Student publications making changes for fall

Welcome to a new academic year and numerous changes in the UTM Office of Student Publications.

We are, at least during the fall semester, printing The Pacer every other week instead of every week. To our knowledge, this is the first time in the newspaper’s 85-year history that its printing schedule has been reduced.

Why? Several reasons, not the least of which is that we were recycling way too many issues of the print edition every week. Conversely, our “hits” on our Web site have been increasing steadily, particularly when we tweet what we’re working on or what we’ve just posted.

Thus, if the website has more traffic and the print edition is being picked up less, we should attempt to reach our audience better by beefing up the online edition of The Pacer.

We’re working on turning the online edition into our version of a continual news website. We can’t truly be a 24-hour daily site, but we can put more resources into providing more timely information online, and then turning our print edition into a news/features/opinions magazine, of sorts.

We’re trying the new focus and plan this fall. Once we see how it’s received, we will take our information and a proposal for our future process to our governing body, the UTM Publications Committee.

The Spirit also is undergoing changes. It became an events magazine, similar to its previous incarnation as a yearbook, in fall 2008.

Starting this fall, with the joint Pacer/Spirit venture of Taking Flight magazine, we are doing smaller magazines with, more or less, themed content. The next magazine is scheduled to come out in October with a theme of Homecoming and Student Life.

Meanwhile, we ask that you tell us what you think. If you are a faithful online or print reader, let us know. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook. The newspaper and the magazine have Twitter and Facebook accounts, as well as email addresses, so we’re pretty easy to follow.

Our job is to keep you informed, whether it’s via print, online or social media. Our changes don’t mean that we are devaluing the print edition, or paying no attention to historical accuracy and record-keeping. We simply are doing what we can to reach our primary audience – students.

 

Students are online, so we’re going there, too.

Check us out at www.utmpacer.com to get the latest information we can offer you on what’s happening at or near UTM.

We also meet at 5 p.m. every Tuesday in 309 Gooch. We’d like to see you there.