Dear Reader,
Back in August, I told you we are more than a newspaper. That sentiment is still true. We are striving to go beyond our status as a newspaper and to be known as a news organization. As challenging as our goals sounded at the time, I believe we are halfway there.
Moving forward, we will be taking off the training wheels of our podcast and video department which were new media to reach our audience. We learned valuable lessons that will help us in the spring. With the help of our marketing department, we will conduct more readership surveys to help us adjust and focus our content to you. We’ve been more active in our community, publishing stories our readers want to see.
Our team has been on the front lines of many protests bringing information to our audience immediately through our Twitter and Facebook feeds. We’ve engaged more with our audience not only through articles but also through events and giveaways. We have begun to not only care about our print circulation but our online analytics with weekly updates through our web department. This has given us a bigger perspective on what we need to do moving forward and we are not afraid to make changes if needed.
Our commitment
What hasn’t changed is our commitment to our readers. You were always on our minds. During our pitch meetings, our editing and our layout. To how we market and “provide truthful and ethical advertising of interest to the Georgia State University community” as it states in our mission statement. We’ve improved in a way by bringing more breaking news as it is happening promptly. The Homecoming parade was our first live broadcast, and later we live broadcasted clips from the “Not My President” protest. There is still room for improvement, and I thank our readers who have been with us since August watching us grow.
I started our semester with the first half of our mission statement, and now I will end the semester with the last. The Signal will always “provide an opportunity for students to pursue experience within a professional newspaper environment.” We have an obligation to not only our audience but the students who work at The Signal to give them every possible opportunity in the field they choose.
If media is your career choice or curiosity, our doors are open for you with many routes to choose from in this area. You do not need to be a journalism major to be a part of The Signal. We offer many roads that can help boost your knowledge and experience. Our application can be found online at georgiastatesignal.com or through our OrgSync portal.
As the editor-in-chief, thank you for grabbing a copy of your student-run newspaper, The Signal. Between Dec. 6, 2016 and Jan. 10, 2017, you can find us online. We will continue to publish and bring information to our audience over the holiday break.
Congratulations to the fall class of 2016. I’ll see you in the spring, class of 2017.
