories
Only photo arrays included in a gallery widget were counted as multimedia stories. A number of publications continued to run multiple-photo stories with print layout, the most egregious was Pasadenawith its multiple great feature photo presentations where photos are all run one size in a linear, scrolling fashion, the longest (and perhaps most interesting of the bunch) of which contained 71 photos[9]. A variety of gallery widget formats were used by California community college student online publications.
Five hundred and sixty-five gallery presentations were measured for length and the average included 7.5 photos. The longest had 121 photos and shortest had just one. (I am still not sure why a gallery widget is needed for just one photo!)
Santa Monica was the clear leader in use of photo galleries. One hundred and nineteen of its 166 stories had galleries (71.1 percent). Other leaders were Orange Coast (n.98), Santa Rosa (n.76), DeAnza (n.40), Fullerton (n.28), Santa Barbara (n.27), Citrus (n.19), and Sacramento (n.19)
Photos galleries delivered inside widgets are perhaps the easiest gateway to multimedia for student publications. Any time a single story contains three or more photos, the publication should consider placing them in a widget to avoid print-centric layout, though not all presentations with three photos NEED a widget presentation. Forty-five of the state’s publications had at least one story presented with three or more photos presented in print-layout format. El Camino used the practice most often with 106 stories presented with an average of 5.2 photos each time. Other publications that frequently presented stories with three or more photos included Palomar (n. 57), Pasadena (n. 54), Fullerton (n. 41), Santa Rosa (n. 41), DeAnza (n. 38), Butte (n. 34), and Santa Barbara (n. 30). Pasadena ran the longest scrolls with an average of 12.7 photos, followed by Santa Monica (avg. 11.7).
Other multimedia stories
Other multimedia ranged from animated Issuu/Yumpa/Flipbook presentations of complete issues to animated graphics, to polls, to interactive story maps. A dozen publications included 55 “other” multimedia; 11 of those were interactive story maps[10] by El Camino.
It seems like new animated or interactive multimedia applications show up each month, so it is a bit surprising that there are not more experiments by student publications.
Multimedia use this term increased over last spring by 52.3 percent and over Fall 2024 by 42.4 percent.
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One of the measures of a strong news publication —print or online— is how it covers its local governance structure. Indeed, the Journalism Association of Community Colleges uses campus governance coverage as one of its measures for both print and online general excellence. And while local governance for student publications for student publications might include local city councils, county boards of supervisors, state legislatures, and the federal government, for most student publications CAMPUS governance is most important. The two most obvious campus government bodies are its board of trustees and its student government. But since California community colleges operate using a sophisticated shared governance system, campus governance includes faculty and classified senates, unions, administration, and a whole host of shared governance committees with perhaps budget and planning, college councils, curriculum, program review, accreditation, foundation boards leading the list.
It is, therefore, interesting that few publications put much effort into covering campus governance. Five publications had NO campus governance coverage and another 10 had just one story —most often announcing a student government election. The statewide average is 6.2, skewed largely by a half dozen publications who cover campus government regularly. El Camino, for instance, had 59 campus governance stories to wrest leadership from perennial leaders Santa Barbara and Laney.
Twenty-five publications ran 293 campus governance stories, which represents just 5.5 percent of all stories. That was a decrease from Spring 2024, when campus governance accounted for 6.5 percent of all stories. Fall 2024 campus governance coverage accounted for 5.2 percent of all stories.
Student publications looking to increase campus news coverage would do well to adopt policies for covering at least the three main groups —trustees, student government, and faculty senates— on a regular basis. Trustees most often meet twice a month and student governments and faculty senates weekly. In addition to meeting stories, these groups tend to talk about many other campus stories in their discussions.[11]
To count as a campus governance story, it took more than merely mentioning the governmental body; it needed to include its core legislative or administrative functions. For instance, the student government may be mentioned as co-sponsoring a campus activity or event, but the story was not really about governance. Administration stories mostly focused on selection of key administrative managers or the announcement of new campus policies.
The chart below shows campus governance coverage by governing body for each publication, with the board of trustees, student government, faculty senates, administration, unions, and miscellaneous shared governance bodies representing the major groups.
Student government (n.114, 38.7 percent of all campus governance stories) was the main body covered by student publications with 37 publications including at least one student government story. Twenty-five publications had at least one board of trustees story (n.74, 24.9 percent of all campus governance stories). The third most popular group to cover was faculty senates (19 publication, n. 47 stories, 16 percent). Fourth was administration (23 publications, 39 stories, 13.3 percent). Various shared governance committees ranked fifth (nine publications, 18 stories, 6.0 percent). Union coverage ranked last.
El Camino covered its board of trustees most with 8.5 stories (one story covered both the board and faculty union), Santa Barbara led among student government coverage with nine stories and faculty senate coverage with eight stories. Fresnoled in administration-focused governance with six stories.
Download a high rez PDF of this chart.
Publication-by-publication reports
The author is under no illusion that everyone will want to read reports for all 57 publications that are monitored each semester, but some may find that reading other publication reports helpful as not all operate under the same conditions. For instance, some publish in the morning, others in the afternoon, and still others in the evening. Some publish multiple times each week while others publish online less than weekly. Some focus exclusively on campus-focused stories while others venture out to their local communities or well beyond; some barely cover campus stories. Find peer publications with patterns close to yours and measure progress against them to avoid being overwhelmed by powerhouse publications.
Reports show current semester numbers and percentages, previous semester data, rankings compared to others in the state, and posting patterns.
The American River Current published 96 stories over 16 weeks this spring, nearly double from spring a year ago and a continuation of a strong trend for the just-completed school year. It focused mainly on campus news (85.4 percent).
Strengths: The publication’s 57.1 percent posting pattern means that it published an average of four days a week. That posting percentage was the seventh highest in the state. It was also strong in campus opinion, devoting 10.4 percent of its overall total to campus opinion, sixth highest percentage. It’s 10 campus opinion articles was ninth most.
The publication included links in three out of every five stories, averaging 3.4 links each time. It tied for 10th in use of multimedia, relying mostly on photo galleries, but also including video 10 times.
