Editorial: Letter from the editor

Believe it or not, The Aggie used to publish five times a week. About four years ago, the newspaper ceased to print on Fridays in order to save money. Last year, the Editor in Chief had the difficult task of making an even bigger change: cutting production down to one day a week, again, to save money.

With each transition to a new production schedule, The Aggie was able to concentrate its focus on bigger projects: elongating investigative pieces, opening up time for design and multimedia projects and allowing for higher-quality writing.

However, what is a great paper without the knowledge of a stable future?

It’s no secret that The Aggie has struggled to keep up with the changing news industry, with production costs rising and advertising revenue decreasing. Not many people seem to reach for a newspaper for information when a piece of technology is right in front of them.

We’re not alone in this struggle. College newspapers nationwide have had problems maintaining readership, staying in print and securing advertisers. So, no, this isn’t something that The Aggie did to itself. We’re one of the remaining college newspapers that is still financially independent. We’re proud, but we’re also realistic.

With no journalism program at Davis, it’s imperative that this almost 100-year-old newspaper exists for the community that reads it and the students that depend on it for employment, experience and the joy of print.

And so comes my task as Editor in Chief: saving The Aggie.

The plan so far is to embrace the changes that were made last quarter, amping up our visual and design content, putting together longform journalistic pieces and increasing transparency within our staff as well as with the public. But this year, we have no choice but to approach business from a different angle, increase awareness of our needs and ask for help.

We want to continue being an outlet for our opinionated colleagues, the place to go for breaking news, the full-page spreads of entertainment and science articles, the spot to read inspiring stories and the location for your weekly sports recaps.

So if you want to get the best hands-on journalism experience on this campus, apply now. If you have ideas or connections that you believe can help us, please share. We’re all ears, because we are your paper. We hope you depend on us, because believe it or not, we depend on you too. Welcome back to school, Aggies.

Please send all questions, concerns, thoughts and sympathies to ELIZABETH ORPINA at editor@theaggie.org.