A message from our editors: goals and priorities

If you’re anything like me, you probably reluctantly acknowledged and spitefully endured the last year and a half of new “COVID-19 vocabulary” that has embedded itself into the common vernacular. I can’t tell you how many times I opened my email to find an opening line about “these unprecedented times” and had to use every ounce of willpower to not throw up in my mouth. Sometimes these times found themselves “trying” or “uncertain,” but the sentiment remained generally the same. 

The term “the new normal” reserves a particular amount of personal scorn. Not only does no one want to hear half-hearted and unsolicited reassurances that the situations we found, and continue to find ourselves in, could ever be considered “normal,” but it’s just a lazy attempt at inspiring camaraderie. 

But, like it or not, this is the phrase I had bouncing around in my head as I sat down to write the first “letter from the editor” for the year. We are back at Wofford, fully in-person, with minimal mask requirements and 85% of students vaccinated; in other words, nature is healing. 

I kept thinking about “the new normal” because here at the Old Gold & Black, we are in the process of attempting to bring to fruition that very thing. However, revamping the paper involves a couple of concrete goals. 

First goal: improve readership. For the most part, the newspaper flies under the radar until we don’t (i.e. we print something people take exception to). This is not a point of pride, nor is it how I desire the chief, and only, on-campus news source to be viewed. Realizing improved readership means improving the quality of the topics we cover and how we cover them; more attention is not something simply owed to us, we have to earn it.

Which serves as an intentional segue into the second goal: expand our footprint on campus by stepping into the world of digital media. This means podcasts, “TV” news and potentially other outlets, all of which would allow us to focus on regularly covering on-campus, local, national and even global news. The technological element of journalism is becoming ever more relevant in the real world and has been sorely missing from Wofford’s student publications. 

We have no desire to abandon print journalism, but we have no desire to be left in the dust as technology plows ahead with no sign of slowing down. If getting involved in one of these enterprises is something that would interest you, please contact us. 

Finally, and this incorporates both above points: we want your feedback. If you don’t already know one of us on the editorial team personally, feel free to reach out anytime via email. Tell us what you liked and didn’t like, topics that you feel need coverage, and, if you feel up to it, write about it yourself; we are always open to contributing writers. 

I have no lofty ambitions that involve reinventing the wheel – but it’s time we take a step forward in the right direction. Challenging our writers, editors and our readers improves the ethos of both the newspaper and Wofford, and is what higher education is ultimately about. So that is our “new normal”: push ourselves to innovate and get back to the roots of providing a source of quality journalism. We at the Old Gold & Black are looking forward to this year and to covering what is important and relevant to Wofford. Hopefully, we set a new precedent for normality.