The Chimes Day in the Life Article - Megan Martinez

The Chimes is Capital University's award-winning student publication that is run entirely by student and for students. Reporters range in terms of class, major, involvement on campus, etc., making it a place where everyone who is interested in news writing is encouraged to join.

We sat down with Chimes reporter and layout team member Megan Martinez to lead us through her schedule during print week.

Outside of her time in The Chimes, Megan is the President of Students of Latinx Affinity (SOLA), a Senator in Student Government, and a member of the dance team. She is in her sophomore year at Capital. Megan has been a reporter and layout team member since August 2023.

Once a month, The Chimes' print newspaper is produced and distributed to various campus buildings and the surrounding area.

As a part of the layout team, Megan is responsible for creating a page or multiple pages from a blank document in InDesign to a ready-to-publish newspaper page. The paper is distributed on Thursday, so in the days before publication, the layout team works together to make sure the reporters' stories look appealing in the print edition.

Megan says, "What layout is is we lay out the stories and have them fit all together into one page. We make it look all nice with pictures and just how much story there is, so it makes it more appealing to actually read the newspaper."

Pages are planned on a white board in the Chimes Lab, where individual stories are chosen for each page, layout editors are assigned their page to work on, and pages are "checked off" once they are completed and have been checked for perfection.

Megan shows an example of a page she worked on for the most recent print, working on aligning the text and inserting pictures.

Throughout the school year, The Chimes sends the paper into national and state conferences for the chance to win awards. Megan says, "We send our actual news papers into the conferences to submit ourselves for awards."

As Megan has become more confident in her abilities as a layout member and reporter, she has found herself writing hard-hitting stories that are included in the print newspaper and doing the layout page for the front page of the paper.