About Us

wjpitch.com is the online presence of Walter Johnson High School’s award-winning newspaper The Pitch. The originally print-only paper launched wjpitch.com in 2009 to keep up with changing media trends while still producing its monthly, award-winning print newspaper. In 2010, The Pitch 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, which has undergone multiple redesigns since. The Pitch continues to keep its subscribers informed and entertained through new and updated content in print and online.

As we continue to refine our content and production, we would appreciate any reader input for The Pitch. The Pitch Editorial Board is always open to your feedback. Email [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.