by Lydia Irvin
In the coming weeks, printed copies of the Asbury Collegian will be notably absent from student spaces.
The print newspapers have been the backdrop to countless days on campus since 1925–laying around the Stuce, waiting on classroom tables and being passed around dorm lobbies. Now, a century later, the Collegian is transitioning to an online-only format.
The administration made this decision due to a combination of factors. The printing company requires a minimum of 500 copies per weekly issue, but only about 10% of these copies were picked up. Because the Collegian is funded through student fees, “it just didn’t feel like good stewardship,” said Collegian Faculty Advisor Professor Savanah Landerholm. “It revealed that we were not properly serving students.”
The loss of the print newspaper comes with a touch of sadness to the Collegian team.
“We’re both really devastated. It is such a nice way to have a tangible way to look back at your work, give it to people and have a memory,” said Executive Editor Dina van Heemst, speaking together with Managing Editor Emily Zink.
van Heemst added that although students will no longer receive regular paper editions of the newspaper, the Collegian may still be able to print a summative edition to showcase students’ work at the end of the semester.
“As a print person, it is sad to see the end of the print newspaper,” said Landerholm. “Yet it wasn’t serving our student body well, so it feels exciting to be a part of something that we get to shape, reimagine and rethink how we best connect to students.”
This ‘reimagining’ will include a refreshed website and social media presence through a renewed focus on the Web Editor and Social Media Manager positions. With Staff Writer and Photographer positions back on the team, the staff will be growing. The newspaper collaboration will also be “including a lot more skills, like multimedia,” said van Heemst, noting that more visual art and comics are soon to be featured on the website.
The online-only format will allow students to write longer and more thoughtful articles, as they will no longer be confined by a strict word limit or a fast-paced print deadline.
“You’re actually allowed to sit and think: ‘what can I write that will be meaningful and important to the community,’” said Zink. “You’re just given more time to be creative.”
The Collegian team also seeks to engage more of the campus community through social media in the coming months.
“We want students to be able to know who to reach out to with a story idea, or if they are interested in writing for the paper, for us to be easily accessible for them to talk to,” said Zink.
Despite the move away from a printed format, the Collegian team aims to keep doing what it has always done: connect campus through stories and cultivate real-life work skills for students in the meantime.
“We’re here as public servants to serve the student body, while at the same time it’s a laboratory experience for students to experience what it is like in the industry,” said Landerholm.
If you would like to contribute to the Collegian, you are invited to send your work to dina.vanheemst@asbury.edu.
