Making the yearbook

A story design looks like this:

1 Brainstorm a topic.
2. Figure out the 'angle' on that topic: what is interesting about that particular basketball game? Is the star player out? New coach? End of a losing streak? This will be the 'focus' of the piece.
3. Write some pre-coverage questions: what would you and our readers like to know more about?
4. Attend the event; take hundreds of photos from a variety of angles, using different forms of composition to tell the story visually. Take names of participants for later followup.
5. Go through the photos, find the best ones to print.
6. Identify people in the photos; find them, talk to them about their experiences. Record what they say for accuracy!
7. Place electronically the best photos on the page, using basic layout and design knowledge to make them look good. One 'dominant' photo should take precedence.
8. Every photo has a caption explaining what's happening in that photo; we use this recipe:
Present tense action verbs naming the action and participants;
past tense verbs giving additional information not apparent in the photo;
A quote/interview with someone in or associated with the photo to wrap up.
9. There's a lot of design and layout and editing work after that step to effectively use space and entice the reader into staying a while.
10. Collaborate with editors to finalize writing and design for publication.