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(05/13/15 4:00am)
As The Cavalier Daily shifts into summer mode (no printing after this special issue and fewer updates online), it’s time to consider what the staff should think about doing before classes and printing restart in the fall. When I started as the Public Editor it was coincident with the move to a digital first shift for The Cavalier Daily that offered a chance to shift how the staff reported and opined on the news of the day. Readers have yet to see the promise of digital-first fulfilled, in part for the obvious reasons of the incredible weight of so many stories that took over the paper in the intervening time.
(04/27/15 4:00am)
Each week when I sit down to collect my notes and write this column, I take another digital trip through The Cavalier Daily website. Occasionally I read something I missed when it was first published or that strikes me enough a second or third time through to set the notes aside for some future column and tackle whatever issues are raised in that piece. This week it’s the Parting Shot from Rebecca Lim, the outgoing editor-in-chief of The Cavalier Daily.
(04/20/15 4:00am)
One of the foundational problems with the April Fools’ edition of the Cavalier Daily was that it seemed to be written almost entirely for the people writing it. The jokes seemed like in-jokes and many clearly didn’t translate to the readers as intended. This is something I presume all publications have to deal with and not just for special joke issues; making sure that what gets published is interesting to and accessible for readers, not just for the writers and editors doing the work. I imagine this is especially difficult in a not-for-profit, collegiate publication where there may be less objective feedback than in larger, for-profit organizations where subscription rates, advertising dollars and page hits are more able to tell the story of how the publication is doing in attracting and maintaining readers.
(04/13/15 4:00am)
I’m still thinking about the April Fool’s edition of The Cavalier Daily. The issue drew a lot of feedback (more than most normal issues of The Cavalier Daily), most of it negative. There were, though, many comments from people who were upset that articles were pulled and further dismayed that the Managing Board chose to apologize for some of the pieces in the joke issue. Those objecting to the apology lamented the loss of free press, free speech or the ability to make jokes without offending someone. It doesn’t seem to me that if the management of a publication decides, on its own, to pull stories that aren’t meant to be factual in the first place that there is any free press issue to worry about. The same is true about free speech. The Managing Board decided to pull the pieces and apologize after they heard from enough others that what they published was, in fact, offensive because they didn’t want to be offensive and hoped apologizing would make that clear and help heal the wounds they’d caused. The staff of The Cavalier Daily was, in fact, free to publish the satirical articles.
(04/02/15 5:39am)
There is a reason The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post don’t produce April Fools’ issues. Readers’ trust is hard to build and easy to shatter. No matter the intention, satirical or joke pieces in a newspaper that generally reports news and offers opinion on matters of the day, is a risky proposition. The risk of offending or alienating those who read or look to the paper for fair, balanced coverage is high. What some might think is funny others will see as offensive.
(03/30/15 4:10am)
The Cavalier Daily introduced a new sponsored content advertising model this past week via a letter from the editor, Julia Horowitz.As Horowitz notes in her letter, major national publications like The New York Times and The Washington Post, among others, are using a similar model. I will be interested to see how this process unfolds. Horowitz addressed a few rules that make me feel good about it: clear labeling, no use of editorial resources from The Cavalier Daily and separate housing online. Further, none of the sponsored content will be in the print issues, at least for the foreseeable future.
(03/23/15 4:52am)
Once again there was a disturbing event involving a University student and once again the staff of The Cavalier Daily has risen to the occasion in reporting it. Martese Johnson was arrested early Wednesday morning and since then The Cavalier Daily has seemed to be everywhere on the story. As they did covering previous stories that attracted the attention of the country, the writers and editors have delivered work that kept up with or exceeded other outlets.
(03/16/15 4:01am)
As I read through recent issues of The Cavalier Daily, I was confused at times about what sort of piece I was reading. I have noted that in comments, many people are confused about articles versus columns, the latter containing opinion and the former reporting in which the author strives for objectivity. On several occasions, I recall commenters alleging bias on the part of a columnist and thinking that it was at least partly because the commenter is reading the piece online and didn’t note the distinction between sections of the paper or type of piece. In looking to see whether my notion held up, I came away thinking there are places where The Cavalier Daily can and should do more to highlight the location of an article or column in its appropriate section and to identify the author and author’s intent.
(03/02/15 5:04am)
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the importance of striving for, achieving and maintaining balance in news reporting in The Cavalier Daily. Another essential element in good, effective reporting is diversity. In a newsroom, diversity of thought, of background, of experience and of perspective is critical to providing readers with helpful information.
(02/23/15 5:03am)
This past Thursday’s Cavalier Daily was devoted to the current University elections. As has been true before, the special issue, especially the print version, shows much of the best of The Cavalier Daily; from the Focus piece on the University Board of Elections to the various news articles there were examples of good and informative reporting. The Opinion pieces offered arguments I expect helped interested students decide how they want to vote and I’d hope moved some who wouldn’t have otherwise to take the time to vote.
