For a year and a half at CRLS, we both made a home out of room 3401. Every day after school, we would make our way to the 3rd floor and walk into a classroom that was always filled with conversation, usually having little to do with the newspaper at all. Room 3401 was where we held our NewsStorms, designed the newspaper, and bounced ideas off of each other like in any other newsroom in America. So, when Isabelle Agee-Jacobson ’20, our former editor-in-chief, selected us to be the next editors-in-chief of the Register Forum, we figured we would make a home out of that room in our senior year, too. 

Unfortunately for us, the last year has been anything but what we imagined. In early March of 2020, when the coronavirus began to make the rounds in the US, we were hopeful that the virus would not have a significant effect on the newspaper. We still held our March NewsStorm, still made our daily migration to room 3401 as we had been doing for the last two years, and still planned on printing our March edition at the end of the month. Then, on March 14th, school was canceled indefinitely, preventing us from ever printing the March edition and making the February edition of 2020 the last print edition that we worked on as a part of the Register Forum. 

Creating a print edition of the newspaper was an excruciating task every month, and yet, we still miss it dearly. Layout, our process of designing the newspaper, involved time, effort, and frustration. While we cannot say that we miss the pain of thinking that a page was formatted only to find that there was still an additional paragraph we needed to add, we greatly miss the relationships we were able to build with the rest of the Register Forum staff during layout. Being with the same people in 3401 for two hours a day after school and sharing one collective goal—creating the newspaper—allowed us to learn so much from those who were seniors before us, and we regret knowing that those who are editors this year were not able to learn the same from us during layout.

But, worse than not being able to put out a print edition this year has been having to host our NewsStorms over Zoom. In-person NewsStorms were a staple of the Register Forum. Every first Thursday of the month, over 30 students would congregate in 3401, sharing their ideas for articles and cracking jokes—most of them incredibly trite (as journalists should be). We were excited to carry on the tradition of NewsStorms in 3401 as co-editors-in-chief, but when the pandemic forced us to move to Zoom, it lacked the interpersonality that we had grown to love. Sure, we would like to think that our jokes still made people feel like they were a part of the community, but it is hard to know whether the jokes we made ever hit the mark when everyone else had their microphones muted. 

Outside of the actual inner workings of the Register Forum, we also had plans to expand the paper’s outreach. Our biggest plan was to lay a foundation for the future of the Register Forum. We reached out to middle school principals from across the district about their own school newspapers, hoping to have an article published in the Register Forum every month by middle schoolers from different schools. Not only did we think that connecting with the middle schools would lessen the nervousness many rising freshmen feel when they first join the Register Forum, but we also thought that the program could help younger students foster a passion for journalism coming into high school. Due to middle schools already overwhelmed dealing with the pandemic, we had to scrap the idea, but we hope that it can be acted on in the future.  

Another point of concern for us was the obvious lack of representation at the Register Forum. Despite such a diverse student body, year after year, the makeup of the newspaper was predominantly white. We hoped that during our time as editors-in-chief, we could begin to change that. Regrettably, we struggled to find conducive ways to increase our diversity in the online setting. Towards the end of our time as editors though, we were rightfully called out for the lack of representation in the Register Forum’s leadership. Since, we have begun the process of reconnecting with the Black Student Union at our school, a relationship we hope can continue for many years to come, and we have one of, if not the most diverse editorial board we have had in our three years at the paper. Still, there is a lot of work to be done before the Register Forum will be truly reflective of all students at CRLS, but we are hopeful that changes will continue.

Despite the major challenge that the pandemic posed for the Register Forum, we were still able to develop our newspaper in ways we could not have if we were churning out print editions. Since we did not have to worry about layout or distribution, we had much more time to focus on and improve our website. We posted our very first podcast, developed and spearheaded by our first Audio/Visual Editor, Tavi Pollard ’23, who will lead the Register Forum in producing more podcasts and videos next year. 

In the same vein, solely using our website as our publishing platform has grown the amount of articles we have in each edition, consequently increasing the roles of our contributing writers. With print editions, editors-in-chief may have to either postpone or nix a few article pitches so that they have the correct number of articles to format. Without these restrictions, our contributing writers were able to have all of their work published, and they didn’t all have to be about CRLS. We branched out our Sports section to encompass all sports, not just our Rindge teams. Our Metro and Opinion sections were overflowing with articles ranging from a variety of perspectives within the pandemic to events completely unrelated. This newfound freeness made the paper seem less intimidating (although that may have just been us) and our membership grew extensively. Instead of showing up to a daunting classroom where only upperclassmen spoke, new contributors could turn off their camera and just listen, or private message one of us their pitch. So, although we couldn’t offer the usual fun and happiness we would bring to room 3401, we became more approachable instead. 

While we could not meet some of our initial goals (from before the pandemic was a real threat), we were able to host fellows from the Nieman Foundation (the most prominent journalism institution at Harvard) on a virtual panel. Moderated by our lovely successors, Azusa Lippit ’22 and Esther Cull-Kahn ’22, this workshop with the Nieman Fellows was very enlightening as they discussed their careers, advice for aspiring journalists, and issues in journalism that are also glaringly present in the Register Forum, such as diversity of both race and ideas. We hope we’ll continue to foster a relationship with the Nieman Foundation and take advantage of the academic resources and colleagues we have here in Cambridge. One thing to note: planning this workshop was much simpler than it would have been in person. The panel took place on a Zoom call, the link to which we sent out to the whole school and had homerooms and teachers promote. Again, we saw this as an opportunity to gain outreach and accessibility to our newspaper. 

And, of course, it is an honor to say that we are the editors-in-chief of the pandemic. Yes, Azusa and Esther will get some of it, but this year was incredibly unique. It was amazing and heart-warming to see how much every contributor and editor could still care about a high school newspaper while a literal pandemic was tearing the world apart. We hope the Register Forum gave people an escape and a sense of normalcy, and, honestly, just something to do. Online NewsStorms were sad compared to what they used to be, but we looked forward to every one, even while everyone was neither laughing at our jokes nor answering our icebreakers. 

Looking ahead, the hardest job lies on Azusa and Esther—transitioning the Register Forum back to print. We are teaching them layout, showing them what goes into a print edition, but, unfortunately, we graduate in June, and Azusa and Esther will be left to fend for themselves. But they are the perfect people for the job. We put full trust into their super organized, leading hands. If you didn’t know, the Register Forum is the oldest continuously-published, student-run public high school newspaper in the country. We know that they will not only continue the Register Forum spirit and get it back on its printed feet, but make it the best continuously-published public high school newspaper America has ever seen. Thank you for three amazing years!