By Jack Ross ‘19

In comparison to the infinite number of URLs on the internet, www.brotherrice.org/thestandard/ lives on the more simple side. Located near the other Brother Rice related news and media on the recently redesigned Brother Rice website, the URL has the simple task of housing the official school newspaper. However, to the wonderful writers of The Standard and my fellow classmates in English 4 Journalism, it is so much more.

To the students in English 140 & 145, what I consider to be a dry title in comparison to the writing and other work we do, The Standard’s website is home to our prized collection of articles. With the freedom to choose our own topics each month, The Standard features a vast array of articles, news stories, and expression pieces written by all types of students at Brother Rice. One student, senior Matteo Valencia said, “The Standard is a great way for students to connect with other students.”

In recent weeks, avid readers may have noticed that the webpage has been redesigned. The staff decided that instead of having two vertical columns, it would be better for the story’s picture, title and preview to be horizontal so that there was even spacing along the page and readers could preview more stories at once.

The decision to renovate the website was not something we randomly considered; instead, it was made after career day. After Michael “Barstool Carl” Sterk spoke to the journalism class on Career Day, we not only soaked in the writing and blogging advice he gave us, but we also took note of how nice the Barstool Sports website looked.

For the unfamiliar, Barstool Sports, a famous sports and pop culture blog, has the horizontal article picture and title layout we were looking for and is where we drew our inspiration from.

Another new addition to The Standard’s webpage is the ability for readers to leave comments on every article. At the end of every article, you will find a comment section to leave a compliment or suggestion for the writer or enter your own input on the topic being discussed. However, as powerful as the comment section is, it is nothing in comparison to the fact that each comment has to approved before posting.

One of the writers, senior Marco Braschi said, “The layout is much nicer and the ability to comment is much easier.” I feel that the changes redefine The Standard and make it a much better experience for both reader and writer.