Ben Ingersoll, Editor In Chief
Collegian File Photo
As summer vacation abandoned us just as quickly and easily as it arrived back on May 20, Fresno State students like you and I now have 148 days of instruction to look forward to. But who’s counting, right?
Well, squeezed into those 148 days, the reloaded Collegian staff, lead by yours truly, will crank out 87 issues, five special inserts and an abundance of material on our online production fscollegian.com.
Speaking of online, converging our print publication with our website publication has been a focal point in recent semesters, and will take on an added importance in my tenure as editor in chief. In the journalism profession, the line separating print from online is becoming increasingly blurred, with many pushing for website content to be the top priority.
With that being said, our multimedia staff is virtually brand new to The Collegian and brings a lot of innovative ideas to the table ”” ideas we hope to introduce you early and often throughout this fall semester.
On the editorial staff, we also have a list of fresh faces, with the exception of Tony Petersen, who made the jump from editor in chief back to his native position as opinion editor. As always, it is our goal to provide you the reader with accurate, consistent, hard-hitting stories that are both important and (hopefully) entertaining.
When I was officially hired as the 2011-12 Collegian editor in chief, I was told I needed to leave a footprint for the future, to leave a stamp that left subsequent readers and writers saying, “That’s what he did when he was EIC.”
My focus for this year will be to have the online publication “lead the news,” meaning no more waiting until our Monday, Wednesday or Friday issues to hear of something that happened now. Our plan is to have an up-to-date, reliable online source daily, followed up by a thorough report in the following publication. It is all part of an effort to generate more multimedia traffic, a trend that the profession is gearing toward rapidly.
Of course, there are the awards we strive for, most notably the California College Media Association awards held in the spring. Last year, The Collegian took home 15 awards, four better than the previous year. But, to me, the awards issue will take care of itself. If we as reporters do our service to you, the reader, and provide you with worthwhile content that keeps you picking up the paper or surfing our website, the biggest reward is what you get out of it, not us.
Since the awards won’t be handed out until the end of the spring, yearlong evaluation is key for us to understand what we can do better. So, as always, I look forward to your “Here’s what you guys did right,” or “Here’s what you did wrong,” or even just “Here’s my opinion on the matter.”
So stop by, write a letter, even complain a little if you have to because that’s how we get better. But before you do, read The Collegian, and hopefully you’ll enjoy this semester as much as we enjoy serving you!