Weaknesses: While campus governance coverage was fair overall (n.6, tie 18), the district’s board of trustees got no coverage; it covered student government and administration. The publication may want to consider covering faculty senate.
The Bakersfield Renegade Rip published 123 stories over 16 weeks. While the tied for 11th in most stories for the term, the total was down from both last spring and last fall.
Strengths: While story numbers were down, the 123 was a strong output. The publication’s 7.7 stories per week was 11thmost in the state. Two-thirds (67.5 percent) of its stories were campus related and nearly half (48.8 percent) were campus news stories.
Weaknesses: While the publication posted a 10th highest percentage in opinion stories (22.0 percent), just one of those stories related to campus issues. And the publication had just one administration campus governance story; it may want to cover student government, the board of trustees, and the faculty senate more.
It’s 25.9 percent posting pattern registered just below a twice-a-week average. Partially because of its low-ish percentage, it had five excessive gaps that averaged 7.8 days each. And its 10 excessive-post days (7.5-story average) were among the most in the state by a single publication.
The publication had a penchant for starting stories with the college’s name, especially with sports stories. Few of the publication’s stories contained in-story links and many that do had just one link.
The metrics indicate the online publication still is impacted with print-centric policies.
The Butte Roadrunner published 69 stories over 18 weeks, less than half the output of each of the previous two semesters.
Strengths: Despite its downturn in numbers, the publication posted 50.0 percent of possible days, or about 3.5 days per week. It ranks second in the state in “general” news, news that covers neither campus nor community.
More than a quarter (27.5 percent) of stories had in-story links (average 4.3).
Weaknesses: Aside from the obvious challenging spring semester, the publication’s high percentage of general news (60.9 percent or three of every five stories) means that only a quarter of stories focused on the campus. There were no campus opinion stories and just one campus governance story. There were few campus sports stories. General observation for the state is that publications that do not focus more on campus news tend to struggle more than those that do.
The publication was listed among those who tend to run photo-heavy layouts (three or more photos per story) when use of gallery multimedia might serve better.
The Cabrillo Voice published 21 stories over 12 weeks, about the same as last fall and well below last spring, despite having a longer publication window than each of those two terms. It averaged just 1.8 stories per week.
Strengths: More than three quarters of its stories (76.2 percent) were campus based; the rest focused on community. Half of its stories (52.4 percent) were campus news stories, which tied fifth highest percentage.
Weaknesses: There were no campus opinion stories and no campus sports stories. There were just two campus governance stories (one student government story and one administrative government story). A third of its stories contained in-story links, but just one each time, usually a contact link rather than a context link. It had no multimedia stories.
While the publication managed to post just under twice a week (26.2 percent), it had two gaps that averaged 14.0 days.
The College of the Canyons News distinguished itself as the leader in use of video stories. All but one of its 80 stories were built around video, most often with the text mirroring the narration of the story. It ranked fourth overall in use of multimedia. The 80 stories were more than double last fall’s total and eight times more than last spring. It’s weekly average of 6.7 stories were more than the state average.
In addition, the publication led all publications in covering community news with 44.4 percent of its stories community based.
Strengths: Obviously, its heavy use of video stands out, though because of its heavy reliance on video-with-text-mirroring-narration pattern limited the diversity of story styles.
The publication posted an average of three days per week (45.2 percent), or just over three times a week.
Weaknesses: Less than half of stories covered campus and there were few campus sports stories, campus opinion stories, and few campus governance stories (though, there WERE two).
Because of its repetitive story style, no stories contained in-text links, though there were opportunities for them. The publication is just one of two in the state with online stories but none with in-story links.
The Cerritos Talon Marks had 196 stories over 19 weeks for the spring term, equivalent to last fall and down just a tad from last spring. It had the third most stories in the state and its 10.3 average stories per week were sixth most.
Strengths: Well, 196 stories is a lot of stories! The publication’s 26 campus sports stories was the 11th most in the state, but the percentage devoted to campus sports ranked only 27th.
Talon Marks is one of the few publications that regularly posts audio stories, and it regularly runs transcripts with them, but in place of a story; that is okay but would be stronger with summary leads tacked on to them.
Weaknesses: The publication’s 48.1 percent posting pattern was strong (three-plus days a week) but was down markedly from previous terms. While three in five stories were campus related, that ranked in the bottom third in the state and was below the state average; part of that was its increase in covering non-campus sports. And it had just two campus governance stories: one student government and one faculty senate. The publication also runs more first-person feature stories (often labeled as opinion) than most publications.
Only a quarter of its stories (24.0 percent) of its stories had in-story links, but those that did had a healthy 4.6 average per story.
Multimedia stories saw a significant drop from the fall semester (19 vs. 38).
The Chabot Spectator saw a massive jump in the number of stories this spring compared to last fall. It posted 44 stories over 12 weeks, as compared to just 25 for the fall. It was a slight increase from last spring.
Strengths: With nearly seven in 10 stories were campus related, the 22.7 percent devoted to community stories was eighth highest. And its 43.2 percent feature stories were the sixth highest percentage.
Weaknesses: There are multiple growth areas for the Spectator. Start with regular posting of stories; it posted just 20.2 percent of possible days, less than twice a week. It had four excessive gaps of six or more days (avg. 10.5 days). More than half (52.3 percent) its posts were on Wednesdays, suggesting a print-centric approach to the online publication.
It had just three campus sports stories but also had three campus governance stories (one student governance and two “other” shared governance; it might want to investigate covering student government more and possible the board of trustees and faculty senate.
It ranked in the middle of the pack with campus opinion stories; covering more campus governance might result in more campus opinion stories. There were no multimedia stories, one of a dozen publications without multimedia of any kind.
Just one in five stories (20.5 percent) had in-story links and it averaged just 1.3 links per story; more than three-quarters of stories with links (77.8 percent) had just one link.
The Chaffey Breeze posted 35 stories over 20 weeks, down a bit from the fall term and nearly a third of last spring. Nearly two-thirds of stories (62.9 percent) were neither campus nor community related, fifth highest percentage.
