We are so excited to announce that the printed version of B-Line is now available in the upper school commons! A school newspaper has been a part of the Barstow community since 1897, when students first published the “school paper.” While B-Line has been called by many names over the years, it has always been an important part of the Barstow identity.
Why, then, has there not been a printed copy of B-Line since 2019? The lack of a physical newspaper is a product of many unfortunate circumstances, including the strain of COVID-19 and the waning interest in the class at Barstow. The B-Line staff is excited to bring one back this year.
Despite the hard work that the writers put in, readership is a struggle for online B-Line articles. Each week, 3-5 articles are published, but the website only receives about 10 clicks each day.
“It’s really sad,” said B-Line writer Leilani Galles ’24. “A lot of other schools have newspapers and we don’t really get to have one, but I feel like people would really like it if we did.” Many of the staff members agreed with Galles, pointing out that B-Line would most likely get more attention with a print edition.
“B-Line doesn’t get a lot of readership and therefore there aren’t a lot of students enrolled in the class,” said B-Line editor Avani Lakkireddy ’24. Other student publications at Barstow, such as BTVN and yearbook, have far more students and more resources, and B-Line’s enrollment continues to decline.
Many of the writers hope that a print edition will attract more students to join B-Line and participate in student publications. “Print edition was the main way that we would get readers and people interested in journalism,” Lakkireddy continues.
Ms. Lucia Scott, the faculty advisor for B-Line since 2018, says that the main issue for B-Line is accessibility. Students simply do not think about checking the website. Most likely do not even know how to find it despite the link being available on the Resources page in myBarstow.
Prior to Ms. Scott starting at Barstow, the print editions of B-Line were scaled down substantially, going from one per month to one per semester.
“The print edition became a smaller and smaller focus for people outside of the class itself,” said Ms. Scott. “We still kept one print edition per quarter right up until COVID, when the print edition ceased to exist altogether.”
The staff continues to work to make the website more accessible through social media campaigns and word of mouth. When people do make their way to the website, they spend approximately four minutes on a given page, which would indicate that it is not the content of the website that is responsible for declines in readership. Four minutes is enough time to read most B-Line articles and a lot more time than it takes to scroll down a page and close the tab.
Despite the challenges that the class has faced, B-Line has still persisted and continued to produce quality articles. Now, the writers look forward to finally seeing their work printed and more accessible to the community at Barstow. If you enjoy the print edition, please consider subscribing!
