When North Star first went online as northstarnews.org we heard an outcry from readers that they’d miss holding the paper in their hands. Similarly, the staff agreed that we’d miss seeing everyone walking down the halls with a copy or reading them during class each month.

Since going online we’ve realized the exciting new opportunities the website affords us versus paper copies and we hope you all have been enjoying the website as well. However, for those of you that are still bent on getting newsprint on your fingers, we have an exciting announcement to make that we think you’ll enjoy.

Starting Thursday, Oct. 11, Niles North will distribute the Chicago Tribune‘s teen publication The Mash.

The Mash is a website and weekly newspaper that is written by Chicago teens, for Chicago teens. The Mash is distributed to about 205 high schools throughout the Chicagoland area– all of the Chicago Public Schools high schools as well as some suburban high schools; now including Niles North.

Currently I am the only person on The Mash‘s staff from Niles North but there are contributors from neighboring high schools like Niles West, Evanston and New Trier. The content of both the website and the paper is influenced by the students on the staff so you’ll find topics that are interesting and important to teens from all around Chicago.

The Mash comes out every Thurdsay so keep your eyes out for the orange racks around school and pick up a copy! To check out The Mash online visit www.themash.com. You can also find The Mash on Facebook and Twitter (the Twitter handle is @MashChicago).

Both as Editor-in-Chief of North Star and as part of The Mash staff, I hope you give The Mash a warm welcome at Niles North and enjoy having a paper back in your hands.