Step 1: The Beating: Patriot Press staff go out and physically beat teachers for article ideas…or so people think. In reality, the “beating” is when staff gather general article ideas from Liberty teachers, staff, and prominent students. This is the faculty and student body’s chance to highlight students and programs within Liberty. Article ideas are collected on the Beating deadline. 

Step 2: Section Meetings (aka Daughters’ Slaughter Session): Based on the Beating, article ideas are organized into eight categories: news, sports, feature, spotlight, opinion, entertainment, beat, and backpage. Each section meets together with Daughters and editorial members to decide which ideas will make the issue. Topics are finalized after approval from Daughters and the board.

Step 3: Article Drafts: Each article goes through five draft stages: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, Daughter’s, and final drafts. Press staff conduct interviews with students and staff related to their article and then slowly shape their article. Editorial board members and section editors review each draft and suggest changes.

Step 4: Design Drafts: Similar to article drafts, page designs are divided into the same five draft stages. Press staff utilize Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator to design the pages and create art for the paper. 

Step 5: Editors Late Night (ELN): Staff writers, section editors, and editorial board members stay after school to finalize all articles and designs to print quality. Pages are printed out and examined by EBM numerous times before being approved to upload. Many memories are made during this long and grueling process to finalize the paper.

Step 6: Paper release and distribution: The paper is printed, counted, and distributed to all classrooms at Liberty!