Strengths: The publication made a concerted effort to post on Fridays, and for the most part succeeded. But if it wants to increase impact aiming for more than once a week and covering more campus stories —it doesn’t have to sacrifice its general stories to do so— might help. Just over half (51.4 percent) of stories were campus related.
Weaknesses: Aside from lacking a campus connection with a high percentage of unrelated stories, “neither” stories also tend to exclude face-to-face interviews reporters need to develop their reporting skills. The publication should consider starting with more coverage of campus governance and campus sports.
While multimedia stories have appeared in the publication in the past, there were none this term.
Because of its stated goal of trying to post just once a week, the publication’s 8.7 percent posting pattern was one of the lowest in the state.
The Citrus Clarion posted 85 stories over 20 weeks, a substantial increase from previous semesters and a longer publication window.
Strengths: The publication had healthy campus governance coverage (n.11, seventh most) that focused mainly on student government. Nearly half of its stories (49.4 percent) were campus news stories, ninth highest in the state.
The publication improved its posting patterns to just over twice a week.
Weaknesses: The publication is low on opinion stories of all kinds, especially campus opinion. While campus governance coverage was good, it could expand to cover the board of trustees and faculty senate more.
The Contra Costa Advocate published 47 stories over 13 weeks, an improvement over previous springs, but down significantly from last fall. More than a third of its stories (34.0 percent, sixth highest) focused away from campus and community. The 47 stories represented about half the state average.
Strengths: While the publication ranked eighth in opinion stories (23.4 percent), most were non-campus reviews.
Weaknesses: Because of its high ratio of non-campus opinion stories, fewer than half of stories (44.7 percent) related to campus, which was among the lowest percentages in the state. It had no campus opinion stories and just four campus sports stories and just four campus governance stories —all of them board of trustees stories with one being a non-English translation of another story. It had just one multimedia story, a photo gallery. There were five excessive gaps of six or more days (avg. 9.3). Its posting percentage of 19.8 percent also ranked in the lower third statewide.
The Cosumnes River Connection had one of its most prolific semesters since the study began. It posted 99 stories over 17 weeks.
Strengths: Its 93.9 percent of stories devoted to campus were the fourth highest percentage and its 25.3 percent devoted to sports coverage registered ninth highest overall and sixth highest for campus sports. Its 11.1 percent campus opinion stories tied for third highest and the 11 campus opinion stories tied for seventh most. Its 52.9 percent posting percentage was the 11th highest.
Weaknesses: One of its weakest areas was in campus governance, with just three stories; it may want to take a closer look at campus governance in the future. It also had just seven multimedia stories, all photo galleries.
The Cuesta Cuestonian probably saw the largest improvement in the number of stories for a semester. It leaped to 52 stories, more than double previous spring semesters and even a significant leap from a prolific fall semester.
Strengths: Nearly a quarter of its stories (23.1 percent) focused on the local community, seventh highest in the state. And it focused heavily on news stories over other genres with 59.6 percent, eighth highest. Still, it fit in 7.7 percent devoted to campus opinion, 11th highest.
Weaknesses included low attention to campus sports (just four stories, 36th). And campus governance was low (just three, tied for 24th and half the state average).
The Cypress Chronicle posted 58 stories over 14 weeks, a significant drop from last spring and lower than the fall semester output, even though its publication window was one week less than last fall.
Strengths: The publication focused heavily on campus news (63.8 percent, fifth highest), especially campus-related news (62.1 percent, third highest). It also registered seven highest in percent devoted to campus sports (24.1 percent).
Weaknesses: There were no campus opinion stories, just three campus governance stories (all student government) and three multimedia stories (all issuu.com posts). It ranked in the middle of the pack with campus sports stories (26th), though its percentage devoted to campus sports was good.
DeAnza LaVoz posted 182 stories this spring over 22 weeks, significantly more than previous semesters, especially since it continued to publish beyond the June 15 cutoff for this study. The publication ranked sixth highest in the total number of stories. Its 8.3 stories per week results in the 10th highest weekly average.
Strengths: The publication spread its stories across a variety of genres, focusing more on news than others two to one. It improved its already strong campus governance coverage and ranked third most campus governance stories (n. 23) across the state. And its 69 multimedia stories, mostly photo galleries and videos, were the fifth most. Its 58.4 percent posting percentage was sixth most, though it had the distinction of having the most actual posting days of any publication thanks to its long publication window.
Weaknesses: The publication has few weaknesses, though earlier in the semester it was correcting already published stories at a higher rate than most, indicating an editing process weakness. It also could improve story presentation when presenting multimedia (too many “naked” presentations with no text). And with more than a third (35.7 percent) of stories posted on weekends suggests a publishing process weakness.
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The College of the Desert Chaparral published 42 stories over 19 weeks. This was more than each of the fall and last spring semesters but also represented a longer publication window than recent semesters. Nearly half of its stories (47. 6 percent) were community focused, which was the third highest percentage in the state; it ranked near the bottom of the state in campus coverage.
Strengths: The high percentage devoted to community coverage gives the publication a window into being relevant in the non-campus desert community. Its 20 multimedia stories (mostly photo galleries), ranked 13th.
Weaknesses: The publication could distinguish itself in both community and on campus with more campus coverage, especially with campus sports (none), campus opinion (none), and campus governance (just two). The publication could also improve its posting frequency (just 18.0 percent) and reduce its nine excessive gaps (avg. 9.8 days).
The Diablo Valley Inquirer published 61 stories over 12 weeks, down significantly from 84 last spring, but up from 45 last fall (there is an error on the attached chart that shows just five stories for fall).
Strengths: Many of the publication’s stories were classified as news features, which resulted in it tying for forth most devoted to features. Many of its other ranks fell in the middle of the pack or lower. When it came to story localization ranks, there was parity: campus 26th, community 27th, and neither 25th.
Weaknesses: There was just one campus sports story, just one campus governance story, no multimedia stories, and just two campus opinion stories.
