I came onboard as the public editor for The Cavalier Daily as the shift to a digital first platform began. What had been a five days a week, traditionally-formatted newspaper print publication with a website became a multimedia publishing enterprise with twice a week tabloid style print issues. New mobile apps were developed and Twitter feeds more prominently used and featured.
Looking back over the changes and the progress of how the various elements of the digital-first and print products have developed, a few things strike me. The print issues have been used to good effect. Many of them are issues with a particular focus including news reports, Opinion columns and Life features or columns. When The Cavalier Daily brings its various lenses to focus on the same broad topic — such as employment after graduation, housing while at the University or race at the University — they do some of their best work. The articles inform while the columnists analyze and offer insight, humor and perspective. In some cases — when focusing on Charlottesville Pride or gender identity, for example — the paper likely serves to raise awareness of issues that are important for some members of our community but which are not necessarily well known or broadly understood. The history of The Cavalier Daily as a print publication still shows through on Mondays and Thursdays. The issues are well designed, well thought out and well executed.
The various Cavalier Daily Twitter feeds continue to get better. I’d like to see more scheduled tweets and to know that each story or column is tweeted out, at the very least, under its respective section Twitter feed. Live tweeting, as I’ve written about previously, is also a real strength of the Cavalier Daily staff. I’d love to see more live tweeting wherever possible; I think it’s a service to readers that no other source can offer. Apart from scheduled events (sports or major speakers), live tweeting does seem to depend on timing and chance more than most aspects of news reporting.
I have criticized graphics in previous columns but over the course of the year they have been used more effectively online. In print they have looked good all year, but I felt they weren’t used as well as they could be digitally. I still think more of the main graphics should be less static and more interactive or at least dynamic especially for the longer focus issues with more lead time.
I mentioned in my last column that the mobile apps feel disconnected from the rest of the Cavalier Daily platforms, and I think it’s true generally. I only look through the mobile iOS app on my phone because it’s a part of my process for looking at everything the Cavalier Daily is doing. The mobile version of the website is more useful and more consistent with the desktop browser version of the paper. The idea of having a mobile app is, frankly, pretty cool but I’m not sure it’s worth much in the way of resources or energy so long as the mobile browser version of the website is available.
One thing that has become clear in the last couple of months is that the comment system online, while good for leaving a comment, is a difficult place for readers to carrying on a conversation. I’m not sure whether that’s a feature or a bug. The Cavalier Daily doesn’t have to be all things to all people and I’m not sure it needs to be a place for in-depth, ongoing conversations.
What do you want to see from the Cavalier Daily? What is the paper to you? Do you use the mobile apps? Do you follow the twitter feeds? What do you want to see from the paper and how do you want to see it? Let me know via email at the link below or on Twitter @cdpubliceditor.
Christopher Broom is The Cavalier Daily’s public editor. He can be reached at publiceditor@cavalierdaily.com.
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