On May 17, as Sinclair Community College begins a new summer semester, The Clarion will also be rebranding under the direction of its two new editors, Jeri Hensley and Harley Johnson.
Hensley will possess the dual-title of Creative Director and Executive Editor, while Johnson will be the Managing Editor. Hensley is a longtime employee of The Clarion, first being hired in 2016.
“I’d like to say that I’m the dinosaur of the Clarion,” said Hensley. “Because I’ve been here for some time and I’ve seen every kind of leadership style. I feel that it’s given me a unique perspective around here.”
She describes her arrival to Sinclair’s student newspaper as circumstances having fallen into place. The first time Hensley acknowledged The Clarion’s presence was during an on-campus event that involved a costume contest she ultimately won. A month later into the semester, Hensley contemplated how to find work. She found herself logging into The Clarion’s website and noticed they were hiring graphic designers.
“I thought, well I’m a design student, and I can write. I can see what they do with me,” said Hensley.
Hensley likes to call her introduction to The Clarion as trial by fire. She was not taught how to do the layout of the paper, yet the Executive Editor of the time – Barton Kleen, and the Managing Editor, Laina Yost, provided her with information on the basic fundamentals.
At this moment, The Clarion had a smaller staff in regards to its design team. In addition to Hensley, there was a Creative Director as well as an intern who doubled as a designer.
“Anthony, our creative director at the time, had gotten a full-time job with Huffy – or internship, so he was barely around,” Hensley recalled. “So he was focusing on that. But that left Brittnay and I to do the design work, but she had a full-time job.”
Due to these staff changes, within two weeks Hensley was playing a crucial role in the paper’s production. Accomplishing tasks such as sending the completed paper off to the printer and even picking headline titles.
“It would be Friday night and it’d be Bart, Laina and I in the office until nine,” said Hensley. “Because they wouldn’t let reporters pick titles. They picked titles. A few titles are my doing.”
Henry Wolski would arrive at The Clarion first as a reporter, but with the graduation of Kleen he would become the new Editor. Wolski, in Hensley’s belief, changed the atmosphere of The Clarion for the better.
“It [was] an open environment, everyone’s nice, having normal conversations. It’s great.” said Hensley, “people came out of the woodwork to apply.”
Despite her previous title of graphic designer, Hensley is no stranger to editing articles. There were moments in which she assisted Wolski in the process of editing upcoming articles due to The Clarion’s lack of an Associate Editor at the time.
Hensley admits that initially, Executive Editor sounds like a terrifying position. However, she lacks fear. Witnessing the differences of how Kleen, Wolski, and Ayzha Middlebrooks respectively ran The Clarion provided her with the idea of knowing how she wanted to be, as well as how she wanted the organization to be.
“Everything I want to do with design and writing is make a change to the way things are.” said Hensley. “With The Clarion we’re going in the right direction, but the media has gotten such a bad name that it’s on me, and it’s on other writers graduating. It’s up to us to change the way we’re perceived.”
Johnson has not been on staff as long as Hensley. The new Managing Editor joined The Clarion in 2021 as a staff writer, however, when Clarion advisor Jessica Graue saw Johnson had to soon complete her internship, she allowed her to do so with The Clarion.
Despite being a relatively new addition to The Clarion, Johnson already possessed previous experience as an editor at her old high school, Northmont.
“I was the assistant editor in my sophomore year,” said Johnson. “And then by the time I got to junior year, I was moving up to editor-in-chief. And then by junior year, I was the main editor-in-chief.”
Johnson looks back to this time with enjoyment, yet notes that the editing process was much different than The Clarion’s own. Initially, the editors printed out fellow student’s articles and would make hand-made corrections. It was not until Johnson’s senior year when there was a switch to editing online. Yet, the programming used was not consistent.
“Some students used Google Docs,” said Johnson. “Some used Word. Others used the note app on their iPad.”
Upon graduation, Johnson was unsure if she wanted to be an editor once more, however Graue’s faith in her to lead The Clarion during the summer made her reconsider.
“I remember Jess reached out to me that day. And, she kind of informed me about the summer and the staff we had,” said Johnson. “She said when she thought about the position, I was one of the first people who came to her mind.”
The summer semester will ultimately focus on rebranding and change. Hensley personally feels as though there are still remnants of damage done to the paper. Not due to COVID-19, but due to Kleen’s previous leadership. But overall, Hensley does feel over the span of time The Clarion has steadily rebuilt itself in terms of its status with faculty.
“I want to keep that going,” said Hensley. “We’re a voice for the students. I want to further that and make the students feel like they have a voice on campus. Someone speaking up for the campus.”
Johnson acknowledged the importance advertising has in The Clarion gaining traction.
“The amount of people we know who don’t know about the paper is insane,” said Johnson. “So we’re trying to figure out – how do we get the word out? How do we reach a wider amount of the Sinclair community than we’re already reaching?”
One of the key strategies Johnson has in mind is advertising to high school students and marketing to them. Creating flyers and preparing events is also a crucial thing to implement. While some things at The Clarion will remain the same, whether or not they will return to print is unknown.
“We’re lucky that Sinclair has a very diverse student body, as young as 15 to 80 or 90,” said Johnson. “Some people might want to pick up a newspaper. Some might want it digitally. How do you provide for both groups? What do you prioritize and what do you put more energy into than the other? And that’s what the summer is. Plan for that. Choose the format.”
Hensley aspires to transition The Clarion away from being a traditional newspaper, feeling that the physical format is fading out.
“I want to take us more to a zine-style, almost,” said Hensley. “I feel like that is new and updated enough that it might draw some more attention from the incoming crowd. Newspapers are great for our generation, and older ones, but you’ve got Gen-Z coming up and they’re more into those brightly colored, magazine-type things. Something they can read casually.”
Johnson expressed that in order to market to Gen-Z, one must be strategic.
“It has to be innovative and cool that gets people talking,” said Johnson. “If you can advertise to Gen-Z correctly, it can cause waves of impact.”
However, Johnson additionally believes that the interest in a physical newspaper has waned for Gen-Z.
“Cassettes, scrunchies, vinyls, they’re getting big again,” said Johnson. “But when it comes to print journalism and newspapers, I don’t see newspapers getting big with Gen-Z. You can get your news on your phone.”
Beyond it being modern, Hensley views the potential Clarion zine as being a health-conscious choice in a post-pandemic world.
“I’m thinking if we had one of those vertical stands, people could grab one and not touch any of the others. It would be more sanitary,” said Hensley. “Slick magazine pages don’t hold germs.”
In the end, it will be the decisions that Hensley, Johnson and Graue decide upon that will shape the Clarion, even long after they are gone.
“I’m a mixture of excited and nervous for the future.” said Johnson, “I’m only nervous because I don’t know what the future’s going to hold, but I’m excited to see what it is. I feel like there’s a lot of potential that’s out there for the paper, and it’s going to be a matter of how we advertise it, how we market it, and how to get an audience that we really aren’t reaching.”
“I’m very, very excited for this,” said Hensley, “Because this may be our weirdest semester yet, if this transitions back to normal. It’s going to be weird. But hold onto your hats kids, because we’re going in. We’re going to make this work.”
Ayzha Middlebrooks
Executive Editor