(02/16/15 6:07am)
One of the more important things a newspaper does is cover news stories about politics and politicians. In order for people to be able to engage with the political process and know what is at stake in various debates as well as who is debating we need information and perspective. I feel like The Cavalier Daily does a good job overall when it comes to covering politics. It has a lot to cover too, from student elections and government to local, state and occasionally national politics. In addition to news stories, Opinion pieces and endorsements are also an important part of political coverage in The Cavalier Daily.
(02/09/15 5:54am)
The new Managing Board of The Cavalier Daily laid out their mission in the lead editorial published in the Feb. 2 issue: “to provide the University community with new, relevant and insightful information that inspires critical conversation and even action on Grounds.” Later in the same piece the Board struck upon something I think is and should be a defining characteristic, that The Cavalier Daily is the “platform for the student narrative” at the University. The board also wrote that they are determined to be proactive and that is where I think the staff of The Cavalier Daily can be of unique service to their community.
(02/02/15 5:00am)
One of the most important things about the information we get from a news article is where that information comes from. The Cavalier Daily reporters don’t always do a good job of explaining their sources and in many cases simply don’t use enough sources or the right kinds of sources to give readers a complete picture. I’ll use recently published news pieces to illustrate the kinds of problems I think The Cavalier Daily runs into in its news reporting.
(01/26/15 4:51am)
I want to be careful in this space about calling for the staff of The Cavalier Daily to do too much. I’ve mused in the past on what a college newspaper should be. I also noted recently that The Cavalier Daily staff have been doing a good job keeping their eye on things aside from the Rolling Stone fallout. While the focus of The Cavalier Daily is rightly centered on the University I’d like to see some more coverage of things going on in the local area around the University, particularly the city of Charlottesville. Journalists elsewhere in Charlottesville already keep an eye on The Cavalier Daily for coverage. Speaking to the quality of some of the reporting, a reporter named Sean Tubbs who covers local government and infrastructure for Charlottesville Tomorrow recently pointed his twitter followers to a useful piece by Will Marshall on Charlottesville City Council discussions about moving the ABC store on West Main Street.
(01/20/15 5:23am)
It would be easy for The Cavalier Daily to be consumed entirely by the aftermath of the Rolling Stone article. Certainly that’s the only thing anyone from outside the University has asked me about in the last couple of weeks. It’s a multifaceted story that could expand to take up the entire paper if the staff let it. It is not, though, the only thing going on. Fortunately, the paper has continued to cover a good breadth of subjects.
(01/12/15 5:12am)
As we return to Grounds after break there is a lot to reflect on. The Rolling Stone story and reactions to it have made headlines all over the world. On the Cavalier Daily website there have been thousands of comments as hundreds of people have weighed in with their thoughts and feelings. The timing of the break for the staff of The Cavalier Daily was almost unbelievable in that it gave a hard end to an ongoing story just as it was completely shifting. It will be fascinating to see how the fallout from the story, the changes at the University and responses to those changes are covered in the coming weeks and months.
(12/01/14 4:57am)
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.
(11/24/14 6:59am)
I imagine that the staff of The Cavalier Daily had other stories planned for the end of last week. I certainly had a different column in process before an article in Rolling Stone was published last Wednesday detailing heinous allegations of rape and what is described as a response from the University administration that is woefully insufficient. The foci of virtually everyone on and around Grounds shifted immediately to the story and the response to it. I watched, in part, as those seeking information and those who had something to say turned increasingly to The Cavalier Daily.
(11/17/14 4:14am)
I was impressed with the front-page art in both print issues of The Cavalier Daily this past week. The edition published Monday, November 10 had a focus on employment after graduation. The graphics were eye-catching and informative. It also struck me as the right use of graphics rather than an article. The information about salaries and most common industries is dry and repetitive; an article would have been boring. Using the graphics made it quicker and more interesting to read. The front-page of the print issue on Thursday, November 13 was in one sense nothing special. Most of it was a photo graphic to go with articles previewing the women’s and men’s basketball team seasons. It was, though, really well executed. Readers know exactly what’s coming when they see the page, the orange and blue looks vibrant and the whole paper is inviting if you want to read about basketball. These are the kinds of graphics that make effective use of both print and online media, which are precisely what I’d like to see used more often. While I’m writing about sports and images, be sure to keep an eye on the multimedia section of The Cavalier Daily website for some really good photography of basketball games.
(11/10/14 6:34am)
It is sometimes difficult for me to know when it is appropriate to comment on the Cavalier Daily’s coverage of stories. My charge is to be the readers’ voice and my efforts are to point out things, both good and bad, that can help improve the paper overall. I am, within that, free to write about whatever topics I choose. When something like Hannah Graham’s disappearance occurs, though, it can feel like it’s insensitive to delve into the specifics of news reporting or opinion pieces while so much is happening. The Cavalier Daily is, as I have often written, a newspaper run and written by college students. The University is not that large and the reality is that at least a few of the students working on The Cavalier Daily likely knew Hannah.