By Malika Andrews |
There was a time when I would sit at my kitchen table in my checkered pajama bottoms and oversized sweatshirt and flip through the morning paper, mostly in search of cartoons. This morning though, as I sipped my black coffee out of my favorite white mug, I was scrolling through the latest news stories and reading tales of Kobe Bryant’s glory days on my Twitter feed.
Like so many of our readers, a part of me will miss the print version of The Beacon. But online, our stories reach thousands and it is time for us to march forward onto that larger stage.
Taking the reigns from Katie Dunn is an incredible honor and one that comes with a lot of pressure. She set high standards and gave no wiggle room while letting the staff know that we had to get things done and we had to get them done right. But more than anything, Katie taught me that being editor-in-chief is about more than the words people read, it’s about the 100 little things that no one else sees but that ensure that the final product meets a high quality standard that we demand from ourselves and that our readers have grown to expect from us.
In a way, everything about The Beacon changes next year as we shift to an all-digital format but in other ways, in our core values as a publication that Katie led us in upholding, we will remain the same.
Next year, instead of readers having to brave Portland’s downpours to pick us up on the purple stands sprinkled around campus, we will be coming to you. We are launching a new digital newsletter that will be delivering our best content in a convenient manner to your email inbox every Thursday to keep with our Thursday publication tradition.
The staff members that we have picked to tell the stories of the University of Portland are among the most creative, innovative and personable students on campus. There will be no paper, but there will be a richer reader experience with high quality images that complement the text that will be featured on our brand new website.
Our new site, which will be unveiled this summer, will look cleaner, cooler and move faster. It will also feature a new “magazine” tab that houses the long form features and profiles that I am partial to and our readers have proven to love.
The opinions section, that under Lydia Laythe’s expert hand, has become a student favorite with the addition of the “Let’s Talk” column, will remain a place for students to write in and voice their thoughts, reaching a far wider audience than our 1,750 print circulation could.
The conversation will be more open. Tweet us to give us story ideas. Like us on Facebook to stay current on the stories of your peers and the faculty members you love or the ones you aren’t as fond of. Follow us on Instagram to stay current on the wonderful work our photographers do.
How you read The Beacon may change next year, but our mission remains the same. In bold black letters under our masthead and on our homepage, it says we have been the voice of the University of Portland since 1935. Next year, just like the last 81 years, The Beacon will remain a place for “free and responsible public dialogue.” And I am thrilled to help facilitate that conversation as your editor-in-chief.
Contact sports editor Malika Andrews at andrewsm17@up.edu or on Twitter @malika_andrews.
