Schoolnews.software -- print edition -- rolling news site -- daily bulletin -- early access
The operating platform for the whole school news publication -- not one reporter's desk, but the paper of record the whole school reads.
A school newspaper is not one document and it is not one website. It is a publication: a masthead, a set of desks, a publishing calendar, and the three surfaces it goes out on -- the printed paper, the rolling online news site, and the daily bulletin the whole school reads at homeroom. Schoolnews.software carries the publication of record end to end, on one newsroom cycle. The reporters and editors write and file in the newsroom desk at journalist.software; schoolnews.software is the publication they publish into, and the way the whole school reads it.
The publication of record, not one reporter’s desk
The tools a school paper is usually handed each solve one slice: a word processor for the story, a website builder for the online edition, a slide of morning announcements, an email attachment for the PDF. None of them know they are the same publication. The masthead lives in one place, the site in another, the bulletin in a third, and the person holding it together is the adviser, at eleven at night, before the print deadline.
Schoolnews.software is built the other way around -- from the publication, not from one document. One masthead gathers the desks. One publishing calendar plans the print edition and the rolling site together. One cleared story publishes to all three surfaces -- the printed paper, the rolling news site, and the daily bulletin -- with no double entry. The reporters and editors do the desk work at journalist.software; schoolnews.software is the publication of record they publish into, and the way the whole school reads it.
The engines behind the newsroom are built and running on the shared school platform. The standalone schoolnews.software product -- the publication-umbrella surfaces gathered under one masthead site -- is in early access. No school has run its whole publication standalone on schoolnews.software yet, and the page will never pretend otherwise.
How it works
Each stage is described as it is built today. The editorial workflow is production-ready and enforced at the engine; the schoolnews-specific publication surfaces are in active build and honest-off. Nothing on this page charges money.
Stage 1 · Pitch
The edition begins with a story budget: what runs, who owns it, how big, and on what deadline -- planned backward from the print date and forward across the rolling site. Beat reporters have standing coverage; the editor builds the budget for the publication, not for one post.
Stage 2 · Report
Reporters work their beats and file to the newsroom desk at journalist.software. On-the-record, read-back-verified quotes attach to the story; every factual claim is verified against a source before it can advance. The desk mechanics are the desk's job -- schoolnews.software is the publication the work is bound for.
Stage 3 · Write
The story is drafted in the multi-publication editor -- the same editor that lays out the yearbook. Drafting help, headline suggestions, and alt-text suggestions run inside our own private cloud; no student writing is sent to an outside company.
Stage 4 · Edit
The story moves through copy and section review, a law-and-ethics and press-rights gate, and the adviser's fail-closed approval. Nothing reaches a publication surface without the adviser gate clearing -- the workflow enforces it at the engine, not by an honor system.
Stage 5 · Publish
One cleared story, three surfaces. Breaking news posts to the rolling site first; the edition packages it for the printed paper on a column grid with preflight that blocks by default; the day's headlines join the daily bulletin. One approval carries all three -- nothing is double-entered.
Stage 6 · Correct
If a story needs a correction, the correction is logged in the public record rather than quietly overwritten. A paper of record keeps its record honest. The budget resets, and the next edition begins.
The publication
Every area is labelled by what actually exists today. Built means the engine ships and runs now on the shared platform. Early access and Engine built -- surface in active build mean the engine exists but the standalone schoolnews.software surface is honest-off. We do not claim otherwise.
Early access
The publication is the thing schoolnews.software is built around. One masthead gathers the desks -- news, sports, opinion, arts, features -- with a publishing calendar that plans backward from each print date and forward across the rolling site. The whole school reads one paper of record, not a scatter of blog posts and email attachments. The publication-umbrella surface is in early access.
Built
The publication runs on a recurring news cycle: a story is pitched to the budget, reported on a beat, written in the editor, edited through copy and section review, cleared by the adviser, published to the surfaces, and corrected transparently if it needs it. The editorial workflow -- assignment to adviser approval, fail-closed -- is built and running. The reporters and editors do this work at the newsroom desk (journalist.software); schoolnews.software is where the cleared story becomes the publication.
Built
The printed paper lays out on a column grid straight from the cleared story file. Print preflight blocks by default -- a missing font fails the job rather than silently substituting -- and the paper prints on demand, so there is no overprint pile in the adviser's closet. The print pipeline is built and shared with the school's yearbook. Money is honest-off: print-on-demand carries a code-enforced cost floor so nothing sells below cost, with no contract and no minimum order, but there is no checkout on this page.
Built
Breaking news posts to the rolling online news site first, then the edition packages it for print. The public online edition is built and shipped: an accessible, responsive news site with alt text on every image, published from the same cleared story file that drives the paper. One story, one approval, two surfaces -- the site is not a second copy-paste of the paper.
