Click CMS Desktop to reveal the dropdown menu; select Editorial > Assets.
From the top left of the large central panel, select New Asset, then Article from the dropdown menu.
The new article window appears. In Blox CMS, anything underlined in red is required information. Type the headline of the article in the Title field.
Enter your article content either by directly typing into the text box or using the Paste as Plain Text button to copy and paste from a word processor.
Use the Start Date/Time field below the text entry area to determine your article publish time.
For immediate publish: save the article when it is done (allowing for caching time).
For publishing at a future date: click the calendar icon. The article will publish automatically at the date and time set.
Set the display priority.
On the right side of the panel, there are three important tabs: Tags, Related, and Other.
To add a section: click Tags > Sections > Add.
A section is required for a story to appear on the homepage and section pages.
The Select Sections screen will pop up; you then can choose the sections of the publication to which the article is to be assigned. You can select multiple sections at one time. When you are satisfied with the sections chosen, click Add Sections. Please drag and drop to put the most specific section at the top (i.e. K-12 Education instead of News).
Add five or more keywords in addition to the slugline (i.e. #05062020slug). Click Tags > Keywords > Add.
You can click the magic wand in the article text editor on the left side to get suggested keywords based on your text.
Under the Related tab, there are child assets, sibling assets and parent assets.
To add a new asset: choose the types of assets (child, sibling, parent) first. Then click Add. Find Assets will allow you to search for existing files.
In the settings of the block, click on Appearance. Click on the arrow to see the options for additional content.
Choose the type of content and number of assets. Set the display mode as a regular vertical list.
To add additional content: click Related > Content > Add and then select the type of content. You can change the title.
Types of additional content: Bio Box, Correction, Did You Know?, Editor's Note, If You Go, Just The Facts, More Coverage, More Information, Places To Go, Pull Quotes, Sports, Story Highlights, Update
To manage the article's workflow: Choose the Other tab.
At the bottom of the screen, click Save. The View button will become active. Click View to see what your new asset will look like when published.
When satisfied with the appearance of your new article asset, click the down arrow next to Save, and select Save and Close. You can also promote it to the next step in the workflow at this point.
To log your hours: go to https://myhr.umsystem.edu/ > Self-Service > Time > Report Time.
Please log your shifts as you work them to prevent missed punches.
Pay remittances are only available online. To view your paycheck in myHR, click the Payroll tab.
Some reminders for student employees:
Employees are responsible for accurately reporting hours, including clocking out for meal and rest breaks. When working a shift longer than six hours, the reasonable expectation is that employees will take at least a 30-minute unpaid meal break. Meals, classes/meetings and other breaks are non-compensable.
UM System guidelines prevent student employees from working more than an average of 28 hours/week (roughly 121 hours/month) across all positions on campus. The Missourian limits your average weekly hours to about 20. If you consistently work more than 28 hours/week, you compromise your part-time, non-exempt status. That aside, we don't want you to put your academic pursuits in jeopardy.
Weekends and special events may necessitate extended shifts. Those instances require a supervisor's approval. Most newsroom shifts do not exceed eight hours, and they should never exceed 12. Overtime is not authorized.
If your shift has waiting time or other lulls, speak to your supervisor about how or if you should schedule around it. Some wait time is compensable, but it isn't always in the best interest of your time management or ours to keep you on the clock during non-busy periods, especially when you're signed on for a long shift.
Answer the phone: "Columbia Missourian, this is [your name], may I help you?"
Email phone messages to reporters right away, or call the reporter yourself. DO NOT give reporters' phone numbers to sources. DOUBLE-CHECK PHONE NUMBERS AND NAMES / SPELLINGS.
Check voicemail is MSG Wait is lit.
Press the phone line, then press MSG Wait.
The passcode is 573-882-5720.
You can answer incoming calls on any newsroom phone by picking up the receiver and dialing 82.
To transfer a call:
If the call is on hold, press the phone line again to take it off hold.
