MTV takes viewers to the world of high school journalism as it launches The Paper, a new reality series premiering on April 14.  The show is set in Cypress Bay High School in Weston, Florida, home of the award-winning newspaper The Circuit, and centers on its fiercely competitive student staff members that exhibit the aptitude, pride and ambition of future leaders as they put great efforts into writing impressive stories and making the best paper they possibly can.

For eight episodes, The Paper will follow an ambitious bunch of students as they struggle to maintain good grades, manage extracurricular activities and battle it out to see who has what it takes to produce news that's fit to print.

For the soon-to-be seniors, the competition is much fiercer as they vie for the position of editor-in-chief.  However, only one will score the top slot.  One of the hopefuls contending for the coveted position is Amanda, the paper's current copy editor.  Her main job is to check and edit the paper for proper grammar, punctuation and style, though she tends to oversee everything.  She is also the last staffer to touch the paper before it goes to the printer.  Though she is a top choice for the editor-in-chief position, other frontrunners find Amanda's passion for journalism a little hard to swallow.

Unlike Amanda, her friend Alex appears to be more friendly and sociable.  He is presently the paper's sports editor but will soon face-off against Amanda as he aims for the top slot as well. Despite the fact that he has never succeeded at playing sports, Alex excels at writing about them and is now aspiring to branch out and cover more ground as a journalist.

Also in the running is the business manager, Adam, who has a flair for the dramatic.  Described as the busiest human being alive, Adam is a natural-born salesman and has already established his worth when it comes to the tireless pursuit of money, which has given the paper's staff the freedom to cover more stories.

Then, there's Gina.  She's the paper's clubs editor and although a strong contender for editor-in-chief, she sometimes gets distracted by her co-worker and boyfriend, Trevor, the assistant business manager and technical guru who is also eyeing the editor-in-chief post.

Rounding up the cast are activist Cassia, Amanda's best friend and confidante at the paper, and Dan, the most vocal staff writer.  These two are also in the running for the top opening.

Watch the drama unfold as these students run an award- winning paper while putting their friendships aside.

The Paper airs every Monday on MTV.


-Kris De Leon, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: MTV
(Image courtesy of MTV)