Welcome to a Special Online-Only Edition of The Reporter
Damon Vangelis
Issue date: 12/3/01 Section: Editor's Corner
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Welcome! The Reporter staff is proud to present our first online-only edition – something of a unique experiment in GSB journalism.
As we floated this idea to the community, some of you have naturally asked, “Why online only?” Well, there are two primary reasons behind our decision.
First, we believe it is a good way to build interest in The Virtual Reporter. Our ultimate goal is to have The Virtual Reporter become a central part of GSB life – as a place to read current and archived Reporter articles, as a resource on local activities, restaurants, destinations, and as a home to regular features that will not appear in the print publication. We can tell by our “hit and page view report” that many of you have been logging in to the VR over the past two months. We hope that this issue will lead even more of you to check it out.
Second, it will help us reduce our costs. The Reporter is closely affiliated with the GSB, but we do not receive any funds from either the administration or the SA. We rely entirely on advertising revenue, sponsorships, and subscriptions to keep the presses rolling. Given the downturn in the economy and the decline in the number of recruiters visiting campus (a major source of advertising revenue), we are quite sensitive to our costs. By not printing an issue, we will save on design and printer costs.
Over the course of the past couple of months, our Staff has outlined our goals and vision for the VR. We all agreed that it should be – at a minimum – a repository for articles and information on GSB life. In addition to being a helpful resource, this repository should have the practical effect of cutting down on some of the traffic on GSB-Unofficial (the GSB's open internet bulletin board) by providing students with answers to such pressing questions such as “Where can I find a good dentist?” or “Does anyone know any places in the area to find good Peking Duck?”
Moreover, the ease with which articles can be “e-mailed to a friend” will certainly help open lines of communication among students and also between students and alumni. We also believe the Site can be a resource for alumni interested in learning more about the issues and interests that animate contemporary campus life.
But beyond simply being an archive and communication vehicle, we believe the VR should include unique content that is not available in the print paper. So we intend to build-out the site to include instant polls, features about classmates, information on classes, and news and notes that are too time sensitive to wait until the next printed edition. In this effort, we encourage all of you to contribute your creative talents – there are no space constraints, so we can accommodate most anything that would be of interest to the community.
We know that many of you are accustomed to receiving a print copy of the paper every two weeks. As newspaper publishers, we are certainly partial to the printed copy. Being able to touch the printed paper, to take it with you into kitchen, or in the car, or into class is something we like to do. We are creatures of habit and preference – so we have no illusion that the Web version could ever entirely replace the printed paper.
But we do hope that this issue will give you a better sense of the opportunities available to us through The Virtual Reporter to strengthen our community and open lines of communication. And as you read us virtually, feel free to send along any ideas you have for us to improve our online site. We would love to hear them. E-mail preferred, of course.
We hope you enjoy the issue, and we would like to offer you and your family best wishes for a healthy and enjoyable holiday break. Good luck on exams and projects. We will see you in print in 2002.
As we floated this idea to the community, some of you have naturally asked, “Why online only?” Well, there are two primary reasons behind our decision.
First, we believe it is a good way to build interest in The Virtual Reporter. Our ultimate goal is to have The Virtual Reporter become a central part of GSB life – as a place to read current and archived Reporter articles, as a resource on local activities, restaurants, destinations, and as a home to regular features that will not appear in the print publication. We can tell by our “hit and page view report” that many of you have been logging in to the VR over the past two months. We hope that this issue will lead even more of you to check it out.
Second, it will help us reduce our costs. The Reporter is closely affiliated with the GSB, but we do not receive any funds from either the administration or the SA. We rely entirely on advertising revenue, sponsorships, and subscriptions to keep the presses rolling. Given the downturn in the economy and the decline in the number of recruiters visiting campus (a major source of advertising revenue), we are quite sensitive to our costs. By not printing an issue, we will save on design and printer costs.
Over the course of the past couple of months, our Staff has outlined our goals and vision for the VR. We all agreed that it should be – at a minimum – a repository for articles and information on GSB life. In addition to being a helpful resource, this repository should have the practical effect of cutting down on some of the traffic on GSB-Unofficial (the GSB's open internet bulletin board) by providing students with answers to such pressing questions such as “Where can I find a good dentist?” or “Does anyone know any places in the area to find good Peking Duck?”
Moreover, the ease with which articles can be “e-mailed to a friend” will certainly help open lines of communication among students and also between students and alumni. We also believe the Site can be a resource for alumni interested in learning more about the issues and interests that animate contemporary campus life.
But beyond simply being an archive and communication vehicle, we believe the VR should include unique content that is not available in the print paper. So we intend to build-out the site to include instant polls, features about classmates, information on classes, and news and notes that are too time sensitive to wait until the next printed edition. In this effort, we encourage all of you to contribute your creative talents – there are no space constraints, so we can accommodate most anything that would be of interest to the community.
We know that many of you are accustomed to receiving a print copy of the paper every two weeks. As newspaper publishers, we are certainly partial to the printed copy. Being able to touch the printed paper, to take it with you into kitchen, or in the car, or into class is something we like to do. We are creatures of habit and preference – so we have no illusion that the Web version could ever entirely replace the printed paper.
But we do hope that this issue will give you a better sense of the opportunities available to us through The Virtual Reporter to strengthen our community and open lines of communication. And as you read us virtually, feel free to send along any ideas you have for us to improve our online site. We would love to hear them. E-mail preferred, of course.
We hope you enjoy the issue, and we would like to offer you and your family best wishes for a healthy and enjoyable holiday break. Good luck on exams and projects. We will see you in print in 2002.