Press Transfer, the 5-digit extension, then Transfer again.
Hang up the phone.
Give the caller the number to which you are transfering them in case of a problem.
We use subheads a lot (which is great!), and there are options in Blox to make them stand out more and also automatically make them a subhead in print.
We don't want to just bold the subheads. They get lost in the story, and it won't translate over in print.
Going to Heading 4 gives you a slightly larger subhead and automates it for print. To go larger, which may be appropriate for some stories, you could use Heading 3. You can always combine Heading 3 and Heading 4 to have multiple levels of subheads with hierarchy.
To get Heading 3 or Heading 4 into a story: Highlight the line you want to be a subhead, and select the heading from the dropdown that says Format: Normal Text in the text editor.
Longform articles are useful for engaging the reader in a longer story with visual elements. The longform presentation drops the side rail and goes full-width. We want to make sure longform articles remain special, so we don't overuse them. We also lose the ads on the page, so advertising will begin pushing back if we overuse it.
Stories that we use longform for are usually at a minimum 1,500 words and have very strong and/or multiple visual elements — photos, graphics, video. With some new tools, we can also begin incorporating info boxes and pull quotes.
To start, change the presentation mode of the article to longform.
At this point, you can embed images and other assets through the article. To embed, drag from the Related Assets panel into the story. You can add images, video, graphics, collections, etc. from child assets. If you have related articles as sibling assets, you can embed these as well. On the Related Content tab, you can drag and drop info boxes and also use the pull quote style.
Any photos not embedded will default to a gallery at the top of the article.
Once the assets are embedded, you can double-click and control several things — alignment, width and presentation. On photos, we can go full-bleed and do a parallax (scrolling photo). The double-click options will be available in all article assets (regular and longform presentation), but some are going to make more sense in longform. I've shown some of the different options in this article (you'll have to be logged into Blox to see it).
Left / Right: aligns the element to the left or right. You can use left and right options to spread out half-width items.
Center: aligns center. What you typically want for full-width items.
Half: uses half the width of the gallery. It readjusts and typically will apply at full-width on mobile.
Full: full-width. Typically stretches outside of the text gallery.
Headline Link: a plain blue link, using the headline as the link text.
Summary: an image (if available) with headline and summary in a box.
Asset Presentation: the standard presentation for the type of asset (an image is an image, an HTML asset shows the asset, a collection shows a scrolling gallery, etc.).
Parallax: scrolling photo.
Full-Bleed: full-bleed photo.
Mosaic: mosaic presentation of images in a collection (photo gallery).
What it typically is: photos, links, PDFs, HTML assets, graphics and sidebar articles. These are the items directly related to an asset. Think about what is under a budget line — T, P, G, D. These are all part of the same package and should be children of the main asset.
Where they show up on the parent (unless embedded in the story):
Standard photos: at the top of the story; multiple photos will go in a gallery
Mugshots (photos with presentation: mugshot): in the side rail
HTML assets: at the bottom of the story
Graphics: treated the same way as photos (highly recommended these are embedded in the article)
Links: right rail
PDFs: right rail
Sidebar articles: right rail (summary is included in this link)
Important note: assets that are children to another asset will not appear in blocks on the homepage or section pages. This prevents a PDF or individual photo from showing up alone on a homepage or section page. That said, related articles (not direct sidebards) should not be added as children to assets or they will disappear from blocks. Related articles should be sibling assets.
What it typically is: assets tangentially related to other assets. We most commonly think of these as related articles (other columns by the same author, a story about the same event from last year, other stories tied to a location or topic, etc.). It can also include photos, collections, HTML assets, PDFs, etc.
Also, sibling assets create a reciprocal relationship. When Article B is added as a sibling to Article A, Article A shows up as a sibling on Article B.
Where they show up: on the right rail as standard links.
What it typically is: we most often think of it as an article, but the parent would be the main asset (in whatever form — photo, gallery, article, etc.) that has the directly related pieces.
