Change has come to The Ball State Daily News.
You may not see it right away in this issue or in an issue next week. However, let me reassure you things are changing for the better at this national award-winning newspaper.
My name is Vinnie Lopes, and I am the editor in chief of the Daily News.
What you are holding in your hand is not your grandparents Daily News or even your older siblings' Daily News. This newspaper is now more than a print issue, it is emerging into a 24-hour source through our Web site.
Throughout the Spring Semester the Daily News raised the bar with our online coverage. With the hard work of our section editors and staff members, we began to write more online updates throughout the day and have more online exclusive stories, online video and interactive graphics, instead of just regurgitating what was in our print issue.
However, this year we will push forward and make an even greater commitment to online coverage.
This year we plan to provide more online updates and expand our online video content beyond sports coverage. This will give people the most up-to-date coverage and in-depth analysis on what is happening at Ball State.
The Daily News will continue to become a 24-hour news source, seven days per week.
This is the only news organization that offers this much extensive Ball State coverage. When the LaFollette Complex received a bomb threat on an early morning in April, about 10 Daily News staff members were on the scene giving you constant online updates from about 2 to 4 a.m. Earlier last school year, the Daily News was the first media organization in the nation to report that the Ball State football team would not play Boise State University in the Humanitarian Bowl.
This is what a 24-hour news sources provides its readers, and this is what you will get from the Daily News.
In addition to these changes, there will be two noticeable changes to the Daily News this fall.The Daily News is in the final stages of a redesign of the print edition that will fully launch Oct. 19. This redesign will not only change the look of the newspaper, but will provide our readers with more quick-hitting stories so you can get all the information you need in the most efficient way.
Along with this redesign, we will launch a full sale change to our Web site in October. The new Web site will improve our coverage and provide you with more of everything you love about our Web site: more easily accessible video, more photo galleries and more interactive graphics.
A more immediate change you will notice - and have already seen if you read the Daily News this summer - is the reemergence of a features section. This year the Daily News features section will team up with Ball Bearings, our online magazine media partner, to provide more coverage in everything ranging from fine arts, movies, Muncie music, fashion, student profiles and in-depth investigative stories.
Despite all these changes, there are some things that will not change this year.
The Daily News will maintain its independence as student publication. This newspaper will remain a publication where its content is fully controlled by the students and not by faculty members or the university.
The Daily News will continue to be a publication focused on covering the news about Ball State and the Ball State community. Reporting on what is happening at Ball State is what we do best and it is why this is the go-to publication for Ball State coverage.
If you are constantly going to this newspaper for news about the latest crisis in the Middle East, what the Indianapolis Colts did last night or Tipton County coverage, you are at the wrong place.
Yes, these issues are important. However, other media organizations like CNN and The Indianapolis Star are more equipped to cover these stories.
What we provide our readers is something they can't get anywhere else: Ball State news. This is the only publication with constant in-depth Ball State coverage about everything from the greek system to the 18 Cardinals' athletics teams.
Covering the Ball State community can be challenging. It is impossible to know everything happening on this campus all the time.
This is why we need your help this year.
If you know an interesting event or someone with a unique story, let us know about it. If you feel something newsworthy is happening at Ball State that we haven't reported yet, we want to hear from you.
Let us know what is happening by e-mailing us, tweeting us, writing a letter, calling the newsroom or stopping by the Daily News office (Art and Journalism Rm. 278). We will always accept a news tip.
I know most people have their own perception - positive or negative - of the Daily News. Whether we are radical left-wing liberals or people who only care about covering Ball State sports, I have heard this newspaper called everything.
Whatever your opinion is about the Daily News, that's cool. You are entitled to your opinion.
However, I promise you the Daily News really has one true agenda: reporting the news as accurately as possible and reporting what is happening at Ball State.
If you don't believe me on that, feel free to stop by the Daily News for our editorial board meetings where we discuss what goes in the newspaper every issue. The meetings are at 5 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and almost always open to the public.
In addition, the Daily News is not a closed group.Regardless of your major, we are always looking for Ball State students wanting to work at the newspaper as writers, videographers, photographers, copy editors, graphic reporters or designers.
If you think you have something to offer the newspaper, we want to have you on our staff. If you think you can do better, you should be here.
This is going to be an exciting year for the Daily News. We will try new things and constantly improve our coverage.
Things are changing at the Daily News, and you are always only a click away from experiencing it.
Write to Vinnie at editor@bsudailynews.com
Vinnie Lopes is a senior journalism education and history major and is the 2009 editor in chief for the Daily News. His views do not necessarily agree with those of the newspaper.
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