And you thought you were done!
I understand - it's just page six. Today is a small paper and it's the first week of class. Anything really important is probably out in the first two pages, right?
You - reader, peer, friend - are increasingly harder to keep hold of. I'm not placing blame, as you're certainly not alone. It's no secret that the circulation rates of daily newspapers continues to decline across the country.
Something is capturing your attention - and media analysts and experts and scrambling like New York Stock Exchange brokers to find a way to make that something newspapers.
While mainstream papers are forced to cut budgets and their ability to play, we're working to find a better way to present the news to you using this "old fashioned" form of journalism.
You've undoubtedly noticed changes to the way the Daily News looks since our first issue of 2007 on Monday. This marks the second January in a row the Daily News has debuted a major change, either in print or online.
Just one year ago a revamped DN|Online welcomed its first interaction at bsudailynews.com. Coincidentally, about the same time a select group of the paper's staff began planning a semester's worth of layouts and printouts - with elements that would ultimately lead to what you hold in your hands.
That work stretched the length of two academic semesters and a summer. Graduating seniors and a smaller design staff left the Daily News short-handed at the end of Summer 2006, so the fresh look was stored away until it could be properly executed.
While you might be tempted to classify this updated appearance as a redesign, we've more appropriately named it a "refreshening." Many of the stylistic changes are minor, but you'll see some of the major differences in the display of the Forum section and on page one.
You'll also see more of what we call "layering" or "chunking," which refers to short, relevant abstracts of text. From biography boxes to pie charts, our goal is to find a way to best deliver the news to you.
In a society dominated by text messages, AIM and high speed internet, the Daily News - like every college newspaper in the country - is experiencing a unparalleled challenge: Keeping readers' attention.
With students freely labeling themselves as "A.D.D." (Attention Deficit Disorder), we realize that some stories can be better presented through visual means as opposed to hundreds and hundreds of words.
Allow me to stress that nothing can ever displace or devalue the role basic reporting, fact finding and information gathering plays in journalism. The roots of hard news remain planted in solid facts and investigative reporting. This is something that we have no intention of changing.
Relative to mainstream media, a college newspaper has infinitely more freedom in its ability to experiment with innovative story telling methods and designs.
You should expect and demand of us to utilize that ability.
While this refreshening is mostly aesthetic, look deeper in the coming weeks and you'll see a transformation in the way your campus newspaper delivers the information you need and want. In the last two years, the Daily News has devoted resources to develop digital outlets such as DN|Podcast, 72hrsonline.com and more DN|interactive multimedia pieces. As I've said before, the Daily News is no longer just a newspaper, it's a news organization.
This is just another step in the process, giving due revitalization to the origin of our existence, the paper itself.
With any change comes praise and criticism, and we welcome both. I look forward to hearing your comments and suggestions, please contact me with them at editor@bsudailynews.com or 285-8249.
As always, thank you for commenting, posting, e-mailing and - of course - reading.
Now you're really done.
David Studinski is editor in chief of the Daily News.
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