The East Los Angeles Campus News published 104 stories over 21 weeks, 13th most in the state. The publication is one of the most obvious examples of a print-centric publication: it posts infrequently (15.6 percent of possible days, 45th) and when it does it tends to post a lot of stories at once (nine excessive gaps, 11.1 days average); it followed those gaps with excessive posts averaging 10.0 stories each time; few of its stories have in-story links, despite obvious opportunities. Most posts are made late in the week: 35.7 percent on Thursdays and 28.6 percent on weekends.
Strengths: It does a good job covering campus governance (n.9, tied for eight most, and ranks eight most devoted to campus sports (21.4 percent). It devotes 22.9 percent of its stories to opinion stories, though most of those are reviews; it is middle of the pack with campus opinion.
Weaknesses: The most obvious weakness is the print-centric publishing patten, but the publication also had no multimedia stories. That and its mostly link-less stories would also indicate, the staff puts little effort into the online publication as a separate publication.
The El Camino Union published 253 stories over 17 weeks, the second most in the state and a major increase from an already leading number from previous semesters. Its 14.9 stories per week average is the highest in the state. It also published more often than most publications with 83 actual posting days (tied for second most) and a 69.7 percent average, the highest in the state.
Strengths: Considering that the Union also continues to publish a print edition (and a magazine), it stands as one of the models in the state in mixing print and online as partner, but separate, publications. It led all publication in campus governance (n.59) and finished second in the number of campus sports stories (n.53). Its 17 campus opinion stories were third most by a publication. It also ranked seventh in use of multimedia (n.41). It was strong in use of in-story links, especially as the semester progressed, and held the record for the most links in one story: 48.
Weaknesses: A large percentage of its stories come near the end of the semester when it folds in its magazine and final projects from its multimedia reporting course. And because it still focuses a lot on print publications, a lot of posts come late night or overnight. Its 12.3 percent of stories being posted between midnight and 6 a.m. was the third most posted in that range. The publication proudly focuses on campus stories (87.0 percent, ninth), except when it doesn’t at the end of the semester; many of its multimedia class stories focus on community. It also has a high number of stories with three or more photos outside of a gallery widget.
The Foothill Script is a strong example of a publication flourishing online just a year after it was on its print-edition deathbed a year ago. It published 52 stories over 21 weeks, approaching double its fall output.
Strengths: It ranked eight highest in “neither” stories (30.8 percent) and ninth highest in feature stories (40.4 percent). It was 14th in percentage devoted to campus opinion (5.8 percent), though in raw numbers its three campus opinion stories tied for 20th.
Weaknesses: It ranked low in number and percentage of campus sports with just three stories and had just three campus governance stories and two multimedia stories. It ranked in the bottom third in posting percentage and eight excessive gaps between posts, averaging 8.8 days each.
The publication might consider looking for more campus stories, especially sports and governance stories, to strength its coverage; doing so might also help with its posting frequency and help eliminate gaps.
The Fresno City College RamPage continued a pattern of increasing output semester over semester with an even 100 stories over 17 weeks, about 10 percent more than last fall and nearly a third more than last spring.
Strengths: It 12 campus governance stories were (mostly administration and student government) were sixth most in the state and its nine campus opinion stories were 10th most.
Weaknesses: The publication has few obvious weaknesses, though if it wants to continue to grow it might consider covering its board of trustees and faculty senate more. Its 35.3 percent posting percentage is solid enough (more than twice a week), but it could improve. That might also reduce its three gaps (8.0 average), and three excessive posts (9.7 average).
The Fullerton Hornet posted 125 stories over 21 weeks. The publication had a strong campus connection (64.2 percent) but clearly reached out to feature community businesses; it ranked ninth highest in community coverage.
Strengths: It is strong in campus sports coverage and its 28 campus sports stories were ninth most. It ranked sixth in number of multimedia stories (n.45), mostly with photo galleries, though that number might be skewed by its use of social media applications to create videos: many of its story-embedded multimedia did not display properly in some browsers (especially Safari on MacOx). It posts frequently and its 51.7 percent posting pattern was 12th highest and its 76 actual posting days tied for fifth most. It is strong in adding in-story links to its posts
Weaknesses: The publication had just one campus opinion story and three campus governance stories. While strong in campus stories, it might look to increase its campus governance coverage and to pay attention to campus issues in its opinion stories. Most of its community stories were features rather than news.
The Glendale el Vaquero was dormant for most of the first half of the semester but eventually posted 54 stories over 13 weeks. This was more than double the number of stories of each of the previous two semesters. It ranked highest in the state devoted to campus stories (96.3 percent, or all but two stories). It focused on feature stories over other types with 57.4 percent feature stories.
Weaknesses: The publication had just four campus sports stories and one campus governance story (a feature story, naturally). It had no multimedia stories. An while it shows up in the in-story-links list as doing well, most of those links were contact inks added to the end of stories. It’s posting percentage of 19.8 percent was among the lowest in the state. There were five gaps, averaging 10.0 days.
The publication might consider 1) posting online earlier in the semester, 2) publishing more frequently, 3) covering more campus governance, 4) covering more campus sports, and 5) adding more online value with in-story links and/or multimedia.
The Grossmont Summit appeared to have struggled mightily this semester. It posted just 21 stories, or about half of its fall output, over 14 weeks. It had two large gaps between posts of 45 days and 35 days.
Strengths: The publication’s 90.5 percent devoted to campus stories was seventh highest and its 57.1 percent news stories was ninth highest. And because all of those news stories were campus focused it ranked fourth in stories devoted to campus news.
Weaknesses: The drop in output and the huge mid-semester gaps were the most concerning weaknesses. The publication also had few campus sports stories (n.2), campus governance stories (n.2) and multimedia stories (n.2). It’s posting percentage (6.1 percent) was one of the lowest in the state. The publication also continued to use, almost exclusively, label style headlines rather than abbreviated sentences.
The Los Angeles City College Collegian had no online stories this semester as it continues to have no online presence.
