Factors with the most influence on whether a story gets covered or not: impact on campus and perceived interest of the study body. Whether a story had a visual or not was also a top factor.

The reality is that if we don’t cover what’s going on on campus, it’s not likely that the News & Observer, the Washington Post or USA Today will. Our primary audience is the students at N.C. State followed by the faculty and staff of the University. We owe it to them to cover them and the things that interest them.

STUDENTS FIRST • We are the student paper and thus we cover student life. If we can tailor a student angle to the story — we’ll be more apt to cover it.

CAMPUS ORIENTATION • There are so many news outlets that our readers can get their news, from the News & Observer, to CNN, WRAL and more.

Each of those outlets have their own niche — ours is campus. You won’t see international or national news in our pages, but you will see how international or national issues are effecting campus and students.

BROAD APPEAL • NCSU is a diverse campus, and we try real hard to play up to that. The stories that we go after are usually ones that will appeal or impact every student, regardless of major, race, sex, or region.

ISSUES BASED • Our news agenda is based on a issues model — that is we try to cover how certain issues will impact students daily lives. Our stories aim to inform students on the issues, explain how it impacts them, how their future will be effect by its outcome.

EVENTS • We send our reporters out to events that we believe hit all the bullets above. We’re not going to cover a campus group meeting, but we may cover a big campus event organized by campus group, locally or elsewhere if it has broad appeal.

AWARDS • Except for major grants or extraordinary awards we usually stay clear of covering such news.

TIME CONSTRAINTS • We have a limited staff, if we hear of event the day it occurs, we’re less able to cover it than if we know at least a week ahead of time and can assign a writer to the story. We do have on-call writers, but with tight school schedules we roll them out only if the event warrants the coverage.