The Culver Chronicle is a newly established club that focuses on publishing paper copies of the latest CCHS news. Each month, The Culver Chronicle publishes one issue of the school news, with the goal to produce one volume at the end of the school year.
The establishment of The Culver Chronicle initially caused confusion among ASB and The Centaurian, which has been the official school newspaper for decades. While ASB was concerned at the beginning of the school year over the creation of seemingly two identical clubs, The Culver Chronicle was eventually given permission to start their own club. What differentiates The Culver Chronicle from The Centaurian is the outlet of each publication. The Centaurian focuses on releasing news online for CCHS students while The Culver Chronicle publishes their own news on paper. Club President Kate Sisk says “the club was created to reach students differently,” and try to reach a broader audience with paper copies.
Sisk says the steps to creating an issue are “to go around school and record current events, [and] then go to the printing company to print and hand out copies to the entire school.” Some of their stories include “Homecoming Dance,” “Squirrel Steals Bread,” and “Drills and School Safety,” among other stories accounting the recent school events. The Culver Chronicle has released two issues this school year: issues have stories on the front side, while the back side contains more minor information and activities such as puzzles, recipes, and gossip.
Sisk says they have been successful in creating issues, as they have been sponsored by a printing company, advertised local businesses, and spread paper copies to CCHS students.
However, the production of their publication has not come without additional concern.
On Nov. 15, The Culver Chronicle released an issue titled “Centaurian vs. Chronicle.” They claimed that The Centaurian “declared war” on them after the release of their first issue in October.
One of the Co-Editors-in-Chief of The Centaurian, Jonathan Kim, voiced his concerns about the statement that The Centaurian “declared war” on The Culver Chronicle, as he said that no statement was ever made or insinuated.
“It’s unjournalistic and unprofessional to portray any group of people in a false manner,” Kim said. “We understand that The Chronicle has their own goals and we have no issues with their existence, but we don’t want to be misrepresented in any of their stories.”
The Centaurian’s faculty advisor, Mrs. Marino said that they are committed to continuing to produce accurate stories on their websites about issues affecting CCHS students and the Culver City community.
“The Centaurian makes sure to follow journalistic principles to make all the content published as accurate as possible and avoid, intentionally or unintentionally, portraying anybody inaccurately or in a biased way,” Mrs. Marino said. “Our process is to confirm the facts, not to publish something that comes by word of mouth.”
Sisk said they are working on being more professional for future issues, with their next issue set to release on Dec. 15.
