After years of the newspaper, yearbook and video teams being separate entities, next year, all three will be converging to form one media team: RHS media.
Converging Rider’s media teams was pushed by freshman Arron Mercer, next year’s executive producer of Rider Channel 22, the audio/visual news.
According to next year’s yearbook editor and junior Emma White, convergence is the collaboration of all three staffs.
“Convergence is going to be a really good thing for all three staffs,” White said. “We might go through some growing pains at first, but we’ll get a system going that works really well.”
Junior Kayla Holcomb, next year’s newspaper editor, says convergence will change the newspaper to a mainly online publication.
“It will go along with the ‘bring your own device’ policy,” Holcomb said. “We will be updating theriderchronicle.com/rhsmedia.com daily with new stories.”
Holcomb believes the convergence is a chance to cover more territory.
“The hope is that the students, staff, and parents will see our website as the go-to source for Rider news and events.”
In order to make the site a go-to source for information, the website will be a combination of stories, videos and pictures.
“It will be in an informative yet fun way that is easy for everyone to get the latest news,” Holcomb said. “By updating continually and not waiting for newspaper issues each month, Rider Media will have the latest news as soon as it occurs, just like any city or national newspaper or news station.”
Holcomb says that by further embracing technology, staff members who wish to pursue journalism after high school will be better prepared.
With the convergence, each staff is going into uncharted territory.
“I’m excited about us going online next year,” Holcomb said. “It’s a big job, but I can handle it. It will require me to be a strong, confident leader, which is my goal.”