By Darren Johnson
Campus News
Over the summer, we will be transitioning this web site into something different.
When we started Campus News as a print edition in 2010, we also built this web site. We did work to get it placed on big aggregators like Google News. We posted podcasts. Tried an online radio station. And we even had an app for a couple of years. We haven’t been adverse to digitization.
In fact, I teach Journalism for a couple of colleges and surely spend the majority of time on digital forms.
I am aware of what’s going on with print newspapers everywhere, but…
The print edition continues to have its audience. The advertisers believe in it. It’s a work of art putting out each month, creatively and logistically. When I see it in the same kiosks as the big-time New York City free papers, I feel pride in the association, but I also feel that Campus News, from a content and design perspective, competes well against other free Metro papers. It’s also the only print college paper left on most of the campuses we visit. It has meaning and purpose and must go on.
This web site has mostly been a rehash of stories from the print edition, along with the more interesting press releases from colleges in our region. However, the audience for the site is national; the readers aren’t majority students; they are more so faculty and administrators, or students interested in Journalism more than mere reading pleasure.
Over the summer, starting now, we’re going to transition this site to feature higher education “thought pieces.” Written by those people in the college world, about the college world. What’s great? What could be better? Maybe a creative vignette. An analysis piece. Anything about what makes college college, and how it’s changing, and how it can be improved – and celebrated.
Let’s give this site some new energy and really have an impact on higher education.
Contact me at editor@campus-news.org with your ideas. Join the conversation.
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