Engine built -- surface in active build
The publication is also how the school hears its own news each morning. The daily bulletin gathers the day's headlines and the school's announcements into one read -- pushed to homeroom screens and, with consent, to families. The messaging and announcements engine is built on the shared platform; the schoolnews-specific bulletin surface that ties it to the masthead is in active build, not yet wired standalone.
Engine built -- surface in active build
A paper of record needs an archive of record. Every published edition -- the print PDF and the online edition -- is stored per school as a permanent record. The edition history is built and available to the adviser; the public-facing archive a reader can browse to find last autumn's issue or the paper's founding volume is in active build. Edition records exist; the public browsing surface is being built. It is honest-off for public access today.
Built
Drafting help, headline and alt-text suggestions, and photo review run inside our own private cloud -- no student writing, interview, or photo is shipped to an outside AI company. Student bylines, photos, and news data are consent-gated, off by default, never public without opt-in, and never sold. The publication surfaces use roster lookup, not face matching, and make no face template. (Face matching is a separate, consent-gated, off-by-default platform feature, not part of this publication tool.) The consent gate is built and shipped.
Built
A publication of record runs under a published policy. The press-rights curriculum -- Tinker and Hazelwood, prior review versus prior restraint, New Voices laws, and writing the forum and editorial policy -- is first-class content and shipped. The adviser's editorial authority is structural, not a suggestion: the newsroom cycle will not publish a story without the adviser gate clearing. The publication states its forum status plainly.
One publication, three surfaces
A publication is not one channel. Schoolnews.software publishes one cleared story to three surfaces from the same newsroom cycle, so the paper, the site, and the bulletin never disagree.
The printed paper, laid out on a column grid straight from the cleared story file, with print preflight that blocks by default and print-on-demand so there is no overprint. Built
Breaking news posts to the rolling online news site first and updates as the story develops — accessible, responsive, alt text on every image, no per-reader fee and no third-party ad pixels. Built
The day’s headlines and the school’s announcements gathered into one morning read for homeroom, and — with consent — for families. The engine is built; the masthead-tied bulletin surface is in active build. Engine built — surface in active build
Who it is for
You run a publication, not a folder of files. The masthead, the desks, and the publishing calendar are in one view; one cleared story reaches the print edition, the rolling site, and the daily bulletin without being re-entered three times. The staff box and masthead resolve from the school roster, so the credits are right and the volume numbering holds edition to edition.
The adviser’s editorial authority is structural, not a suggestion: the newsroom cycle will not publish a story without the adviser gate clearing. Press rights and ethics -- Tinker, Hazelwood, New Voices, and the forum policy -- are front-loaded before anything publishes. The AI assistance runs in our own private cloud, so student work is never sent out, and student data is consent-gated and off by default.
The whole school reads one publication of record: the printed paper, the rolling news site, and the daily morning bulletin at homeroom. Student bylines and photos are consent-gated and never public without opt-in; the publication surfaces use roster lookup, not face matching, and make no face template. Corrections are logged in the public record, the way a paper of record keeps itself honest.
Student data & consent
Student bylines, photos, and news data -- reporter profiles, beat assignments, draft text, published stories -- are owned by the school, not by the platform. They are consent-gated and off by default. No student data is sold to or shared with outside companies or advertisers. A student profile is never made public without explicit opt-in: a byline is a publication credit, not a public-facing profile page. The publication surfaces use roster lookup, not face matching, and make no face template. (Face matching is a separate, consent-gated, off-by-default feature of the wider platform -- not part of this publication tool. The wider platform does offer face matching, but only ever when a family turns it on.)
Drafting help, headline and alt-text suggestions, and photo review run inside our own private cloud -- no student writing, interview, or photo is shipped to an outside AI company. Consent can be updated or withdrawn at any time, and the school controls who has access to the publication and to student records. If the school ever leaves, every record leaves with it: edition history, story records, byline credits, and roster data.
What is built and what is early -- plainly stated
Built and running on the shared school platform today: the newsroom cycle and its fail-closed editorial workflow (nothing publishes without adviser clearance), the multi-publication editor, the print edition with preflight that blocks by default and print-on-demand, the rolling online news site, the private-cloud AI (student work is never sent out), the consent gate, and the press-rights curriculum. These are not roadmap items -- they ship and run.
In early access or active build: the standalone schoolnews.software product -- the publication-umbrella surfaces gathered under one masthead site. The masthead and publication-of-record dashboard is in early access; the daily bulletin distribution tie-in and the public archive of record are built at the engine but their schoolnews-specific surfaces are not yet wired standalone. Where a module is marked that way on this page, it means exactly that. No school has run its whole publication standalone on schoolnews.software yet, and the page will never pretend otherwise.
