Jeremy Norman

Northern Star's Web site
named best in nation – again

by Joe King

Winning is getting to be a habit for the editors of the Web site at the Northern Star, the student-run newspaper at Northern Illinois University.

For the second straight year, Editor & Publisher has selected the site (www.northernstar.info) as Best College Newspaper Online Service. Earlier this academic year, the Web site also received its second straight Pacemaker award from the Associated Collegiate Press. The Pacemaker is considered the Pulitzer Prize for collegiate newspapers.

“It’s great to be viewed as being on the cutting edge,” says Northern Star Adviser Jim Killam, who credits Online Editor Jeremy Norman for keeping the online edition of the paper out in front of the pack.

“The Star is so far ahead of what a lot of schools are doing that it is almost a given that they are going to win some of these awards,” Killam says.

The secret to that success, says Norman, who next fall will be a senior majoring in computerized design, is always working to ensure that users get what they want – and then some.

When Norman took over as webmaster during his freshman year the site was little more than an electronic posting of the news from each of the Star’s five weekday editions. The site attracted about 400 hits a day, mostly from alumni.

Today, the site has such a diverse mix of information and features that it more closely resembles something akin to the Yahoo homepage, only with greater emphasis on the campus and the surrounding city of DeKalb, Killam says. The changes were a ringing success. Within a year, the site was attracting 32,000 unique visitors a day, and that number more than doubled to 86,000 this past school year.

While making that transition, Norman ignored the standard templates that many college Web sites utilize and built the site from scratch. He drew his inspiration for the design from the clean, well-organized Web sites operated by the likes of CNN, the New York Times and the Washington Post. As for content, he kept an ear to the ground on campus and tried to give his peers what they wanted.

The resulting content is an eclectic mix of hundreds of pages, many of them updated daily. They include a daily dose of entertainment news, MP3 files from local bands, local restaurant menus, movie listings for local theaters, residence hall cafeteria menus, bus schedules, an extensive housing guide with information on apartment complexes near campus, and even recipes.

The thing that truly sets the Northern Star Web site apart from its peers, Norman says, is its dedication to providing original special content every day. Most other college papers attempt such things a few times a year, at most.

For instance, in the two months leading up to the war in Iraq, site editors created a collection of informational graphics on topics ranging from the content of leaflets being dropped across Iraq to how body armor works. The graphics rivaled those put together by many major news agencies. During the war, a special section was created to provide updated information. The section was an instant favorite with students, many of whom made it a regular stop in their daily Web surfing.

On a lighter note, Norman and his staff of two (Cory Ohlendorf, a senior, from Mascoutah, Ill., majoring in communication, and Brant Wynn, a junior, from Milan, Ill., majoring in time arts) also created a special section for movie buffs. It was updated throughout the Oscar awards ceremony with pre-made packages on winners in each of the major categories. The site attracted 32,000 hits during the broadcast.

Running the site is a labor of love for Norman, who often works from 3 p.m. until 5 a.m. to prepare and post a day’s copy. He sleeps a few hours, goes to class and does homework, then heads back to the newsroom. It is an odd and exhausting schedule, but also exciting, says the 22-year-old native of Frankfort, Ill., who attended Lincoln-Way High School.

“I’ve always had a passion for news – I read three newspapers a day in high school. I also have a passion for art, so this Web site really combines two of my loves,” Norman says.

It is a love he hopes to pursue after graduation, and if internship offers are any indication, that should be no problem. He turned down a summer job at the New York Times and chose to do a two-month stint at the Washington Post instead.

Norman has no plans to jump ship early and pursue his career. He still wants to wrap up his degree and has big plans for the Web site next fall. Foremost among those plans is the establishment of an Internet radio station that will include live programming with an emphasis on local bands, broadcasts of NIU Huskie sports and other student-driven features. The virtual radio station will attempt to fill a void left by the demise a year ago of NIU’s college radio station, Killam says.

Norman also plans to begin producing and posting video on the site.

Like all of the new features that Norman introduces, the ideas came from site users. It is a formula that has worked well, and one Norman is confident will keep the site in the vanguard.

“We’re always trying to figure out if we are meeting the needs of our audience, both in design and content,” Norman says. “The awards that we have won the last two years confirm that that approach is correct.”

5-27-03