The Los Angeles Valley Star published 40 stories over 11 weeks. While this was an improvement over the fall semester output of 33, it is down significantly from last spring’s 55 and less than a quarter of the publication’s output three years ago.
Strengths: A quarter of the publication’s content was opinion (seventh highest) and its 10.0 devoted to campus opinion was eighth highest.
Weaknesses: The publication is showing a steady decline in output over the last three years. Its seven campus sports stories were below its normal capacity, there was only one campus governance story (announcing student government elections), and no multimedia of any kind. It published just under twice a week (20.8 percent) and had four excessive gaps between posts that average 11.3 days.
Depending on what else may be going on with the publication, areas of growth are evident: publish more frequently to keep both staff and reader interest high, consider covering more campus governance issues, and think more of how to present the online publication as a standalone publication with in-story links and with multimedia stories.
The Peralta Citizen at Laney College published just 21 stories over 18 weeks this spring, about half of what it produced in each of the last two semesters.
Strengths: The publication focuses on campus stories and its 95.2 percent devoted to campus stories was third highest percentage in the state. Its 90.5 percent devoted to campus news was the highest in the state. Its eight campus governance stories (mostly covering its board of trustees) tied for 10th most. Most of its stories (95.2 percent) have in-story links where it averaged 10.8 links per story.
Weaknesses: As strong as the publication was in its key wheelhouse —as a watchdog for its board of trustees— this represented a new low output for the publication. In fact, covering the board and administration appears to be the major or only focus for the publication; it traditionally does little to cover other campus events, including sports. It lacked opinion coverage this semester as well and rarely runs multimedia stories. The publication published infrequently (15.1 percent compared to its more normal 33-ish percent); it had nine excessive gaps that averaged 10.2 days.
It clearly was a down semester for this normally scrappy publication.
The Los Positas Express continued an uphill trajectory in posting 88 stories over 20 weeks, due in large part to an active sports staff, which accounted for 42.2 percent of all content.
Strengths: Clearly, sports was a strength, so much that it almost is a weakness for the overall publication; most semesters sports coverage is closer to a third of content (the state average is closer to 18-20 percent). The publication was first in all sports coverage and since all sports stories were campus related it was first in percentage devoted to campus sports. While it had a lot of stories (88.6 percent) with in-story links, half those were just one-link stories where the link was reporter contact information added to the bottom of the story.
Weaknesses: The publication could use more non-sports stories, more campus governance stories, and more multimedia; multimedia could even become a goal for the otherwise prolific sprots staff. And while the in-story link ratio is high, relatively few stories had value-added links.
The Long Beach Viking News published 184 stories (fifth most) over 18 weeks, but that total actually marked a significant drop over each of the previous two semesters where the publication climbed over 200. It 10.2 stores per week were fifth most, as well.
Strengths: While the publication is solid throughout, its campus-focused editorials routinely stood out; they not only pointed out campus issues but often suggest solutions. Its 44 campus sports stories were fifth most. Its 64.7 percent posting percentage was second highest in the state.
Weaknesses: While the publication holds its own with multimedia stories —it is one of the leaders in use of audio stories— it missed out on many opportunities by running just two photos with stories: in past semesters it was one of the leaders in using three-or-more photos outside of a gallery widget; it has cut back on the use of photos to two.
The Los Medanos Experience had a solid semester with 171 stories (seventh most) over 16 weeks. This was a significant increase over each of the last two semesters and brought it back in line with earlier semester outputs. Its 10.7 stories per week were the fourth most in the state. It continued to devote more than a third of its content to non-campus/non-community issues, but man of those stories were reviews and Trump commentary.
Strengths: The 39.8 percent devoted to opinion stories, a large part non-campus related, was the highest in the state; a respectable 11.1 percent tied for third highest in the state; its 19 campus opinion posts were second most.
Weaknesses: Because it relies so heavily on non-campus opinion stories, only 59.1 percent of stories relate locally, ranking the publication near the bottom in the state. It also ranks low (46th) in news stories of all localizations. The publication was one of a few in the state that regularly posted editorial cartoons, but they always were published separate from any editorials and often come weeks after they probably ran in a print edition. More stories could use in-story links.
The Monterey Peninsula Lobo News did not publish any online stories this spring and likely is a dead publication.
The Moorpark Reporter appears to have had a rough school year. It published 30 stories over 15 weeks, equivalent to the fall semester, but that total represented about half what was producing a year ago.
Strengths: The publication devoted 33.3 percent to sprots coverage (second most), but a third of those sports stories were non-campus; just 23.3 percent (tied for 11th highest) were campus sports. Most stories (96.7 percent) had in-story links (11.9 average per story).
Weaknesses: There were no campus governance stories and no multimedia stories. The publication’s 17.1 percent posting percentage was one of the lowest in the state.
The Ventura Community College District decided years ago to consolidate its three journalism programs into just one at Moorpark, making the decline in this publication one to watch closely.
The Moreno Valley College Herald had no online stories this school year and likely is a dead publication.
The Mt. San Antonio Sac Media published 68 stories over 15 weeks, up from last fall, but less than half last spring’s output.
Strengths: The publication’s 53.3 percent posting percentage was ninth highest in the state. More than three-quarters (76.5 percent) of posts were in the morning, but the publication was not as consistent at publishing exactly at 8 a.m. as in previous semesters.
Weaknesses: SacMedia has always devoted a larger share than most to community news and other news not related to campus. It ranked 10th in “neither” news (29.4 percent) and near the bottom in that state in campus-related stories (55.9 percent, 43rd). While its coverage of campus sports was above state average, it had no campus governance stories and just eight multimedia stories. It was also in the bottom third in the state in campus opinion stories. It could use more stories with more links.
The Mt. San Jacinto Talon News published 65 stories over 19 weeks. While this was down a third from last spring (n.99), it was a good semester compared to most others since the study began. A large percentage (43.1 percent) of stories were non-campus/non-community stories, which was the third highest percentage in the state. It is also strong in use of feature stories (61.5 percent, second highest).
