| Thursday, October 30, 2008 | Opelika, Alabama |
Vol. 1, No. 1 |
Community newspaper makes debut in Opelika
By OPELIKA OBSERVER STAFF
A new weekly newspaper covering the people, businesses and government of Opelika published its first issue today.
The Opelika Observer is the brainchild of local investors who wanted a community owned and operated newspaper that would devote its entire focus to the Opelika area.
Jayson Hill, executive editor of the Observer, said Charles Whatley was the investor who originally came to him and asked if he would consider being the editor and business manager of a new Opelika newspaper.
“That was back at the beginning of September, and the paper did not even have a name and only had two or three financial backers,” Hill said.
“Events never even gave me a chance to say no. I got swept up in the moment and the enthusiasm everyone had for a paper that would serve just the Opelika area, and do it in a manner the city really deserved.”
Hill said the name of the paper is inspired from an earlier time in Opelika history.
“Henry Stern, one of Opelika's most avid historians, told us about a paper that was published in Opelika back in the 1870s and early 1880s,” he said. “The paper was called The Opelika Observer. The name just seemed to stick from that point on. We ended up dropping ‘The' and went with simply Opelika Observer.”
The Observer is looking for news from all over Opelika and Hill said he encourages citizens to send in pictures from events throughout the community.
While Tess Hollis, the paper's associate editor, Hill and regular columnists will be writing original news and taking pictures for the paper, the Observer wants to encourage civic groups, schools, governmental entities and businesses to send information and pictures from both their upcoming events and those events that have already taken place.
All news submitted for consideration should be sent to the Opelika Observer via e-mail to: opelikaobserver@att.net.
It is requested that text be in Microsoft Word format, while pictures can be submitted in any of the standard graphics formats.
News should arrive by noon on Mondays to be eligible for publication in the following Thursday's edition.
The Opelika Observer offices are located at 216 S. 8th Street, in what many local people call “the old Woolworth's building.”
The building most recently has been divided into small office suites suitable for housing small companies like the Opelika Observer.
“The Opelika Observer offices are a base for me and Tess Hollis as we cover the news and layout the paper each week,” Hill said. “It is also where the advertising sales staff of Elizabeth Roberts, marketing director, and advertising sales representatives Doug Horn and Leroy Stewart, returns to work their magic putting together the ads that fund our continued existence. Actual printing of the paper and preparing it for mailing is accomplished off-site.”
The Opelika Observer publishes each week and will come to subscribers in their Thursday mail.
A 52-issue subscription costs $10 for residents of Lee County and $20 for subscribers outside the county.
In addition, the Opelika Observer will have paper distribution boxes scattered throughout the city with papers available for 25 cents.
Auburn University students lend hand in Opelika Observer
By AUBURN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
Opelika Observer
Seven students from the Auburn University journalism program can now add starting a community newspaper to their list of accomplishments.
The Auburn University journalism students — Teronica Gaiter, Emily Hix, Hope Holland, Krista Leonard, Lisa Marshall, Pete Riley and Kate Winford — spent the first part of their fall semester helping start the Opelika Observer from scratch.
“We are all part of a newspaper management class that divided students into three groups to either help start a newspaper or help out a newspaper having trouble,” Leonard said.
“We were chosen to work with the Opelika Observer and to start up a weekly newspaper that would really be about the community it serves.”
The group spent countless hours meeting with investors and the editor to plan a way to reach out to the Opelika community through a weekly newspaper. Their tasks included coming up with ideas about marketing, design and content.
“We spent a lot of time on the design of the paper,” Marshall said. “We came up with the interlocking O's as a way of representing how close knit the community is. We tried to create a design that was modern, yet classic, in order to attract both young and old readers.”
The students said the purpose of the design also was to brand the newspaper so it would be easily recognized.
“We wanted to give the paper a unique design,” Hix said. “It was important to our team for people to recognize the Opelika Observer, as well as create something that could be used on a Web page.”
In addition to working on the design, the group came up with a correspondent packet the paper could hand out to people who were interested in writing stories.
“We worked on a community packet and guidelines for community writers because the investors and the editor hope to have community members contribute to the articles in each publication,” Holland said.
“The packet included writing tips and techniques to create an easy and helpful way for outside writers to work on stories. The Opelika Observer wants to inform the community as best as possible, and who better to do so than its own community members.”
But the students didn't just help the paper — the paper helped them, too.
“Getting out to Opelika and meeting with the people behind the Observer was mutually rewarding,” Riley said. “As much as we learned about what goes into starting a newspaper, they learned just as much, or more, about new journalism techniques we brought from our Auburn University classes.”
Gaiter said the help from an editor who had an open mind about the students help taught them a lot.
“Mr. Hill worked with us, but he did not put a limit on what we could do with the project, which was great for us,” Gaiter said. “He taught us the basic tools of running and starting a newspaper. Those tools Mr. Hill taught us will come in handy for us whether we decide to manage a newspaper one day. Without his help and input, we could not have started and enjoyed the project as much as we did.”
The students agreed the paper will be a good way to reach out to the community.
“Our group's hope is this paper will not only become a trusted resource for years to come, but will be meaningful to the citizens of Opelika,” Winford said. “We feel honored to be a part of something so important to the community.”
