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West Branch Middle School poses questions to the West Branch Times
Op-Ed · October 06, 2016


Several West Branch Middle School pupils sent, as part of a writing assignment, letters to the West Branch Times. The letters are listed below, as well as answers from Editor Gregory Norfleet to some of their questions.

Times should cover WBMS volleyball





Hi, my name is Addie Wehde. I’m a seventh-grader from West Branch Middle School. I play lots of sports, but I never see you there. I think you should go to our volleyball games because it can be a lot of fun. Our last home game is next week on Thursday on homecoming week. I’m number eight. My friends and I have a blast. I’m a setter and a hitter. My friend Lauren is also a setter and a hitter. Our rotation is a two-six rotation. If you can come, great. If you can’t we always have next year you can come. Thanks for your time.

Sincerely,

Addie Wehde



Addie --

We’re glad to hear that you take advantage of the extra-curricular opportunities West Branch Community Schools presents, like sports, and we’re glad you have fun participating and making friends.

While the West Branch Times does cover sports, we do not have a big enough staff to cover every sport, and there’s a lot! (Because of your letter, though, we stopped by the Cascade game, shot some video and posted it to our Instagram account. Check it out!) Even if we cannot attend, some parents will send us results, scores and even photographs, and we’re happy to run those!

Nonetheless, with patience and hard work, in a few years you will see us when you make the varsity team!

— GN



Sometimes we see errors in the newspaper





Hi, my name is Lexi Klinkkammer. I am a seventh-grader at West Branch Middle School. My family receives your newspapers and we always enjoy reading them. There is always something new to read about. My favorite part of the newspaper to read is the sports highlights. If I am ever not at a sports event, I can always look in the newspaper to find the scores.

I was wondering: How long does it take you to write the newspapers? How many people work on them? In Language Arts, we are writing letters and it seems that whenever you are writing you always make a few errors. When we write our letters, we have a peer look through and give corrections. After that, our teacher, Ms. Arlen, checks our letters and gives corrections. What process do you go through when you are writing the newspapers?

Thank you for your time,

Lexi Klinkkammer



Lexi --

We are really glad your family enjoys reading the West Branch Times! Our team works hard every week to provide lots of stories and pictures to reflect the most important, interesting and urgent news in the city, which includes sports.

Our writing team consists of Editor Gregory Norfleet, city council reporter Rick DeClue and sports writers Norv and Mary Coblentz. If you take out gathering the news — attending meetings and sports events, taking pictures, conducting interviews, etc. — and just focus on writing, my guess is that we probably spend about 20 hours each week writing byline stories, briefs, photo captions, etc. Stories with a lot of details and interviews from a lot of sources take more time to write than those with a few.

And, yes, you will probably see a few errors get through. Last week, we wrote about 11,000 words. That number changes every week, but we’ll use that as an example. The book, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” contains about 77,000 words on 223 pages. So if you were to take our words and put them into that Harry Potter book, we would fill about 32 pages each week, and we would fill the whole book in about seven weeks. That’s a lot of writing! We have an editor and proofreader to try to catch the mistakes, but it’s hard to catch them all.

— GN



Our family enjoys reading about ourselves





Hello, this is Madelyn Hartz. I am in Language Arts at West Branch Middle School and we are writing letters to people that we like or care about. I wrote to you because I love to read your newspapers and sometimes I am in them. I was wondering if you could send me some of the papers that The Hartz family is in?

I really want these pictures because I am going to make a book of pictures of us. I really like to scrapbook pictures of my friends, family and me. Thank you so much for doing what you do.

Sincerely,

Madelyn Hartz



Madelyn --

We are glad to know that the you are reading the newspaper. Sir Francis Bacon wrote that knowledge is power, so newspaper readers like yourself are powerful, indeed.

If you would like to find newspapers in which your family appears, my best suggestion would be to make an appointment to stop by the office and search our database, write down the dates of the papers you would like to get, and we can pull them from our archives.

A scrapbook is a great idea for helping preserve the memories and milestones of your family, so good job!

