A student eagerly receives a copy of the school newspaper, flipping each page to see what has been written. Another student laughs at a Back Page story, while a third proudly reads their friend’s article. Many current WIS students have witnessed this scene, but it is not from 2024, but from 1983.
While Dateline is now a staple in the WIS community, it has not always looked the way it does today. Over the years, the school newspaper has continued to evolve to create the one we now know. How did Dateline get to where it is today? What did it look like in the past?
The earliest form of a student-run newspaper found in the school archives is not International Dateline, but in fact The Tregaron Times. This paper ran from at least 1983 to 1987. While it is possible that it kept going for longer, copies of it are missing from the archives following 1987.
This paper had diversely themed sections including: National Forum, Exclusives, The West Wing, Announcements, Straight from the Seniors and others. In addition, puzzles, mazes and drawings decorated the pages of the 1987 editions, as they tried out their “new look.” After every print release, the paper was sold for two days during advisory and lunch for 10 to 25 cents.
Different editions saw a variety of story types. Some included general school announcements, while others saw fun inside scoop articles. The newspaper also had local advertisements inside of it, including businesses that WIS alumni made or worked for.
Although The Tregaron Times goes missing from the archives after 1987, another publication appears named The Grapevine shortly after. While this publication had less specific sections, it also included a plethora of articles and a fun Back Page with games and puzzles. It is likely that The Grapevine took over from The Tregaron Times in a moment of rebranding. The Grapevine has copies in the archives until 1989.
Finally, in 1991, the first copy of International Dateline appeared. Here, the name and look laid the foundations for what it is today. The newspaper began to gain traction at WIS throughout the 1990s and then really hit popularity in the 2000s.
Former WIS teacher Philip Green led Dateline from 2001 to 2005 along with former WIS teacher Tink Fitz. Green was brought in to help with the increased number of journalists in the publication and run a new section called Dateline International— a four-page spread that focused on world events, now the Global News section. Green emphasized that it was a student-led newspaper and his role was to provide support and journalistic guidance to the students.
“Virtually all editorial decisions were ultimately made by student editors,” Green said. “We functioned more as publishers.”
The newspaper was much more class-oriented than it is today, but they still had students who were not in the Journalism class that wrote for them.
Then, Dateline consisted of a 24-page tabloid-size paper. It would be published five times a year, the last one always being released at the time of graduation.
In the 2000s, the creation of a print edition looked very different from today. It was a quick but intense two-day weekend of grueling work to edit, layout and finalize the edition before production began.
“We’d start almost as soon as the previous edition had gone out,” Green said.
They’d start by looking through calendars to see what future events had to be published. Next, they would look at global events that were important or connected to the WIS community. After that, students would write their stories and have them edited (by section editors and the five editors-in-chief) multiple times during the weekly classes. Then, what is dubbed “layout weekend” began.
“We’d assemble at nine on a Saturday morning in the bunker for “layout weekend”,” Green said. “Final copies were approved and pasted into the proof page using Adobe Pagemaker. We’d work until five or six and then [Fitz] and I would take the pages home and redline the errors in them.”
Then, students would correct the errors on Sunday when a final copy was added. The staff would go home anywhere from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.
“It made for an exhausting weekend!” Green said.
The print edition copies would usually arrive on the coming Wednesday, spurring excitement from students who wanted to see the new edition. When they finally got a copy, the entire school would read the paper during homeroom (advisory).
“Everybody wanted a copy,” Green said.
During this time, another student-run paper also appeared in the halls of WIS: WIS Whirl.
This was a completely satiric paper, expanding the fun back page of Dateline, which students sometimes got in trouble for. Some editions included: changing what classrooms are for, a detail of how teachers who put WIS in their wills would get a country named after them and many more entertaining stories. It seems that some students might have written for both publications, but the truth of the fact, or maybe secret, is lost with time. Involved in the secrecy, Green also leaves it in the past.
“There were rumors that some staff who worked on International Dateline also wrote for Whirl, but I couldn’t possibly comment on that,” Green said.
While International Dateline has changed, with different sections, editors, looks and names, one thing that has stayed consistent is its commitment to stay international. In every edition, there are stories about issues from around the world, giving a platform for perspectives and issues on a global scale. Every paper has stayed true to what makes WIS unique: its international community.
During the early 2000s, the staff was taken to New York City to attend the Columbia Scholastic Press Association Convention. There, they would attend workshops and lectures, but also enter the competition. Tina Thuermer, who had led International Dateline in (need the date), expressed how the judges often missed the point and beauty of the paper.
An award given to International Dateline from The Columbia Scholastic Press Association in 2005. (Courtesy of Washington International School)
“The commentary came back that we spent too much time on international affairs and not enough on local,” Thuermer said. “Clearly, they missed the point of WIS.”
The last characteristic that ties together each of the newspapers is the emphasis on the student-run aspect. Whether it be the students in 1987 urging their peers to share their opinions, or the students of the 2000s writing away while the supervisors let them work, the newspaper has always been a place for students to express themselves. It is a place where one can share thoughts and opinions.
“It held the administration to account at times and was respected for that,” Green said. “I think it speaks volumes about a school that was willing to take this risk.”
While The Tregaron Times and The Grapevine might have printed their last words decades ago, the work and stories of the past culminated to create what International Dateline is today.
“Dateline enabled the students to have a voice,” Green said.
By Cate Taylor
