3-4-09: Transparency is my goal (so please send me your questions and comments)
By: Andrew Bruner
Issue date: 3/3/09 Section: Editor's blog
Posted March 4, 2009
12:12 a.m.
In an effort to help get The DePauw into the 21st century, the staff has been thinking about ways to produce more new media content. The idea that The DePauw is strictly a newspaper is becoming hopelessly outdated, as we should really be thinking of ourselves as a news providing service; the medium is irrelevant.
We've taken a big step by hiring multimedia reporters with video skills - a staff addition that I hope will spread those skills to our more writing-oriented reporters - but integrating online video content into our normal deadline mindset is going to take time. Right now, staff members understandably think that everything we do will come out on Tuesday and Friday. That can't be the case for much longer if we're going to keep up with the professional media landscape.
In the meantime, we've been brainstorming ways to get any content - even written material - onto thedepauw.com exclusively. Last Friday, for instance, we ran columnist Eric Jenkins' regular feature predicting the results of the weekend's Tiger competitions only online. The newest product of this online push is the piece you're reading right now: the first post of an editor in chief's blog.
I wouldn't be writing a blog to put on the Web site if I didn't think it could accomplish something. The main good I hope this blog - which I'll update AT LEAST weekly - can achieve is making The DePauw more transparent. I'm not terribly interested in creating a space for me to spout my opinions all the time; I'd rather make this a reader-editor forum that will help our audience understand the newspaper better. Look for posts on topics like how our editorials are written, how we're progressing in multimedia efforts and, if some controversy arises, why the paper's staff chose to cover a certain topic the way it did. The DePauw's readers have always deserved to understand how and why we do what we do. The Internet provides a platform for me as editor in chief to better reach that ideal.
As with any article posted on thedepauw.com, there's a space at the bottom of this page to post comments. Please take advantage of it. The site is set up so that I will receive a notice every time a comment is posted, and I will gear future blog posts to respond to readers' interests.
Thanks for reading The DePauw in print and online. You the reader have been living in the 21st century for nine years now; I'm just trying to get "Indiana's oldest college newspaper" caught up.
12:12 a.m.
In an effort to help get The DePauw into the 21st century, the staff has been thinking about ways to produce more new media content. The idea that The DePauw is strictly a newspaper is becoming hopelessly outdated, as we should really be thinking of ourselves as a news providing service; the medium is irrelevant.
We've taken a big step by hiring multimedia reporters with video skills - a staff addition that I hope will spread those skills to our more writing-oriented reporters - but integrating online video content into our normal deadline mindset is going to take time. Right now, staff members understandably think that everything we do will come out on Tuesday and Friday. That can't be the case for much longer if we're going to keep up with the professional media landscape.
In the meantime, we've been brainstorming ways to get any content - even written material - onto thedepauw.com exclusively. Last Friday, for instance, we ran columnist Eric Jenkins' regular feature predicting the results of the weekend's Tiger competitions only online. The newest product of this online push is the piece you're reading right now: the first post of an editor in chief's blog.
I wouldn't be writing a blog to put on the Web site if I didn't think it could accomplish something. The main good I hope this blog - which I'll update AT LEAST weekly - can achieve is making The DePauw more transparent. I'm not terribly interested in creating a space for me to spout my opinions all the time; I'd rather make this a reader-editor forum that will help our audience understand the newspaper better. Look for posts on topics like how our editorials are written, how we're progressing in multimedia efforts and, if some controversy arises, why the paper's staff chose to cover a certain topic the way it did. The DePauw's readers have always deserved to understand how and why we do what we do. The Internet provides a platform for me as editor in chief to better reach that ideal.
As with any article posted on thedepauw.com, there's a space at the bottom of this page to post comments. Please take advantage of it. The site is set up so that I will receive a notice every time a comment is posted, and I will gear future blog posts to respond to readers' interests.
Thanks for reading The DePauw in print and online. You the reader have been living in the 21st century for nine years now; I'm just trying to get "Indiana's oldest college newspaper" caught up.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Ashley Baxstrom
posted 3/20/09 @ 4:49 PM EST
To the Editor and staff:
Congratulations on a good idea, put into effect brilliantly. The content of all EIC blogs thus far thoroughly achieve the stated goal of creating a "reader-editor forum that will help our audience understand the newspaper better. (Continued…)
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