Content Editor

The Red Cedar Log, Michigan State University yearbook

As the Content Editor for Michigan State University's yearbook, The Red Cedar Log, I was tasked with managing a team of four journalists and representing the content team in editorial staff meetings. Throughout the duration of the 2024-2025 academic school year, I assigned weekly stories, coordinated with photographers, completed rounds of developmental and copy editing on each story, and organized the team's content calendar on Plaky and Slack.  My role was a blend of leadership, administrative duties, technical writing and editing, and organizational skills.

I attended two meetings a week: the editorial meeting, during which our team finalized stories the staff would cover for the coming week, and the full staff meetings in which we would delegate roles and coordinate as a full team. As these meetings were held at the beginning of the week, I had time to update our content calendar and planning sheet before staff journalists fulfilled their assignments. I sent recap notes via Slack after each full staff meeting to ensure my team knew what was expected of them, as well as know how and where to help a peer on an assignment if needed. Juggling multiple writers with different schedules and story assignments required clear, consistent channels of communication across platforms. As the desk's leader, my main goal was to ensure information was accessibly and consistently displayed should any team member need to consult details before or after covering an assignment. 

Upon receiving the initial draft of the story, I performed a round of developmental edits, allowed a 48-hour period for journalists to make changes, and performed a round of copy edits before altering our Editor-In-Chief that the story was ready for final review before heading to the design team. After each round of edits was completed, the content calendar was updated with color-coordinated buttons referring to the progress of the story, and the journalist was notified via Slack.

The Red Cedar Log utilizes a third party publisher to compose the final book. After each deadline of 100 pages, the publisher sent our team proofs of each page. I was tasked with hand-editing each individual page – performing one final round of copy edits on each article, ensuring photo captions were in AP style, and that student names and identities were displayed properly.

One challenge we faced as a team was a shortage of journalists. As to not overwhelm the smaller team, I stepped into the role of a staff journalist for half of the academic year – writing one story a week in addition to my responsibilities as the desk's editor. I covered a variety of topics – consulting the planning sheet for dates, times, and relevant contact information. Typically, these were 500-word campus culture features – highlighting clubs, academic events, and community building on and around MSU's campus. To ensure I was not the only person fully composing and editing my articles, I consulted our Editor-In-Chief to receive extra rounds of edits. This resulted in our team staying on track with stories without anyone taking on too much of a load while simultaneously being a student. 

The Red Cedar Log is an entirely student-run organization, operating through the undergraduate student government Associated Students of Michigan State University (ASMSU). Throughout the school year, it works to compose a yearbook to be administered to students in the spring – featuring a wide variety of student life. Sports, clubs, academics, community engagement, fundraising events, portraits and more are featured alongside unique design.