This year the LHS Statesman has produced four news magazines starting with the October Issue and leading up to the latest January Issue. The current issues will be ranked in my opinion to see when the best stories and designs come out and whether the quality of the issues goes up or down over time. The issues will be scored on: cover art, best story design, best story and overall ranking out of 10.
The October issue is the first of the 23-24 school year and it is a strong start with one of the best cover art so far this year. The featured stories on the front of the page are “Parental Pressure In Sports” by Kadence Dean, “Statesman Crossword” by Nathan Thomson and “Maxwell Makes His Mark” by Lucas Hiatt. The first page is the table of contents and this issue has a great one, and probably the best out of the four current issues. Some downsides of the first issue are that there is not a consistent color hue throughout so the design colors can look out of place at times.
Cover Art: 9.3/10
Best Story Design: “Hoco 2023” by Clara Binstock
Best Story: “Maxwell Makes His Mark” by Lucas Hiatt
Overall Score: 8.7/10
The November issue was the second one released in the 23-24 school year, the three feature stories were: “Heartbeat of Jazz” by Joseph Tunge and Maddox Raph, “Moneke: The Brain” behind the chain” by Eloise Gerets, “College softball: The recruiting process” by Madison Evans. There is a color palette for this issue and the designs look much more consistent and not out of place, different stories with different designs look great next to each other. There is a great variety of features, perspectives and entertainment.
Cover art: 8.9/10
Best Story Design: “Abe’s ABCs” by Kadence Dean
Best Story: “Emily’s Hope: Turning heartbreak into action” by Kate Matthes & Reese Duncan, Editors-In-Chief
Overall Score: 9/10
The Statesman December issue is the third one to be released in the 23-24 school year, the three feature stories are: “Recent News Recap” by Kadence Dean, “It’s Not Adios It’s Hasta Luego” by Maddox Raph and “LHS Teachers In…The Hunger Games” by Ryan Calhoun. There is once again a color palette and the story designs look great. This issue specifically has three of the best designs of the year.
Cover Art: 8.2/10
Best Story Design: “Cooking Is Community” Story by Reagan Wulf, design by Ellen Merkley
Best Story: “LHS Teachers In…The Hunger Games” by Ryan Calhoun
Overall: 8.4/10
The Statesman January issue is the fourth and latest one ot be released, there is a focus on features and entertainment, the featured stories are: “The Ladies Behind The Line” by Josie Tollinger and Elysse Weber, “One Word” By Bergen Quello and “The Cost Of Equality” by Joseph Tunge. There is a color palette for this issue and again different types of stories look good put together. The stories in this issue are very distinct and there are many different topics that were written about.
Cover Art: 7.6/10
Best Story Design: “Ladies Behind The Line” by Josie Tollinger & Elysse Webber
Best Story: “The Cost Of Equality” by Joseph Tunge
Overall: 7.9/10
So far this year the first four Statesman issues have been good and their themes have been fitting the time of year. There are four issues left, plenty of stories to come. So far this year, in my opinion, the November Issue is the best one, but the other issues are not far behind.
