On Thursday, January 30, 2024, the newspaper staff took a trip to The Daily Reflector, and learned about how a newspaper office runs. It was about a ten-minute trip down the road, and we were met by staff member Tim Moore, who gave us a tour of The Daily Reflector‘s facility.
We started at the main entrance of the building, then followed Mr. Moore to the printing room.
This room was where the newspapers are printed after being downloaded to the printing machines, and is one of the most important rooms in The Daily Reflector.
They feed massive rolls of paper into the machine, where the templates are inked onto them.
Then Mr. Moore then led us to the “Ink Room” which was where the inks were made and tested on paper.
The board in the background is a schedule board, which displays the schedules and print orders for the printing machines.
We then went to a formatting room, where the newspapers are put together, and he showed us a piece of sheet metal that they use to format a newspaper.
Next, we were led to an enormous warehouse-type room, which they use to store all the copies of newspapers, massive storage containers of inks, and rolls upon rolls of paper. 
After that, we went to the office floor, where we sat around a large conference table and discussed journalism and writing with Executive Editor Bobby Burns. Mr. Burns provided context and practical information: he told us a little bit about the newspaper, their website, how to edit a newspaper, and the business challenges for a newspaper in a time when so many people use social media in lieu of verified news.
Some of the stories were colorful and he reminded us that all stories have to be fact-checked multiple times before the story can be written, and this is one of the most difficult things about journalism.
He also mentioned the newspaper’s photo contest, in which a person enters a photo taken early in the morning, and showed us a photo of a butterfly resting on a blade of grass covered with dew. This photo won the contest, and it was taken by Oakwood’s Abbe Waller.
After we finished our discussion, we thanked Mr. Moore and Mr. Burns for their time, and journeyed back to Oakwood.