Editorial Focus:
We have seen a greater focus this year on News and news content, this must continue for our paper to thrive. With this refocus, we should be expanding our news coverage as much as possible to ensure it is the strongest it could possibly be. As EIC, I will be requesting weekly check-ins with both the News Editor, Features Editor, and Beat Reporter to track progress, understand where we must adapt and improve, provide insights and see how we can continually thrive.
“What does this mean for students at the University of Calgary?”
As we face a time in which students are constantly fed a barrage of information, the biggest challenge we face as a paper is how we cut through that noise for students. Particularly for a University campus that already struggles to find community due to being considered as a commuter campus. It has become increasingly clear that our focus across all sections needs to answer one question from pitch to publishing: “what does this mean for students at the University of Calgary?”
It is my strong belief that to be able to cut through the noise, a complete and total focus on University students, a hyperlocal aspect, can create a space for us to cut through the noise and for us to capture readers here on campus. If a story cannot explicitly or implicitly answer that question throughout the process, a story will need to be reworked and refocused.
This will be the guiding qualification in our newsroom, this will be written on our wall as a reminder to our editors, to guide us on our mission.
It is with that, we will earn our motto with our work everyday, completely and totally focused on serving students at the University of Calgary.
Meet the Managing Editor:
My time as EIC at The Gauntlet would see the creation of a new role within the editorial team, which would be the managing editor. The sole purpose of the position would be to ensure that there is a clear throughline through each section, making sure that we are writing with the same level of consistency throughout all sections.
There would also be the role of ensuring that stories are being given in a timely fashion to the EIC for final copy-edits and publishing. With deadlines being missed, or stories needing to be extended, the managing editor would work with both section editors and the EIC to ensure that the proper support is given to match the speed that we need to be going in a newsroom.
Having that operational backbone in our newsroom would professionalize workflow and protect editorial standards.
The managing editor would work extremely closely with the Editor-in-Chief, and assist editors to ensure stories are coming out as soon as they possibly can. In an industry that can particularly put a premium on stories coming out faster, as well as ensuring our stories don’t miss the moment, this role can be vital and ensure that we are operating at the most optimal speed.
The other important function of the role of the managing editor would be as a dedicated fact-checker, we have seen the importance of having a dedicated position in professional newsrooms, this can help with contentious stories, and ensure that a broader conversation within the editorial team is happening.
It is important to state that the position is not to make editorial judgements, their primary focus is logistics. Working collaboratively with section editors, tracking stories in the pipeline, and connecting the right people when things need to move faster. Overall, the Managing Editor communicates laterally, not vertically to ensure stories are where they need to be ready for our readers.
In our recent coverage of the Students’ Union election, we saw Cameron Sauder, our opinions editor, take on the role of copy editing our work. This was something that was extremely beneficial and decreased workloads and stress within the newsroom.
This presented how invaluable a position like this would be for everyone at the Gauntlet.
News & Features:
In my time as EIC, I would like to strengthen and expand our coverage for our News and Features sections. This means greater collaboration between both editors, having the Features editor sit in and participate in meetings with the entire team.
Let it serve as a collaborative function to ensure we are getting the most out of our entire team, and we have the strongest section we possibly can. Having volunteer and staff pitching stories, working collaboratively, critiquing angles, developing lines of questioning for subjects as much as possible.
Looking at the News Section more in depth:
With the continued focus on expanding and developing our News Section, there are two ways I plan on conducting this.
The first will be via the implementation of the correspondents and columnist program, developing (2) Student Legislative Council (SLC) correspondents, (2) Board of Governor (BOG) correspondents, (2) Senate correspondents, (2) GFC Committee correspondents. These correspondents will have the primary focus of these particular beats. When stories intersect, they may work together, sharing by-lines and giving the full story to readers. This allows them to develop those skills of being reporters.
Having multiple correspondents means they may share the work load together. Whether that be conducting interviews, writing copy, and collaborating whenever possible.
The second will be through the introduction of a City news section. Mayor of Calgary Jeromy Farkas ran on a platform that included a renewed focus on students and young people, even going so far as to meet with student leaders on his first day in office.
This is where we will place a renewed focus on our beat reporter. Providing them with the primary function of focusing on city council, ensuring that students are understanding just what is happening in the city and how it affects students directly. Whether that be attending council sessions in person or online, building relationships and cultivating sources, as well as ultimately participating in media scrums. With the help of a professional journalist who serves in the role of advisor to EIC and board member, looking particularly at candidates who have experience covering city hall, we look to build a great system of support for the beat reporter to cover our growing city to the best of their abilities.
