Top Gazette journalist speaks to journalism workshop students

Mr. Levan graduated from IUP two years ago, where he edited The Penn, the campus publication. He was also on his high school yearbook staff.

Levan told journalism students that working on a high school publication is beneficial for both experience and education.

He also told students that high school publications have a small, specific audience and longer deadlines. College publications generally have larger audiences with broader backgrounds. 

Writers for college newspapers concentrate on campus events, but do not ignore the community around the college. Daily newspapers have the largest audiences, but are localized to the people in the town. 

The deadline is the shortest for daily newpapers, which must highlight national and international stories which affect the readers.

High school papers rely more on features rather than news stories. Mr. Levan commented that college students often have a narrow perspective. 

According to Mr. Levan, the college is their universe and they rely on the campus newspaper for most, or all, of their news. 

For this reason, the campus newspaper must cover a variety of stories and regions so that no students feel alienated.

As an employee at the Indiana Gazette, Mr. Levan covers township and school board meetings. He also edits and writes a column for the Sunday business page. 

Mr. Levan collects articles from the Associated Press wire for publication and aids in the designing of the front page.

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