LSU student-media leaders to revamp Reveille for spring 2017 semester
10/20/2016
Will Offer Enlarged Weekly Newspaper, Expanded Online Reporting Top student managers of The Daily Reveille and LSUNow.com today announced plans to substantially reconfigure their print and online media offerings for students at Louisiana State University and the broader campus community.
In an editorial, student-media leaders described changes they have planned. In January, the Reveille will become a 32-page weekly newspaper with an expanded circulation and longer news stories integrated with its online publication. The Reveille and LSUNow.com also will have a larger staff of digital journalists, more online video and an expanded social-media presence for LSU Student Media.
“We understand the significance of this decision, especially considering the presence The Reveille has had on campus since its inception in 1887, and we are certain this shift is in the best interest of preserving the status and efficacy of the same paper that University students and alumni have read for more than a century,” the students wrote. “This reduction in print doesn’t mean we’ll fade as the University’s primary news source. In fact, we’re growing our services, widening our presence across campus and innovating the ways we tell you stories.”
LSUNow.com published the editorial online: http://www.lsunow.com/daily/reveille-to-print-enlarged-weekly-newspaper-beginning-next-semester/article_c9dd2230-9664-11e6-9d16-9f4a8528fa7d.html
Reveille editor-in-chief Quint Forgey explained the hard work that went into the student-led process to shift the newspaper’s publication schedule. “Reveille editors regularly work 12-hour days, five days a week producing a daily paper and breaking digital news for our readers. There are few students on campus more dedicated to serving the LSU community, and there is no one more appreciative of everything a daily paper represents,” Forgey said. “These past few weeks of decision-making have been trying ones, but student leaders took matters into their own hands and demonstrated an ability to make tough choices governed by practicality and an optimism for the future of Student Media. I am unbelievably proud to work alongside them.”
LSUNow.com editor-in-chief Carrie Grace Henderson expressed sorrow and optimism about the planned changes, especially the move from a daily to a weekly Reveille. “As someone who started her Student Media career with The Daily Reveille, it’s heartbreaking. I learned so much from working on the daily paper,” Henderson said. “But I am excited that this decision will give us the opportunity to improve our digital product. I am hopeful that the Reveille’s ability to teach work ethic and reporting skills to new reporters will go unchanged within this new system.”
The Manship School of Mass Communication will provide technological and training resources to facilitate this transition to emphasize digital publication. These include purchasing new and upgraded equipment for the student-media news operation. The Office of Student Media, responsible for the administration of the Reveille, LSUNow.com, TigerTV, KLSU radio, The Gumbo yearbook and Legacy magazine, is housed in the Manship School at LSU.
These proposed changes build on efforts to converge the print, digital and video operations of LSU Student Media. Forgey, Henderson and Tiger TV station manager Jeremy Krail merged their news teams in August 2016 to improve workflow in the newsroom and better serve LSU students.
“This past semester has provided a great foundation for Tiger TV to work more closely with the Reveille than ever before,” Krail said. “With this in mind, we fully support their decision to change print frequency and will embrace this change moving forward.”
Manship School Dean Jerry Ceppos congratulated the student-media leaders on their plans. “This is a bold new direction led by students,” Ceppos said. “This forward-thinking group understands that students get most of their news from the web — and understands that print revenues are declining sharply. The Manship School of Mass Communication is proud to stand with these student leaders as they develop new approaches to serving LSU readers.”
Steve Buttry, director of Student Media, also endorsed the student plans. “I am pleased with the students’ initiative and their thoughtful plans,” Buttry said. “I am eager to work with them in launching the new weekly newspaper and executing their digital coverage plan.”