ATHENS, Ohio — The Atomic Cougar Press Association is a small, independently run publication started by students from Athens High School.
“It was actually my idea,” Athens High School student Syles Rosser said. “I thought about it randomly and just got these guys on board, and we went from there.”
The team consists of Rosser, chief editing officer, and head journalist, Ryan Murphy, a sophomore and chief corresponding officer; Chief Marketing Officer Marek Ausseresses, a sophomore; and Lucas Dowdy, a junior, who is president of operations .
Athens High School offers a journalism class. However, Rosser wanted a different approach. He explained that he had a previous interest in journalism.
“I wrote some things, but I never really knew how to publish those until we actually started our own publication,” Rosser said.
The association publishes print and online papers monthly. Each paper includes current national and local events. Both versions are free to read.
“I just pay attention to what’s going on and what major events need covered, and we feel that should be covered,” Rosser said. “Our goals are not to state anything that is political — we state the facts and let the reader decide how they want to interpret them.”
Although the association covers national events, it also covers local school news. The association has recently covered school walkouts, changes to the school’s policies and more.
Although the association is separate from Athens High School, it distributes its newspapers within the school.
“We did get permission, but it was definitely a few months of back and forth,” Rosser said.
Ausseresses said that once the school understood that the association was reporting on current events, it decided the publication could be distributed within the school.
“They [Athens High School] weren’t sure because it was a brand new thing, they didn’t know what we were going to write about,” Ausseresses said. “We could have made it super political, but we didn’t do that.”
Athens City School District Superintendent Chad Springer said the main concern over the association was following Athens City School District board policy. The association has to follow policies that address “relations with special interest groups” and advertising, respectively.
“I think that this is a great concept for these students to come together and develop real-life skills that will be used in the future,” Springer said in an email. “I applaud this group and their initiative.”
A paper rack, provided by the association, near the entrance of the building allows the association to distribute papers within the school.
The newspapers are printed by members using their own printers at home. Printing costs are entirely funded by Rosser.
Recently, the team interviewed Gov. Mike DeWine for their first podcast episode. The podcast, called The Atomic Cougar Press Association’s Major Events and Interviews, covers different news topics.
Rosser hopes the podcast will be a good method to expand the association to the general public.
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