Weaknesses: There were no campus opinion stories and no campus governance stories. The publication could improve its campus connection with more campus stories; its 20.0 percent devoted to campus stories was among the lowest percentages in the state.
The Orange Coast Report published 189 stories (fourth most) over 17 weeks, approaching double its output for fall and one if its highest outputs in the years of this study. Its weekly average of 11.1 stories was third best.
Strengths: The publication focuses mostly on campus stories (93.1 percent, tied for fifth highest), especially campus sports (29.1 percent, second highest); its 55 campus sports stories were the most of any publication. It ranked second overall in use of multimedia with a mixture of videos and photo galleries. Its 51.9 percent campus news stories tied for sixth highest percentage. Its 56.3 percent posting percentage was eighth highest. It had a decent percentage of stories with in-story links (37.0), but nearly half (48.6 percent) had only one link.
Weaknesses: Perhaps the publication’s biggest weaknesses were few campus opinion stories (n.3) and fews campus governance stories (n. 5, mostly board of trustees). Despite its strong posting percentage, it had four excessive gaps that average 10.2 days each
The Palomar Telescope published 167 stories (eighth most), by far its best output in the last five years; it was a 75.8 percent increase over last fall and nearly the same over last spring. Sports played a big role in the increase. The 28.1 percent devoted to campus sports tied for third highest and its 47 campus sports stories were third most. Its 9.8 stories per week average was eighth best.
Other strengths: The publication’s 10.2 percent campus opinion stories was the seventh highest percentage, and its 17 campus opinion stories tied for third most. It publishes frequently and its 62.2 percent posting percentage fourth best.
Weaknesses: The publication’s sports coverage was commendable, but that almost eclipsed campus news coverage. While half its stories had in-story links, a third of those had just one link. It had seven campus governance stories, but most of them focused of the board of trustees; other campus governance should be covered as well.
The Pasadena Courier led all publications in the number of stories: it posted a whopping 271 over 23 weeks (one of the longest publication windows of the semester). It was the publication’s strongest semester in five years. Its 11.8 stories per week average was second best.
Strengths: There is much to admire in the Courier, as evidenced by its outstanding Eaton Fire coverage even before the formal semester began. It ran a lot of opinion stories (25.1 percent, sixth highest), but few of the opinions were focused on campus issues; the Courier complained about Trump Administration actions perhaps more than any other publication in the state. It tied for 10th in campus governance stories (n.8, mostly board of trustees) and 12th in the number of campus sports stories (n.25).
Weaknesses: While the Courier website held its own as an online publication it clearly had a print-centric feel to it. The most obvious example was its dearth of multimedia, especially when it had among the best candidates for photo galleries in a widget; instead, it ran long scrolls of photos (the longest being 71 photos). Its posting pattern suggests a print-centric approach, too. Its posting percentage was 27.3 percent, placing it in the lower third of the state. It had just three excessive gaps, but the averaged 19.7 days, the longest being 43 days. It had 13 excessive-post days that averaged 12.4 posts. It also had one of the lower percentages devoted to campus stories (59.8 percent), but that may have been a result of competing community news.
With a little more effort, the Courier could be one of the top online publications, it is close now.
The Pierce Roundup ran 133 stories (14th most) over 14 weeks, and its 9.5 weekly stories average was ninth best. Still, this was a significant decline from last fall and last spring.
Strengths: The Roundup was just about the only publication to regularly run pro-con opinion packages and it tended to focus on campus issues when it did. Its 25 campus opinion stories were the most in the state and its 18.8 percent devoted to campus opinion was the highest percentage in the state; it ranked third in percentage of overall opinion. Its 14 campus governance stories were fifth most and showed a good spread of governance groups covered.
Weaknesses: The publication has a print-centric feel to it, as evidenced by a weak posting percentage pattern (24.5 percent, less than twice a week, 35th lowest) and its seven excessive-post days that averaged 10.4 posts. It also had five excessive gaps (over 14 weeks) that averaged 7.8 days. It was weak on use of multimedia (two video stories) and the publication could use more stories with in-story links. The pro-con presentations would be enhanced with regular mutal linkbacks.
Rio Hondo’s el Paisano had no online stories this semester and just a small handful for the entire school year. It continued to publish in print.
The Riverside Viewpoints published 96 stories over 21 weeks. This was a few stories more than last fall and approaching double last spring. The publication spread its localization around; strong campus sports and community coverage lowered the campus percentage to one of the lowest in the state.
Strengths: By far, the Viewpoints’ biggest strength is its campus sports coverage. Its 25 campus sports stories tied for sixth most in the state and its 28.3 percent campus sports coverage was seventh highest. Its 57.1 percent posting percentage was eighth best.
Weaknesses: The campus sports coverage nearly eclipsed news coverage on campus. Its one campus opinion story and one campus governance story resulted in low ranks in those categories.
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The Sacramento City College Express published 75 stories over 16 weeks, a nearly 50 percent increase from last fall and last spring.
Strengths: In addition to a strong 74.7 percent of stories being campus related, the publication also had strong community coverage (20.0 percent, 10th highest). Three out five stories had in-story links, averaging 3.7 links. It was near the middle of the pack with its three campus governance stories and with its 19 multimedia stories (all photo galleries). It also published nearly half (48.2 percent) of possible days in its 16 weeks.
Weaknesses: It had just two campus opinion stories and just three campus sports stories.
The publication is one of two that routinely ran what they call “photo of the day,” though there are not photos of the day every day. Still, the publication relied less on just a caption with the photo and ran short stories with the photos more often.
The Saddleback Lariat ran 70 stories over 16 weeks, equivalent to last fall and about 50 percent more than last spring. It liked to run community-related and “neither” stories, so it ranked near the bottom in the state with campus related stories. Its 34.3 percent devoted to general stories was fifth highest.
Weaknesses: The publication ran just two campus opinion stories, seven campus sports stories, one campus governance story (an announcement of upcoming elections). There were no multimedia stories. The publication might benefit from reporting closer to home.
