About Us

The Pitch Online

Founded in 2009, The Pitch Online is Walter Johnson High School’s digital newspaper. In order to keep up with new media trends, the originally print-only newspaper The Pitch went online while still producing its monthly, award-winning print newspaper. After a year of working with barely any web design help, the editors wanted the appearance of the site to match the high quality of its content. So, The Pitch Online partnered with School Newspapers Online, a Minnesota-based company focused on the web design of specifically online high school newspapers, and launched a completely new website in 2010. The Pitch Online continues to keep its subscribers informed and entertained through new and updated content.

As we are still adapting to our site and trying to attract readers, we would appreciate any reader input for The Pitch Online. Co-online Editors-in-Chief Katie Campbell, Nour Faragallah, and Jona Jancewicz are always open to your feedback, so please e-mail [email protected] with questions, comments, suggestions, or concerns.

Mission Statement

The mission of The Pitch is to:

Keep the student body, parents, staff and community informed on important school/community events
Represent the voices and opinions of individual students, student groups and staff members of the WJ community
Allow students to create meaningful connections and relationships with one another, reaching out and strengthening the community as a whole
Highlight student athletes, artists and accomplishments
Teach interested students about the ethics, purpose, and skills of journalism

Social News Gathering Ethics Code

As a reliable and accurate news source, we strive to:

Present news properly, honestly and fairly.
Approach every assignment with the fairness of open minds and without prior judgment.
Verify the authenticity of content before publishing or distributing it.
Be transparent with the audience about the accuracy of our content.
Seek informed consent before using information from the individual who created it.
Give due credit to the owner of the content provided.
Minimize the number of errors we make and correct those that occur.
Consider technical measures to ensure anonymity of sources when required.

For corrections, please email [email protected]

Staff Contract

Staff members sign a contract at the start of the school year to ensure that they are committed to representing The Pitch in a way that promotes accountability, respect, and journalistic excellence and integrity.

Comment Policy

Readers are welcome to comment. We reserve the right to moderate, delete, or edit comment threads as we see fit. Comments are monitored and spam comments will be deleted. Attacks on other commenters or Pitch staff members will not be tolerated. The opinions presented on this website do not represent the opinions of the WJ student body as a whole.

Byline Policy

Any significant contributions by a Pitch staff member or editor will be credited in a byline or a tagline by the story. If multiple staff members contribute to a piece, their names will be notated by the story.

Correction Policy

Clarifications and corrections should be clear, concise and direct. They must be comprehensible to anyone who reads them, including readers who may have missed the story that is being corrected. Anyone reading the correction should be able to understand how and why the mistake has been corrected.

2022-2023 Staff

Online Editors-in-Chief: Katie Campbell, Nour Faragallah, Jona Jancewicz

Print Editors-in-Chief: Robert Hsu, Luke Liden, Yuval Shachar

Managing Editors: Raquel Daley, Ila Gordon, Nicole Weaver, Zsuzsanna Juhasz

Podcast/Film Editor: Alison Razafimandimby, Sanir Byanjankar

News Editors: Abby Kee, Alexander Lewton, Seyun Park, Sourish Dey, Ely Snow

Feature Editors: Julia Ratner, Cecilia Saltzman, Grace Willis, Allison Xu, Bella Weintraub

Arts & Entertainment Editors: Liam Dorrien, Lizzie Kotlove, Liann Keren, Josh Hannel

Sports Editors: Elizabeth Finn, Dylan Schmidt, Joshua Singer, Audrey Ring, Jose Tovar

Opinion Editors: Rachael Wolfson, Baxter Roberts, Blake Bailey, Rhea Noumair

Layout Editors: Laura-Jane Mata, Sydney Fraser

Social Media & Marketing Coordinators: Walker Prince, Jack Stashower, Isabella Suarez

Copy Editor: Mia Halper

Photography Editor: Ishaan Ramola, Sanir Byanjankar

Business Managers: Mia Magone, Rutajit Shetty

Illustrator: Rhea Noumair

Staff Writers: Luke DeZee, Noel Haptemariam, Alessandro Marra, Jalen Scott, Nick Opipari, Olivia Scharf, Jael Smith, Andrew Plotnick

Awards (Print)

Columbia Scholastic Press Association

Gold Medalist

2009, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020

Columbia Scholastic Press Association

Silver Medalist

2014, 2015, 2018, 2021

Columbia Scholastic

Bronze Medalist

2011

American Scholastic Press Association

First Place

2011

Columbia Scholastic Press Association Marylander Award

Newspaper Division C

2011

Columbia Scholastic Press Association Silver Crown

2016