What it is and how you can get involved
Sections
The Strand is the official student newspaper of Victoria College. The articles, photography, and illustrations that make up every issue of The Strand are organized into six sections: News, Opinions, Science, Features (longer, more in-depth pieces, often with a more personal tone), Arts & Culture, and Stranded (humour). If you want to learn more about what we publish in these sections, you can read past articles on our website or contact the section editor to ask questions! Email addresses for everyone on our masthead can be found at the front of this paper or on our website (www.thestrand.ca) under the “About” tab!
Masthead
The masthead are the people hired or elected at the end of the previous academic year to run The Strand. These people include our Editor-in-Chief, our Managing Editor, and our section editors, who run each of the individual sections. These are the people you should go to if you’d like to see your work published in The Strand. Many of our section editors also have associates, who help them with their jobs. Other members of our masthead include our web editor, who runs our website; our design editor, who creates the layout of our print issues; our business manager, who handles the finances; and our senior copyeditor, who makes sure that every article in The Strand reads fluidly and is mistake-free.
Visuals
At The Strand, we take visual design just as seriously as writing. This means we put a lot of thought and effort into our layout, and we have staff dedicated to providing the incredible photos and illustrations that go alongside our written articles.
Magazine
The Strand is not just a newspaper. We also create a magazine once per year, which includes personal essays, poetry, fiction, illustrations, and photographs; all capping off with a magazine launch. To celebrate the publication of our yearly magazine we hold a launch event, however, this isn’t just a celebration. Often many of the contributors of the magazine will present and read aloud their pieces during the launch. All in all, the event is a lot of fun and a great chance to talk to the writers about their work.
Special issues
In addition to our regular issues, we often publish special issues at The Strand, which revolve around a particular theme; the Orientation Issue is a great example. Other special issues we’ve done in the past include a Love and Sex Issue, a Queer Issue, and plenty of joke issues.
Podcast
Our podcast is called the Strandcast and you can find it on our website. The podcast is a variety show of sorts with no set theme. Content varies greatly from episode to episode. If you have an idea for a segment or would like to be a part of the podcast production, send an email to our podcast editors or drop by their office hours!
Events
Open House: Around the beginning of the year, we host an open house where we invite anyone and everyone interested in The Strand to our office to learn about who we are and how we operate. This is a great place to ask questions and get to know our editorial team!
How we operate
The Strand publishes in two ways: in print and on our website. The print issues feature a selection of content from each section, and our website features everything you can find in print plus plenty of web-exclusive articles.
Our office
At The Strand, we’re very lucky to get to operate out of a beautiful and spacious office. This office is located in the Goldring Student Centre just behind the Wymilwood Lounge. To be able to work in this space is just one of the many benefits of working for The Strand. This office is the central hub for production of our issues and all of our staff meetings. In addition, the office is a great space for you to come and get to know our masthead. Every member of The Strand masthead holds weekly office hours. The schedule will be posted soon on our website and right outside our door.
Available Roles
Writer: The Strand is always looking for new writers! If you know what section(s) you’d like to write for, the best way to get published is to talk to one of our section editors. We also have Facebook groups for each section that you can join if you’d like. If you’re not sure what section(s) you’d like to write for, feel free to reach out to our Editor-in-Chief Rebecca or our Managing Editor Leo! Not sure what to write? You can always read past articles on our website or stop by our office to browse through old issues to get an idea of what we publish. And while you’re dropping by the office, you can talk to someone on our masthead – there’s always someone there. And don’t be shy, they’re all very friendly and happy to answer any questions!
Staff Writer: Our contributors gain the title of staff writer after they’ve been published in at least three issues in any given year. Being a staff writer is a lot of fun, but there’s no pressure to become one. We’d be happy to have you for even just one article! We are always looking for new members to add to our illustration team. The Strand uses illustrations in our print issues, on our website, and in our magazine. Get in contact with our Illustrations Editor Amy Jiao if you have any questions or are interested in doing illustrations for The Strand.
Photographer: Similar to illustrators, The Strand is always looking for photographers to take pictures that accompany our articles. You can even create a photo essay, as some of our photographers have done in this issue. Get in contact with our Photo Editor Ilya Sarossy if you’d like to join the photo team!
Editorial assistant: Editorial assistants help with production of the paper. These EA’s help with proofreading and copyediting and laying out the newspaper in our Adobe design software. Working as an editorial assistant is a great way to learn about how The Strand operates and an even better way to help out in areas you most like. We’ll be hiring our editorial assistants soon! Follow The Strand on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter for more updates.
Copyeditor: We’re always happy to find people who want to join our copyediting team. Copyeditors read over finished articles and suggest changes before they are finalized. This includes tasks such as fixing spelling and grammar mistakes, fact checking, and providing commentary. If you’d like to be a copyeditor, you can get in contact with our Senior Copyeditor Sandy Forsyth.
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