— GN



Thank you for publishing my earlier letter





Hello, my name is Jason Sass. I am a 7th-grade student at West Branch Middle School. I like to read the newspaper. One of my favorite sections is the sports section. My stepdad also likes it. He loves it when it is about high school, as do I.

A few years ago, I wrote you a letter and you published it. I’ve wanted to thank you for the longest time, but never got a chance to. I think now would be the perfect time. So, thank you for publishing my letter. It made me feel good, knowing that something I wrote made it into the newspaper.

Sincerely,

Jason Sass



Jason --

We work hard to write about important, interesting and urgent things happening in West Branch and the surrounding area, so we are glad to know you are reading about your town. We are glad you like the sports section, because we like to write about the accomplishments of our local student-athletes. You’ve got to keep up your grades to play sports, so that is always a good thing, and our coaches do a great job making every player competitive.

You are welcome for publishing your letter. We like letters to the editor very much because it is important for people to discuss what they think about important issues, because that helps the rest of us understand different points of view. It may even change minds, which is powerful!

— GN



Who writes, takes pictures for the paper?





My name is Grace Mundell. I’m a seventh-grader at West Branch Middle School. We are writing letters and I’m writing mine to a newspaper. I decided to write to you because it’s not very far away. I have a few questions for you. How many newspapers do you make per day? How many newspapers do you sell? Who takes the pictures for the newspapers? Who writes the newspapers? Is it a team of people who write the newspapers?

Sincerely,

Grace Mundell



Grace --

We produce one newspaper each week, and each paper usually has 10 to 12 pages. We sell about 1,100 papers each week; most people get the paper in the mail, and some get the paper at the store.

Our team of writers — Gregory Norfleet, Rick DeClue and Norv and Mary Coblentz — all carry cameras wherever they go. However, some people send us pictures, too. Each picture has a caption, and at the end of each caption you will find the name of either the photographer, or the person who sent us the picture.

One key to taking interesting pictures is to show somebody moving, rather than standing still and posing for the camera, so our team tries to do that for most pictures.

— GN



What was the first thing the Times wrote?





Hi, my name is Laikyn Worrell. I am in 7th grade this year. I wanted to ask you about your business. I wanted to know how your business got started. What was the first thing you published? How did you come up with some of the story ideas?

I have been in the newspaper a couple times and it was fun getting asked questions. I chose to write to you because I like reading the West Branch Times every once in a while. Thanks for your time! That’s all I really wanted to know. I hope I get a letter soon!

Sincerely,

Laikyn Worrell



Laikyn --

We had to crack open a history book to answer your first question. In “West Branch: The First 150 Years,” former West Branch Times Editor Mike Owen (who today is part of the West Branch school board) wrote that two local businessmen, W.W. Gruwell and C.M. Craighead, met in 1869 to talk about starting a newspaper and buying a printing press. The first newspaper was called the Index and the editor was George Barrington, but he only put out a paper every now and then. In 1871, the paper started coming out more regularly, and on April 1, 1875, the newspaper changed its name to the West Branch Times.

So the West Branch Times is the oldest business in town — 147 years old under different names, or 141 years old under its current name.

I’m afraid we don’t have the first newspaper. It’s been lost in history. The oldest one we found was dated Oct. 3, 1878. There’s a lot of news in it, and a message from the new editor, C.H. Wickersham. Here’s a short passage from what he wrote:

“In assuming editorial charge of this paper, we realize that we take it upon ourself many grave responsibilities. A village paper is not only a medium of local news and local advertising, but is also a powerful agent for good or evil in the community in which it circulates. It should be a brave defender of Right and Justice, and the undaunted enemy of Evil and manifest Injustice.”

The editor goes on to state that he will use Christianity as the standard for right and wrong, and that he will advocate for the Republican party, unless he finds corruption in the party, and that the newspaper will strive to be a strong advocate for the good of the community.

As for how we come up with story ideas, we attend meetings of the City Council and School Board, follow state and national news, attend gobs of sports and extra-curricular activities, read letters and check web pages for upcoming events, and get a lot of suggestions from readers. Story ideas are all over, and there’s always something to write about in West Branch!

— GN