The secondary function of our beat reporter is assisting our correspondents to the best of their ability, if they need help, consultation, or other development. In their time they may act in service of others, to ensure our newsroom is still running to the best of its abilities.
Looking at the Features section more in depth:
I would like to see more profiles on researchers, student leaders, perhaps even tough profiles on university administration. Furthermore, I would like to see longer form investigative journalism being done, these pieces may take longer, but something that will seriously improve the section. I would like to see more use of the reporting tool of access to information (ATI) forms. This creates another avenue of longer form pieces, that provides worthy information, that if we begin now at the start of my term, can help grow out our features section more.
Collaboration between the two sections with our Correspondents and columnist program:
In moments where things slow down, and to ensure we are working on other stories, correspondents can work on longer form pieces with the features editor. This allows them to thrive, and grow those skills as reporters to write both short form and long form stories. This kind of collaboration and multi-tasking can allow for both sections to grow exponentially simultaneously. Furthermore, the kind of training we provide is something that they can share with other volunteers interested in writing for those sections.
Why does this matter?
This is something that can be used to cultivate talent within our volunteers, develop those skills needed for those positions, and strengthen the promise of our reporting. This gives the Gauntlet that added benefit of always ensuring we have a strong and competitive pool of candidates for all positions once our time ends. They will have the requisite training, a well-rounded portfolio, and strong network of sources that will help them all step into these roles with ease and comfort.
Opinions Section:
The opinions section is one of our biggest sections here at the Gauntlet. It is also one with some of the largest variety of stories ranging from local to international stories. This is something where the opinions section can benefit from aiming its focus specifically on stories that come back to students at the University of Calgary. This includes having a columnist dedicated to campus issues, being able to easily collaborate with the news and features editor, as well as correspondents, to ensure that there is always a voice representing students and their thoughts on what is happening on campus.
This will be beneficial for guiding the opinions section to focus on students, something that will be the through-line in each section’s work in my time as EIC.
Sports Section:
The sports section has been particularly strong as a section this year, there is no doubt about that. It is hard to see any significant changes to the section, however, some elements that would be encouraged for the section would be more profiles whether that be of coaching staff, players, maybe even die-hard Dinos fans. This would be an exciting way to expand coverage of our fantastic sports section.
The second would be greater collaboration between the sports editor and opinion editor for sports opinion articles. I think there is a great untapped market, where we can help expand our sports section and help our volunteers who want that niche to write those articles, and the opinion section gains greater support.
Arts & Research Section:
This year has given Arts & Research great direction, something I would like to continue with increased coverage of the School of Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA), and with showcases and gallery openings done by students (such as with PURE and fine arts honours shows). This creates a fantastic opportunity to show students what members are
Continued focus on growing the research section to look at putting our volunteers in the room of lecture series and round table discussions can be ultimately beneficial for the section. It also increases the coverage to meet the direction of covering the social sciences as equally as the hard sciences.
Furthermore, one aspect that would be beneficial to the section would be the arts & research editor collaborating with our layout & graphics editor, to create a visual to be published monthly of events coming up. This can provide another outlet to let students know what is happening on their campus.
Visuals Section:
The visuals section would benefit from a refocus on photojournalism, whether that be through portraits of subjects or even getting access to photograph in the Student Legislative Council, to our fantastic live event photography. This would also include captioning done in Canadian Press style, as this is an important aspect that is missing from our photojournalism currently.
Layout & Graphics:
I would like to continue the fantastic work of our layout, I cannot say enough positive things about our fantastic layout editor this year. This was done fantastically and no changes should be made in our layout processes.
With bringing down the role of visual editors from two to one, to support our visual editor, the section will be transformed into layout and graphics. This will significantly benefit the role as they will have intimate knowledge of how layout will look for the paper, which will allow them to make the best graphics without having to sacrifice where the story is going.
Online:
One aspect that I would like to see changes in would be updating our website, specifically towards migrating stories into the new section names. changing our fonts from serif to san serif fonts. Research has shown that san serif fonts are easier to read and display on the website.
Volunteer & Outreach:
Collaborating with the Volunteer and Outreach Coordinator to help with the promotion of the paper itself, giving a full timeline for the entire year to assist them with their promotion planning. Furthermore, with the introduction of news stories on social media, it actually allows for greater growth for external outreach.
I would also work closely with the Volunteer & Outreach Coordinator to ensure that similar events and relationships I had developed this year can continue this year, additionally, I would also equally encourage the Volunteer & Outreach Coordinator to host print launch events, either in the office or other appropriate venues, it’s a fantastic way to both promote the paper but also celebrate the hard work of our volunteers who contributed.