Some people only think of The Cypress once a month, when they’re handed a 24-page issue at 8 a.m. as they trudge drowsily to their A-block. They might glance at the front page, read a few headlines, perhaps peruse an article or two. What they don’t see, though—and what, we admit, has been held secret from most—is the behind-the-scenes: ethical dilemmas, business strategy, inter-staff relations and the long, bumpy road from pitch to print.
So, we are metaphorically opening the Press room’s doors through this new monthly column to offer you an inside view of The Cypress. Come on in, take a look around!
As busy high school students running a newspaper in our little free time, we know that everything will not always be perfect. A memorable example is last year when, instead of printing “public transportation” in a caption, we accidentally (and very unfortunately) printed “pubic transportation.”
We often picture that whenever a reader notes a mistyped name or a word missing from an article, their perception of our paper’s quality and credibility tanks. The fewer errors, the better. We forget that beyond inadvertently inappropriate typos and other imperfections, our staff works hard to uphold values that are unquantifiable, mostly invisible and thus imperfectible, yet ever so important. These values—journalistic integrity, equitable representation and enthusiasm for hard-hitting journalism—are not seen by our readers; instead, they are felt.
Journalistic integrity is what makes our readers know we are a credible source. Knowing that all of our quotations are truthful, that our articles are free from conflicts of interest and that our writing is not AI-generated or enhanced, readers can trust that our pursuit of the truth is valid.
Our position as a community-wide open forum and our push for contributed pieces serve our overall goal of representation. Community members all have the opportunity to air their grievances, propose their solutions and let their voices be heard so that our paper does not constrain its scope to what our staff chooses to report on. We push for a range of perspectives so each reader can see themself on at least one of our 24 pages.
Our staff’s enthusiasm for the stories they tell is especially perceptible. In this issue alone, you’ll find an investigative piece on the administration’s response to breaches in campus security, a discussion of the Massachusetts state flag’s racist imagery, a feature on a soccer player whose skills transcend his age and so much more. Harnessing this enthusiasm is what makes our articles worth reading.
So, when it comes to The Cypress’s quality, it’s not about how perfectly each word is spelled, even if the absence of one letter becomes a haunting laughing stock. It’s about what can never be perfect: the hidden yet detectable values that we carry with us to every interview, in every article and on every page.
