David Taintor

With any luck, this will be the last time you have to hear change as a buzz word for anything.

However, it is a concept that has become a necessity in media in order to keep readers engaged and interested in the news.

Heading into the spring 2009 semester, The Spectator has embraced this philosophy on a few different levels.

The most obvious change made to The Spectator has been the overall visual layout of the front and inside pages. I think it’s safe to assume readers will notice the new-look front, so I don’t think I have to explain each visual element we adjusted in graphic detail.

We were hoping to only change the front masthead font slightly so readers would notice but wouldn’t feel like they were reading a completely new publication. The biggest redesign on the front page involves the use of a sidebar and description of the top story in each section. This was done in hopes that it would appeal to a greater number of people while drawing current readers to sections they may not have paid attention to when we only had two skyboxes.

I am hoping the changes to the overall layout of the newspaper aren’t considered as radical as when Sporting News decided to forego more in-depth sports reporting and copy ESPN’s “everyone likes surveys and Top 10 lists” mentality.

If you don’t understand what I mean by that, grab a copy of both and enjoy the headache of having 10 surveys with 10 different fonts jumbled on the same page with random cutout photographs of certain athletes. It’ll give you a migraine trying to figure out what they’re trying to do, which is something we’re trying to avoid with our new layout.

As always, feedback is the only way we know if we’re doing something right or wrong; especially concerning a layout that will probably stick with the paper for at least two more years. Please do not hesitate to send me an e-mail or write a letter to the editor offering suggestions, personal likes and dislikes, etc.

The use of student segregated fees to help fund the publication is another major change to The Spectator this semester.

Because of multiple factors, including economic concerns and lowered advertising revenue, we have cut a position and salaries across the board. As a result we need your help to keep the newspaper covering news and events you care about. And although we encourage debate and discussion surrounding controversial issues, you’re money will not be funding anything unnecessarily offensive.

In the realm of online news, we’ve decided to experiment with the use of video. This began last semester with a Showcase story on the haunting of the Stone’s Throw, and we want to expand it to include campus speakers, sporting events and other unique happenings on and off campus.

The use of video gives the reader a greater sense of what happened at that given event or game, so we’re looking forward to offering that option in order to expand and keep our readership. This type of interactive coverage is becoming uniform across the print media and we’ve decided to keep up with the times.

The reason we’re here is to work in your best interests, so if you feel like a side of the story is not being told, do not hesitate to bring it to our attention. We do our best to be impartial concerning sensitive issues, but sometimes the minority opinion is pushed into the background when there is a very large majority and it can be easy to just focus on what the greater number of people want. However, the only way to decide whether or not you agree with a majority opinion is to hear what the other side has to say.

If you have an issue or event you believe students will care about, let us know. Everything we write involves campus life, whether indirectly or directly, and you are a part of that.

McCormick is a senior print journalism major and editor in chief for The Spectator.