Money is honest-off. There is no pricing displayed, no checkout, and no subscription. The print edition is print-on-demand with a code-enforced cost floor so nothing sells below cost, no contract, and no minimum order; the specific numbers are set during onboarding, off this page. This is a commercial product for a school program, described plainly as one. The next step is a conversation, not a purchase -- email [email protected].
The scholastic-press family
The reporter’s desk — the assignment board, the three-stage editing queue, roster-linked bylines, and the adviser’s fail-closed approval gate. The reporters and editors work here; schoolnews.software is the publication they publish into.
The yearbook desk on the same platform: the same roster, the same photo library, the same consent gate, and the same print pipeline. A photo cleared for the paper is the same consented asset the yearbook respects.
The operating platform for a school theatre program — another school-run publication of its own kind, on the shared foundation the news publication runs on.
The K–12 school platform behind the shared roster, identity, consent, and privacy the publication runs on.
Early access
The engines are built and running; the standalone schoolnews.software surfaces and the bulletin and archive tie-ins are in active build. Book a conversation to see the current state, walk the news cycle, and get early-access priority. There is nothing to buy today -- just a conversation.
Common questions
They defend different subjects. journalist.software is the reporter's desk -- the person and the editorial chain: the assignment board, the three-stage editing queue, roster-linked bylines, and the adviser's fail-closed approval gate. schoolnews.software is the publication itself: the masthead, the desks, the publishing calendar, and the three surfaces the school reads -- the print edition, the rolling news site, and the daily bulletin. The reporters and editors work in the desk; schoolnews.software is the publication of record they publish into. The desk is cross-linked; this product does not replace it.
One publication, three surfaces. The print edition is the printed paper, laid out on a column grid and printed on demand. The rolling online news site carries breaking news first and updates as a story develops. The daily bulletin gathers the day's headlines and the school's announcements into one morning read for homeroom. All three publish from the same cleared story file and the same newsroom cycle -- one story, one approval, no double entry.
It is built and running. The editorial workflow -- assignment to adviser approval, enforced fail-closed at the engine -- is shipped on the shared platform, along with the multi-publication editor, the public online edition, print preflight that blocks by default, the private-cloud AI, and the consent gate. What is in early access is the standalone schoolnews.software product: the publication-umbrella surfaces gathered under one masthead site. We say which is which on this page.
No. The AI assistance -- drafting help, headline and alt-text suggestions, and photo review -- runs inside our own private cloud. No student writing, interview, or photo is shipped to an outside AI company. This is a property you can verify in a conversation, not a claim that waits on a pilot.
Student bylines, photos, and news data are owned by the school, consent-gated, off by default, and never sold or shared with outside companies or advertisers. A student profile is never made public without explicit opt-in -- a byline is a publication credit, not a public-facing profile page. The publication surfaces use roster lookup, not face matching, and make no face template. Face matching is a separate, consent-gated, off-by-default platform feature and is not part of this publication tool. Consent can be updated or withdrawn at any time.
No. There is no pricing on this page, no checkout, and no subscription -- money is honest-off. The print edition is print-on-demand with a code-enforced cost floor so nothing sells below cost, no contract, and no minimum order; the online news site has no per-reader fee. The specific numbers are set for your program during onboarding, off this page. The next step is a conversation, not a purchase.
As first-class content. The press-rights curriculum teaches the Tinker and Hazelwood framework, prior review versus prior restraint, New Voices laws, and how to write the staff's forum and editorial policy. The adviser's editorial authority is structural: the newsroom cycle will not publish a story without the adviser gate clearing. The publication states its forum status and its corrections policy plainly, the way a paper of record should.
Edition records are built and stored per school: every print edition is kept as a permanent PDF record, and every online edition is stored under the school's edition history. The adviser can open any past issue. The public-facing archive a reader can browse -- to find last autumn's issue or the paper's founding volume -- is in active build. It is honest-off for public access today: the records exist; the reader browsing surface is being built.
One record, one platform. The publication shares the roster, the identity, the consent gate, the private-cloud AI, and the print pipeline with the yearbook at yearbook.press and the reporter's desk at journalist.software. A photo cleared for the paper is the same consented asset the yearbook respects; a student who graduates off the roster leaves every publication at once. The desks are separate tools for separate jobs; the record underneath is shared.
The standalone product is in early access. The engines described here -- the newsroom cycle, the print edition and the rolling site, the private-cloud AI, the consent gate, and the press-rights curriculum -- are built and running on the shared platform; the schoolnews-specific publication surfaces and the bulletin and archive tie-ins are in active build and honest-off. There is no signup or online payment yet. Book a conversation -- email [email protected] -- to see the current state and get early-access priority.