Joining The Knight Crier

The Knight Crier is North Penn High School’s Digital Newspaper. Made up of a few editors, several writers, and advisor Mr. Kevin Manero, The Knight Crier is a great opportunity to showcase your writing skills to the world. This is an elective English course students choose to take during their course selection, and it takes place every day during first period. 

However, students do not need to be in The Knight Crier to get their work published. If you desire to publish an article, as long as Mr. Manero and the editors approve it, your work can be published. 

The inner-workings

To join The Knight Crier, no previous journalism experience is needed. However, learning how to be an impactful student journalist is necessary. The first month or so of this course is spent as a crash course in Journalism.

As a part of this month-long crash course, students learn: how to interview, write strong ledes, craft opinion/editorial writing, develop hard news coverage, and tackle sports writing.

Every Monday, in class editors hold what is called “Staff Meeting Monday,” where writers and editors of the newspaper all share the ideas they have for publishing an article that week. It could be coverage of a school event, sports games, opinion editorials, feature articles, and more-  the possibilities to create are endless. 

What it takes

Being a part of The Knight Crier or any newspaper group is an opportunity to showcase writing prowess, but more importantly, a way to expand your horizons and interests. 

Being willing to take on new challenges and covering a wide range of topics as a writer is crucial in improving your abilities, and gradually getting recognition for your publication work. 

The student who would thrive as a writer in The Knight Crier is creative, outgoing, assertive, curious, and has strong communication skills.

It is not about just getting some article published every week and going through the motions, it is about creating a portfolio of authentic publications that a student can be proud of, coupled with building meaningful connections throughout the year(s) of interviews, staff meetings, and writing.