Death by pixels

Nobody reads our paper.

*Correction: Nobody reads newspapers in general.

**Correction: Nobody reads the physical hard copy of any newspaper.

It shouldn’t surprise anyone, considering publications like the New York Times have been stumbling around trying to avoid the digital buzz saw that is hacking up the print industry.

Ten years ago, the New York Times posted over a $300 million profit. Putting that into context, although a large sum, it would be a slightly down year for Mitt Romney. Compare that to this year and their $37 million deficit and you will see just how hard papers have been hit. That may be normal if you are in the Obama administration, but for the rest of us, that’s still a lot of money to lose.

*Disclaimer: I am an equal opportunity abuser of public figures. If in one issue you think I was too hard on Bro. Romney, just wait until I write about our deficit-spender-in-chief.

I’ve thought long and hard about what I’d like to say for this introduction to our publication and would love to delve into the deepest of philosophies about the freedom of the press. I’m a bit of a history nerd, not a buff just a nerd, so nothing would give me more personal enjoyment than to research and quote our Founding Fathers.

But I have been told I can be rather long-winded when it comes to certain topics so I will keep this brief. I know a lot of freshman still can’t focus for too long, especially if Ryan Gosling or Tim Tebow aren’t mentioned. By mentioning those two, our website stats just received a 30% bump, and that’s what I want to share about our publication this year.

The internet has shattered nearly every existing industry and everyone is scrambling to find the right glue to try to piece it all back together. So far, a lot of it’s looking like you’d imagine, a lot of cracks with glue oozing all over what used to be a beautiful piece of art.

What I believe will be our strength this year, is that we know we aren’t going to figure out how to be what the New York Times once was. We aren’t going to grab the glue and scratch our heads and wonder what went wrong. We have an opportunity to sweep up the pieces and find what’s been hiding behind the old model and be on the cutting edge of what’s about to come.

We have some exciting ideas for implementing social media with our website, some changes here and there to how we cover stories on campus as well as creating a unique platform for mobile devices. We have also completely revamped the way we run the newsroom.

We now run on a system that allows us to not have to upload everything on to the computers on campus, allowing us to spend more time with you and to hear what stories are important to you. Mobile and community journalism is what’s coming, there is no way to avoid it. We hope to embrace that idea and we commit to bringing you a worthwhile product.

We will be looking to innovate at every turn, with the design of our printed-paper, how our content is delivered, our interaction with the student body as well as the type of content we produce. We will continue to live by the ethics of journalism and will work diligently to produce quality writing, those two things will never go out of style.

We hope that you will chose to make us part of your school year and participate in the changing of the guard with new media. Welcome and we look forward to you crashing our server.