Join the Record
Information for Record Applicants — Fall 2024
Thank you for your interest in The Williams Record, the College’s student-run newspaper since 1887! Please email Julia Goldberg (jmg9), Luke Chinman (llc5), or Emily Zas (ezs1) if you’re interested in joining our staff.
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What’s the Record?
We’re the College’s student-run newspaper, and our mission is to serve the College community by providing fair and editorially independent reporting on issues and stories that matter. We publish a weekly print and online issue during the academic year, as well as breaking news all year long. We have a lovely office on the second floor of the Paresky Center.
Why join the Record?
Our reporting serves students, faculty, and staff at the College, as well as alums and members of the Williamstown community. We are the only newspaper specifically covering Williamstown, so many people look to us for their local news.
Our staff have created fake Tinder accounts, hiked in freezing weather before sunrise, interviewed people including members of Congress, a Grammy and Oscar award winner, Jeopardy! contestants, and more, all in the name of journalism. Recent Record alums have gone on to work at NPR, The Christian Science Monitor, The Wall Street Journal, Military Times, The New Jersey Globe, and The Berkshire Eagle, among other news outlets. Also, you’ll get to know a wonderful group of people (in our unbiased opinion), develop your writing skills, publish your work, and stay on top of what’s going on at the College.
What does each section do?
Please see below for descriptions of each of the sections.
News:
The news section is dedicated to writing time-sensitive or investigative articles to keep the College community informed. Recent articles have reported on campus organizing around the war in Gaza, turmoil within the College’s Junior Advisor program, conversations about the future of Winter Study, and the College’s response to Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action.
The news section also covers Williamstown and the Berkshires, including news about the Williamstown Select Board and Williamstown Police Department (WPD).
Opinions:
The opinions section prints op-eds, letters, crosswords, and comics from members of the College community, as well as editorials written collectively by the Record board. Recent pieces in the section include an op-ed calling on the College to preserve the Williams-Mystic study away program, another to create lower-stakes arts classes, and an editorial calling for the College to divest from weapons manufacturers and suppliers to the Israeli Defense Forces. Opinions writers can also work with our editors to produce regular columns.
Features:
The features section is a catch-all section for people-centric pieces that aren’t time sensitive. The features team has covered topics ranging from the College’s history to student research to hidden places on campus. Recent features articles have given a history of the annual daytime “Sensations” party, investigated the concept of the “Phantom 500,” and covered how hair braiding provides a sense of community for Black studies at the College.
Arts:
The arts section runs articles on everything from student music performances to local exhibits and movie reviews. Recent arts articles include reporting on a senior thesis about the history of WCFM, a Transnational Asian Film Festival at Images Cinema, and a student-organized concert for first years in the basement of Sage.
Sports:
The sports section covers athletic pursuits within the College community. The sports section has written about alums’ athletic achievements, the history of athletics at the College, e-sports, and much more. Recent articles include a profile on a student photographer who shot athletes at NCAA Women’s March Madness Tournament, reporting on the establishment of a club soccer team for non-cisgender males, and a chronicle of one student’s 50-mile ultramarathon, as well regular coverage about the College’s athletic teams.
Visuals:
Visuals are an essential part of any newspaper. While most photos in the Record accompany articles, we also run photo series, which can range from the changing seasons of the College campus to photos of professors’ pets. Our graphics editors and staff also create infographics (graphs about enrollment data, diagrams of the cash flows of a secret frat, and so on) as well as illustrations (a visual representation of a student’s overwhelming coursework, for example) to accompany articles.
We hope that you will consider joining the Record this year. If you have any questions, please email any of us!
Sincerely,
Julia Goldberg (jmg9), editor-in-chief
Luke Chinman (llc5), managing editor
Emily Zas (ezs1), managing editor
