The field of journalism has changed significantly over the past decade. Increasingly, America’s most well-known newspapers, from The New York Times to The Wall Street Journal, are reaching a broader audience through the internet than their physical circulations ever could.
More than ever before, the internet allows journalists to inform their readers about important events.
According to the Pew Research Center, 86% of Americans read the news online, making the web the most popular medium for conveying information.
For years, The Collegian has tried to tap into this medium. We began publishing articles online as well as in print in 1997, starting with Volume 11.
In 2007, the paper ramped up its publication schedule, shifting from a biweekly to a weekly paper. Fifteen years later, however, we think The Collegian is due for another substantial change.
Starting this semester, The Collegian will release print issues once a month and publish exclusively online the other three weeks.
We believe this change will allow the paper to more effectively train our staff members in journalism by helping them learn to write exclusively for the web and manage online journalism’s faster pace in addition to learning to write for print.
Additionally, this new schedule gives us more flexibility in the types of stories we cover. Instead of being limited by the physical space on a page, stories can be whatever length we need.
Web-exclusive articles allow us to publish shorter news brief articles and longer, in-depth reporting. Rather than being bound by our current print deadlines, we hope our increased online focus will allow us to offer more timely coverage of events.
Complementing our greater emphasis on the web, The Collegian plans to make significant improvements to its website over the summer and unveil a revamped website this fall.
In the meantime, The Collegian will continue to cover student-oriented campus and community news with the same high standards we have followed for 35 years.
Look for our regular print issues each month, and keep an eye on www.collegianonline.com each week for web exclusive articles. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter at @thecollegianbju for our latest headlines and additional content. Most of all, thank you for reading The Collegian.