Advisers and Editors Center

Starting a Middle School Newspaper

Student Journalism Ideas

Here at Makemynewspaper.com, we specialize in helping schools create a newspaper. Using our free online cloud designer, your school can make a newspaper that will not only give your students journalism experience, but give them an outlet to be heard.

Help Starting a Middle School Newspaper

  • A free online, fully functional cloud designer. We have built a Designer that has many of the features of a typical Desktop Publishing program. However, there is nothing to download and install! Our Designer works right within your browser. It has all the basic features of a Desktop Publishing Program to allow your middle schoolers the ability to make their own newspaper. We have hundreds of templates that can be altered to fit your specific needs. Each template is 100% customizable with your pictures and your stories. To see ALL of our templates, Click Here.
  • Access from anywhere. Because our Designer is in the cloud, your students have access to your projects from anywhere--even their own home. You can assign projects and homework that they can complete from home as long as they have the log in information.
  • We print your middle school newspapers at some of the lowest prices anywhere. Starting at just $19.00, you can have a full-fledged printed newspaper delivered right to your school door. Click here for pricing if you only want 500 copies and less. Click here if you need copies of 750 or more.
  • Digital solutions. If you are not interested in a printed newspaper, consider an eNewspapers subscription. These are digital representations of your newspaper. You can send the link to a eNewspaper via email or social media. Readers can read and download a copy of their very own. Click here to see an example and to find out about pricing.

Common Questions

  • How many students can work on the same project at the same time? Only one. The last one to save his/her work will overwrite what others are doing. We have in the works a true collaboration function, but at the moment only one student can work on a project at the same time. Students can work on different projects at the same time without any problem. So you can assign each student their own project.
  • Can we combine pages from different projects? Not at this time. This is a feature that we hope to implement in the future.
  • Do I use ALL the white space in the designer, or do I leave a margin? Use all the white space. We will automatically add a half inch margin all around the outside edge for both printed middle school newspapers and eNewspapers.
  • What is the actual printed area? For an 11x14 newspaper, the printable area is 10x13. For an 11x17 newspaper, the printable area is 10x16.
  • How do I print on my home or school printer? We are a commercial newspaper printing service and our system, including our Designer, is not meant for home or office use. You will need to purchase an eNewspaper which comes with a printable PDF in order to print at home or at school.
  • Is my eNewspaper subscription good for all of my student’s accounts? No. An eNewspaper subscription is only good for one account.
  • What browser do you suggest? Right now, we suggest Google Chrome. Our designer and templates were largely created with Chrome in mind. It will work with other browsers, but old or outdated browsers will always have issues with our designer. We strongly recommend that you update your browser to the latest version.
  • Where can I get more answers? Our Main FAQs, specifications, and Newspaper Design Tips can be found by clicking on each word.

A middle school newspaper will be one of the highlights of your school. Involving as much of the student body as possible will only increase the appeal of a printed school newspaper.

Free Cloud Designer Templates

Our templates are 100% customizable, super user-friendly, and designed specifically to help you create outstanding middle school newspapers with our free Cloud Designer. Below are a few of the 100s of templates available to you.