Position: Audience Editor
In October 2023, I was hired as The Breeze's Audience Editor. I had been working on their staff under the former Audience Editor for about a month at that time. When she quit, I was encouraged to apply and despite my hesitation, I got the position. An Assistant Audience Editor was also hired, Alexa Bonilla, who took charge of social media for Breeze TV and working alongside me to work with our team of around 20 other students.
My job entails overseeing all of The Breeze's main social media accounts on Instagram, X and Facebook, as well as overseeing each of the sections (being news, culture, opinion & sports) accounts. Alexa and I hold meetings once a week over Zoom to update our team on our goals for the week and to delegate posting tasks.
My job entails overseeing all of The Breeze's main social media accounts on Instagram, X and Facebook, as well as overseeing each of the sections (being news, culture, opinion & sports) accounts. Alexa and I hold meetings once a week over Zoom to update our team on our goals for the week and to delegate posting tasks.
Social Media Accounts
Instagram: @breezejmu
Facebook: @thebreezejmu
X: @thebreezejmu
One of my biggest challenges going into this position was learning how to best utilize X and Facebook as I personally do not use them. I eventually got the hang of posting content on all three accounts at the same time through the use of the application Buffer. Buffer helped me scheduled out posts and plan them before hand without having to log into each account separately. I have come to learn that each account is valuable as we reach students on Instagram, parents on Facebook and other journalists on X.
Throughout my time in my position I have gotten to take a form of ownership over the accounts. I have changed the bios, banners, highlight covers, began to brand our accounts and realized the importance of staying on top of trends such as collaborating on posts with other accounts.
Facebook: @thebreezejmu
X: @thebreezejmu
One of my biggest challenges going into this position was learning how to best utilize X and Facebook as I personally do not use them. I eventually got the hang of posting content on all three accounts at the same time through the use of the application Buffer. Buffer helped me scheduled out posts and plan them before hand without having to log into each account separately. I have come to learn that each account is valuable as we reach students on Instagram, parents on Facebook and other journalists on X.
Throughout my time in my position I have gotten to take a form of ownership over the accounts. I have changed the bios, banners, highlight covers, began to brand our accounts and realized the importance of staying on top of trends such as collaborating on posts with other accounts.
Branding
Taking inspiration from other collegiate publications, I chose to begin branding all content posted on social media. I created flags for each of the news, sports, opinion, culture and Breeze TV accounts, and used The Breeze Logo for the main account. One of the goals I presented to The Breeze staff in my interviews and when I was hired was to work on the brand of The Breeze itself. This project has helped our viewers to associate all accounts and better understand what we do as a publication. |
Collaboration
An important part of my job as Audience Editor is to stay on top of the trends on social media. A big one that I have utilized so far is the collaboration feature on Instagram. I try to keep the main account organized by posting major events to the feed but tagging our section accounts as collaborators. This once again contributes to our brand. |
Carousels
Creating carousels has become one of my favorite parts of my job. It allows me to utilize my creative side while maintaining a major in journalism
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Page Design
Another exciting part of my time on staff so far has been getting opportunities to be involved outside of my specific job description. We created a football season recap special edition of The Breeze in January that I got to be a part of. I felt a lot of pressure initially to do my best since this was my first time doing design at the college level. I got to create the College GameDay spreads and could not be more proud of how they turned out. It was exciting to get to learn more about how this staff produces a paper in contrast to my previous experience.
The Quad: The Breeze's Newsletter
At the beginning of second semester, Alexa and I took on writing The Breeze's newsletter twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays. They are sent out in emails to our subscribers. This task was intimidating at first as I hadn't written anything for the publication yet. As we got into the groove, Alexa converted her Thursday edition into a "Now You Know" video recap of the newspaper and week while I got more comfortable with the standard newsletter format on Mondays.
This opportunity allowed me to get closer with the newspaper process and therefore become a better Audience Editor because I knew more about what I was posting. Also, it was ultimately beneficial to continue building on my writing skills.
This opportunity allowed me to get closer with the newspaper process and therefore become a better Audience Editor because I knew more about what I was posting. Also, it was ultimately beneficial to continue building on my writing skills.