The San Diego City College City Times ran 106 stories over 17 weeks, down a bit from fall, but typical when compared to other semesters. Most stories were campus related, and its 95.3 percent devoted to campus stories was second most. It also favored news stories over other types and its 66.0 percent news stories was third highest.
Strengths: In addition to strong campus news coverage (64.0 percent, second highest), the publication posts frequently; its 60.5 percent posting percentage was fifth highest. It also was ninth most active in use of multimedia using a mix of audio, video, and photo galleries. It ranked in the top third in campus sports coverage. Nearly four out of five (79.2 percent) of its stories had in-story links (avg. 3.3).
Weaknesses: The publication posted few opinion articles, much less campus opinion articles.
The San Diego Mesa College Mesa Press published 68 stories over 15 weeks, a drop from 84 in the fall, but still an 83.7 percent increase over the previous spring. Nearly a third (32.4 percent) of its stories were neither campus nor community related, but most of that was because of movie and other reviews. The high incidence of movie reviews resulted in 27.9 percent being devoted to opinion stories, fourth highest and about twice as much as the state average. Its 23.5 percent devoted to campus sports was 10th highest.
Weaknesses: There was just one campus governance story. And while the publication had nine multimedia stories, five were its long running “Something Newsy” audio story podcasts where reporters read the news from the print publication. There is value in this exercise, but the staff might consider expanding to a wider multimedia approach after all this time.
The San Francisco City College Guardsman appears to have had a struggling semester with its online publication. While it eventually published 73 stories over 19 weeks (more if you count posts after June 15), as many as half of the stories were posted late, that is three or more days after they were created. The online publication has a print-centric feel.
Strengths: The publication not only did a good job covering key campus stories, it almost considered the city/county to be part of the campus community and reported on key community campus issues. It is strong in campus opinion coverage (15.1 percent, second highest). It had decent coverage of campus governance (n. 7, tied for 15th, all board of trustee coverage).
Weaknesses: The most obvious weakness is its slowness to post stories online. In addition to the most “late” stories, it published only 15. 8 percent of the time (one of the lowest percentages), and had seven excessive gaps in 19 weeks, each averaging nearly two weeks (13.0 days). Adding to the print-centric feel of the publication was the fact that there were no multimedia stories.
The San Joaquin Delta Collegian145 stories (12th most) over 19 weeks, solidly equivalent to each of the last two semesters. Its 7.6 stories per week average was also 12th most.
Strengths: While not a leader, the publication was solid in its campus sports (15th), campus governance (tied for 10th), and multimedia stories (18th).
Weaknesses: The publication liked to run a lot of non-campus related features, especially holiday related features, they would be stronger if tied into campus more. It could also work to reduce its excessive gaps (five, 11.0 days each), followed by excessive post days of six or more stories (seven, 9.1 average). More of its stories could use more in-story links. It also used one of the most confusing photo gallery widgets in the state, one that obscured photos with text overwrites.
The San Jose City College City Times published 22 stories over 11 weeks, down significantly from last fall, but up slightly from last spring.
Strengths: The publication had the seventh highest percentage (27.3 percent) devoted to sprots, but few of those were campus sports stories.
Weaknesses: There was just one campus governance story, no campus opinion stories and no multimedia stories. Few stories (n.3) had in-story links and two of those had just one link. It published infrequently (13.0 percent, one of the lowest rates in the state), suggesting a print-centric approach. It had just two excessive gaps, but one of those was 48 days (a month and a half!) long.
San Jose City has struggled to keep journalism alive at the campus for many years. It could benefit from covering more campus events and issues in a timelier fashion. It could start with regular sports and campus governance coverage. Aim for posting stories a minimum of twice a week, every week. More robust publication of stories might better address student engagement and address its other problem.
Santa Ana College’s el Don published 52 stories over 16 weeks, which was a significant decrease from last fall and other recent semesters. The publications focus on news feature stories was strong, which ate into the remainder left for regular news stories.
Strengths: The publication’s 19.2 percent devoted to campus sports was 15th best. In most other categories it ranked in the middle third. Most of its five campus governance stories focused on its board of trustees. It also covered community news quite well.
El Don would benefit from more multimedia stories and a wider approach to campus governance; indeed, covering student government and its faculty senate would help reverse a drop in the number of stories it does cover. Doing that might help it find more campus opinion story topics. Few online stories had in-story links. In past semesters it has been an innovator in non-traditional multimedia, but with articles that enhance print more than add an interactive experience.
The Santa Barbara Channels published 153 stories over 15 weeks, a strong showing that ranked 11th in the state. Its 10.2 weekly story average ranked 10th. But where the Channels rules is in campus governance coverage; usually it ranks first in the state in campus governance coverage but dropped to second this spring with 28 stories.
Strengths: In addition to its strong campus governance coverage, it also ranked eighth in use of multimedia (mostly with photo galleries, though it often has more video than it did this spring). As one of the most senior online-only programs in the state, it has learned to publish frequently and its 62.9 percent posting percentage was third best. It also learned long ago to include in-story links and three-fourths (75.2 percent) of its storis have links.
The publication had few obvious weaknesses.
The Santa Monica Corsair published 153 stories over 15 weeks, the 11th most in the state. Its 10.2 stories per week average was seventh best. Two Corsair distinctions are its use of photo galleries to enhance stories in 42.5 percent of it stories and its coverage of community news.
Strengths: A causal look at the publication would suggest that it covers community stories more than campus stories, but that is because of the many leading community stories, especially downtown Los Angeles protests. Actually, it covered more campus news than community news, but it ranked fourth in coverage of the community. It ranked first in use of multimedia. It also ranked fourth in campus governance coverage, mostly covering student government. Some of the best news stories from the semester were by the Corsair.
Weaknesses: The publication has few obvious weaknesses, but perhaps the most glaring this spring was its dearth of campus opinion stories (n.1); indeed, it had few opinion stories at all (n.3).
The Santa Rosa Oak Leaf published 160 stories over 22 weeks (one of the longest publication windows). The total was 10th most and showed a continual growth from previous semesters.
