The Islander Is Now Online

Mercer Island High School journalists, welcome to the Internet.

Seeking a rebirth of their newspaper in the digital age, students re-branded The High Times as The Islander and began posting stories online at their website last month. Students will have the chance to not only have more of their work published but also be able to cover more events.

“We were so restricted in the paper version that we were leaving three quarters of our sports out of the paper,” said Jamie Prescott, Mercer Island High School journalism teacher. “By going online we have unlimited space and can put more content up.”

The idea for starting a website came from Ryan Rouillard, The Islander sports editor and junior at MIHS. Last summer, he attended a Washington Journalism Education Association (WJEA) camp and it opened his eyes to new possibilities.

“At WJEA they talked about how online is the way journalism is going so I brought up the idea of having a website to Jamie Prescott at the end of the summer,” said Rouillard. 

Prescott then went to the Technology Teacher on Special Assignment (TOSA) who worked with the students to physically create a template.

The Islander launched its website in February.

“It is great,” said Prescott. “It brings us more current and we will eventually move to an all online paper.”

MIHS freshman Hayley Elston is in the beginning journalism class and likes having an online newspaper.

“I think it is pretty cool,” Elston said. “It is really good that we are keeping up with the times and kids have a way to access news more than once a month.”

Elston has had a few articles published on the website on topics such as standardized testing and the French Impressionism Project.

“Online is a different vibe from print and I like seeing all the different categories and all the work we have written,” said Elston.

MIHS sophomore Riley Guttman writes for The Islander’s column called Gamers’ Corner. Guttman writes about video games that are relevant to Mercer Island youth. He said by having a website he will be able to have more articles published than before.

“The problem I had with the print newspaper was communication problems,” Guttman said. “I thought my articles were going to be published but then it wouldn’t because of space issues.”

One suggestion Guttman has for the website is a different URL. He said it is difficult to tell people because it isn’t something they can easily remember. Rouillard agrees that the URL needs to change and is not satisfied with the website yet. Next year, he will be co-editor of The Islander and wants to focus more time on the website.

“Our readership is lower, much lower than we would like it to be and everything we can do to make our paper accessible to our students and readers is a step in the right direction for us,” said Rouillard.