Where they show up: there is a link to the parent asset that apepars at the bottom of the child asset. So if a reader gets to an individual photo, they would see a link to the related gallery and/or article.
Print corrections should follow this basic construction: "Casey Smith is an art teacher at Paxton Keeley Elementary School. An article on Page 1A Thursday incorrectly identified Smith's occupation."
Corrections never say "should have said."
Corrections run on Page 1A or, if room is needed for more, on page 2A. If there are additional corrections for Page 2A, put at the bottom of the corrections box on Page 1A: "Please see additional corrections on Page 2A."
Online corrections should follow these basic constructions:
For articles: on the article, go to the Related tab and click on Content. Add new and select Correction. Type the correction in the box.
An asterisk should be placed at the start of every correction:
*The MU mascot is a Bengal tiger. An earlier version of this article misidentified the mascot.
An asterisk also should be noted in the story immediately following the corrected copy:
The MU mascot is a Bengal* tiger.
For photos: corrected captions should be noted in the caption field:
CORRECTED CAPTION: Casey Smith loads a bag of canned goods into a truck Tuesday as part of Columbia's annual food drive. A total of 73 bags of canned goods were collected on Tuesday alone. An earlier version of this caption misstated the number of bags loaded by the city on Tuesday.
For graphics: corrections should be noted underneath the corrected graphic in the caption field:
CORRECTION: Jimmy John's is located on Broadway. An earlier version of this graphic incorrectly stated its location.
For slideshows: corrections should be noted in the description tab field and appear above the introductory paragraph for the corrected slideshow:
CORRECTION: In the fourth photo of this slideshow, Casey Smith, depicted licking an ice cream cone, is 5 years old. An earlier version of this slideshow incorrectly stated his age.
When a correction is made, add #correction in the Keywords tab of the asset.
To create a collection:
Go to Blox CMS > Editorial > Assets > New Asset > Collection.
Write a headline in the title field (start with "PHOTO GALLERY:").
Add the photo assets under the Children tab.
Follow the on-screen instructions to add a headline, photographer(s), byline and captions for the new photo. Repeat for each photo in the gallery.
Drag and drop each photo to achieve the desired order.
Write a description for the gallery. Include "Photography by" with the photographer's name.
Choose the preview image.
Set the Start Date/Time and display priority.
Add sections from the right side panel.
Add Visuals and Visuals/Photo as the sections. If it is a standalone gallery, include a news or sports section, but make sure Visuals/Photo is at the top.
If the photos are also used on a story, only use Visuals and Visuals/Photo as the sections.
Add keywords.
Save and preview the gallery.
To edit a collection:
Edit the photos individually either within the collection asset or separately through the workflow search.
Make sure everything is set to published before publishing the collection.
If it is a standalone collection that should appear in the featured slot, check the featured flag.
Go to Blox CMS > Editorial > Assets > New Asset > Image.
Type the name of the image into the Title field.
Directly beneath the Title field is the area into which your image will be imported. Select Add Image File and choose the import source: Upload a File or Choose from Dropbox.
When loading a large file, a progress bar will appear on the screen, which will make the current window inactive. You can minimize that window while the file uploads and perform other actions.
The basic caption information and byline will populate based on information from the photo's IPTC information.
To the right of the Main Image: (New) window are three tabs: Tags, Related and Other. From the Sections sub-panel on the Tags tab, select Add.
This brings up the Select sections screen, in which you can choose the sections of the publication to which you want the asset assigned. Photos should go in Visuals and Visuals/Photo. When you are satisfied with the sections chosen, select Add Sections.
Keywords should autopopulate from the IPTC information, but you can add additional ones. Be sure to include the slug keyword.
From the bottom of the screen, click Save. The View button becomes active. Click View to see what your new asset will look like when published.
When satisfied with the appearance of your new image asset, click the down arrow next to Save and select Save and Close.