Strengths: The publication was one of the stronger overall publications in the state and it loved to cover community news along with its campus news. Its 28.1 percent of stories devoted to campus sports tied for the third highest percentage and its 45 campus stories were fourth most. One of its biggest strengths were its many multimedia stories; it ranked third with 83 stories. It published 53.2 percent of possible days (n.82, fourth most, 10th best average in the state). It tied for eighth in campus governance coverage (mostly student government) with nine stories.
Weaknesses: The publication had few obvious weaknesses. Broadening campus governance body coverage is a growth area. And while it meets the state average in in-story links it could do more.
Two years ago, the College of Sequoias Campus Journal was forced into a semester-long furlough but has been making a strong comeback since. This semester it published 82 stories over 18 weeks, equivalent to fall’s output almost double last spring.
Strengths: More than four out of five stories (84.1 percent) were campus related (13th highest). The publication also upped its game in posting stories by more than 100 percent over the last year; it posted 44.4 percent of possible days this spring.
Weaknesses: There were no campus opinion stories, just two campus governance stories and just two multimedia stories (photo galleries).
The publication has come back from dead nicely. It needs to focus on live news more than news feature and could start by covering its board, student government, and faculty senate. At some point it needs to look at the extras that distinguish an online publication from a print publication.
The Sierra College Roundhouse is a non-typical publication, by college design. It publishes magazine style only at the end of the semester. This year it had just four stories, released over a two-week pe
riod.
The population of stories is too small to determine strengths and weaknesses, though in future semesters it could feature campus stories more to build campus relevance.
The Skyline College Skyline View published 104 stories over 15 weeks, its strongest effort since this study began. The growth was more than 100 percent over last spring when it had just 46 stories.
Strengths: The publication was strong in use of opinion stories; its 29.8 percent devoted to opinion was second most. Five of 31 opinion stories were campus related. Its eight campus governance stories tied for 10th most. Its 24.0 percent devoted to campus sports tied for 12th highest percentage.
Weaknesses: The Skyline View would benefit from more campus focus, especially for its opinion stories. It might also look into adding more in-story links to its posts; it had just four stories with links and three of those had just one.
The Solano Pulse, a new publication that started late fall semester, published 51 stories over 17 weeks.
The publication holds its own as a new publication but has plenty of room for growth. Its first step might be to publish more frequently. Increasing sports coverage would help.
The Southwestern Sun continues to struggle as an online publication. It published 46 stories over 17 weeks, but for many of those weeks it was dormant, at one point for 75 days, or more than two months of the semester. A perennially strong print publication, it hasn’t yet figured out how to distinguish its online publication. Hint: Involve the student staff with the online publication more and set weekly goals for publishing. Nearly half (n.20) of its stories were published “late,” that is three or more days after they were created, suggesting a print-centric approach to publishing.
Strengths: In addition to strong content its 10.9 percent devoted to opinion stories was fifth highest.
Weaknesses: For a publication that can stand toe-to-toe with its campus governance, it could use more, regular and timely campus governance coverage. It could also benefit from regular and timely sport coverage. There were no multimedia stories and none of its stories had in-story links, one of just two online-active publications with none.
Appendix I
Calif. Community College
Student News Publications
Download a high rez version of this chart.
[1] Many publications list stories as opinion but really are feature stories.
[2] Each multimedia element was counted separately, so if a story had multiple elements, it was counted multiple times.
[3] Example studies include:
Tatman, Rachael. “English Word Frequency.” Kaggle, 6 Sept. 2017, www.kaggle.com/datasets/rtatman/english-word-frequency. Accessed June 19, 2025.
or
Biber, Douglas, Stig Johansson, Geoffrey Leech, Susan Conrad, and Edward Finegan. Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English. Longman, 1999.
[4] Lu, I. (2025, June 4). Cupertino erupts in a sea of pink petals - La Voz News. La Voz News. https://lavozdeanza.com/features/2025/06/04/cherry-blossom-festival/ (accessed June 22, 2025)
[5] Stewart, S. (2025, April 25). SBCC Mixtape. The Channels. https://www.thechannels.org/top-stories/2025/04/25/sbcc-mixtape/ (accessed June 22, 2025)
[6] Ramota, A. (n.d.). MLB logos: Guessing game. The Hornet. https://fchornetmedia.com/35863/inside-fullerton/mlb-logos-guessing-game/ (accessed June 22, 2025).
[7] Straus, D. (2025, March 3). VIDEO: City College men’s basketball ‘devastated’ after season ends in playoff loss to Cerritos. City Times. https://sdcitytimes.com/sports/2025/03/03/video-city-college-mens-basketball-devastated-after-season-ends-in-playoff-loss-to-cerritos/ (accessed June 22, 2025).
[8] Protester snatches sign from Born-Again Christian on campus. (2025, April 16). LBCC Viking News. https://lbccviking.com/2025/04/protester-snatches-sign-from-born-again-christian-on-campus (accessed June 22, 2025).
and
Hosang, D. (2025, April 15). Olympians dominate Eagles as San Diego Mesa College sweeps 2 game series vs. LA Mission. The Mesa Press. https://www.mesapress.com/sports/2025/04/15/olympians-dominate-eagles-as-san-diego-mesa-college-sweeps-2-game-series-vs-la-mission/ (accessed June 22, 2025).
[9] Kiek, Anastasia. Gallery: Letters in the landscape. The Courier. https://www.pcccourier.com/media/gallery-letters-in-the-landscape.html (accessed June 22, 2025).
[10] Gochez, K., & Gochez, K. (2025, June 11). Five mechanic shops to visit in the South Bay. El Camino College the Union. https://eccunion.com/features/2025/06/11/five-mechanic-shops-to-visit-in-the-south-bay/ (accessed June 22, 2025).
[11] A good tool for teaching meeting coverage is my CITY COUNCIL newsgathering simulation, which continues to be available free of charge at http://www.newswriting.org/citycouncil/. The simulation involves multiple story lines and multiple sources for information. It may be a bit dated, but it still provides students with basics of meeting coverage.
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