BUILDING A BETTER NEWSROOM: Members of The Tower staff at Princeton High School are shown with copies of the newspaper. The students applied for and received a grant to diversify the newsroom and buy multimedia equipment to modernize the operations. The Tower is in its 98th year. (Courtesy of The Tower)
By Wendy Greenberg
When the editorial board of the Princeton High School (PHS) student newspaper The Tower wondered how they could attract a more diverse student staff to work on the highly regarded publication, they did some brainstorming.
“We always strive to have a more diverse staff,” said The Tower Managing Editor Aritra Ray, a PHS junior. “But how does that happen? What are the challenges to students? The staff was not as diverse as we would like it to be,” he said in an interview.
The newspaper editors decided that one barrier to participation might be that students had to provide their own equipment such as using cameras on their phones, recorders, and more multimedia apparatus. But how to remedy the equipment shortage on a tight budget?
The Tower editors found support in a New Jersey Civic Consortium grant, which gave PHS $13,700. PHS is only the second high school to obtain the grant. According to the Consortium website, “The Tower is a student-led publication at Princeton High School that provides young people with an essential platform for civic expression. Funding supports equitable student participation by covering technology upgrades and printing costs, ensuring that all students — regardless of financial background — can contribute to and access the school newspaper.”
The grant, which was named Building a 21st Century Newsroom, will allow the staff to purchase items to build up its multimedia team, such as iPads, ProMedia gear, cameras, and transcription software which can build journalistic ethics, said Ray. “These are barriers to entry,” he said. “We will make it clear that you don’t need to provide your own. No one wants to start taking photos with an iPhone.” The Princeton Public Schools Board of Education (BOE) supports The Tower with printing expenses.
“The main reason we chose to pursue this grant was to bolster the journalistic pipeline, within Princeton, but also to make The Tower more diverse, and a true representation of the Princeton students it is for,” Ray told the Princeton Board of Education (BOE) at its December 16 meeting, during an overview presentation on the student-led grant.
The student newspaper, which is in its 98th year, has about 40 writers and editors on its staff. Some 400 copies are printed of each of nine issues. A $30 mailed subscription is available to community members by signing up at a link on the top right corner of the newspaper website, at towerphs.com.
There are two faculty advisors, teachers Doug Levandowski and Lauren King. “Combined, they have 38 years of experience in student journalism, and a wealth of knowledge,” said Ray.
“We really see our role as advisors, to give advice,” said Levandowski, who said the advisors were not involved in the grant process. “It’s a genuinely student-run paper. Lauren and I are consistently impressed with the work the staff does. It’s mind-boggling, in a good way. We see ourselves as an encyclopedia, here to answer questions.”
The Tower website features a talk by a Holocaust survivor; highlights the Studio Band’s European tour; profiles the retiring Learning Commons librarian; offers an overview of the high school’s special education program; and features opinion pieces on debating politics with family and friends, supporting small businesses, and the government’s reclassifying certain professions. Sports coverage is abundant, and a multimedia page features the tech crew at PHS performances.
Asked what they are most proud of covering in the past year, Ray said, “If I had to pick one thing it would be reporting on the affordable housing, PILOT program in Princeton, and the complexities of funding. The town officials were very willing to talk and give the details,” and he noted that Councilwoman Mia Sacks (former Council president) was generous with her time. The article expands on the premise that “Princeton’s new housing projects have come with increasing debates about whether the developments adequately meet Princeton’s affordable housing obligations while at the same time preserving the town’s unique historic identity,” which leads the article, published in the June 2025 issue and was written by Ray, Harry Dweck, Fangwu Yu, and Daniel da Costa.
“The type of reporting we do shows the importance of not having a singular point of view,” said Ray.
The state of high school journalism in New Jersey is good, he said, due to the New Voices ACT of 2021, a state law signed by Gov. Murphy that protects First Amendment rights of student journalists.
The Tower hopes the grant will help them continue to realize their mission to provide information for the community “through reporting and/or analyzing the inner workings of Princeton High School, the school district, and cultural and athletic events that affect the student body; providing a source of general news for parents, teachers, and peers; voicing various opinions from an informed group of writers; and maintaining quality in accurate content and appealing aesthetics, as well as upholding professionalism and journalistic integrity,” as its mission states.
And, “we really want to tell stories,” said Ray. “Our PHS classmates are doing amazing things on a daily basis. If we can cover 1 percent of what they are doing, that’s OK with me.”