It's easy to see copies of The Pendulum in classrooms and red newsstands across campus and think that's the only way to read it. But in today's media landscape, a newspaper has to be so much more than ink on a page.
In recent years, The Pendulum has shifted its mindset from that of a newspaper to one of a news organization. Our predecessors launched its first website in 2002 with a major redesign including blogs and videos in 2009. A Facebook page and Twitter account were also created to help share stories, videos and photos with the online masses.
The idea that The Pendulum was a static print product that came out once a week was shattered. The in-depth reporting expected from The Pendulum only continued with online breaking news, consistent daily content and award-winning multimedia.
But we're still not satisfied.
As technology changes, so must our organization. It would be a disservice to the readers to do anything else.
It is for this reason we are proud to announce the creation of The Swing, a weekly webcast highlighting the top stories from The Pendulum in video format. In 10 minutes or less, viewers get a different look at the front page story, see features about Elon students and witness multimedia packages, like this week's episode where Katie Pullman watches the Ballroom Dance Club salsa their way through Midnight Meals.
This webshow is not meant to compete with Phoenix14 News, Elon's student broadcast news show. Rather, The Swing will serve as a complement to The Pendulum's coverage of events and people on and around campus.
The show will also serve as another opportunity for student journalists interested in joining an organization with a heavy emphasis in print, Web and now, broadcast.
To inform the Elon community about this newest addition to The Pendulum's repertoire of online outlets, the organization will launch a social media campaign to continue for the rest of the year. It's all well and good to have important online content, but if our community is not being reached, our efforts are in vain.
A newly restructured online department will spearhead this increased focus on the Web. Our positions will include an online managing editor, multimedia editor, interactive projects editor, social media editor, executive producer of The Swing and a team of multimedia reporters.
These positions are not just aimed at journalism majors. We hope that students studying public relations, marketing, computer science, media arts and entertainment and any other field who have a passion for journalism and the Web will find these positions appealing and want to bring their talents to The Pendulum.
Through our website, videos and social media sites, these members will work collectively to create new means of communication between the readers and our news organization. Social media is, in many ways, not a new concept. It's reminiscent of the early days of newspapers when the last page of the paper was dedicated to reader comments, and the news was a forum for discussion and debate, not just a one-sided recitation of events. We're excited to celebrate the exchange between those to whom we report and those who do the reporting.
It's not enough for us to just push news out. We want to create open dialogue, with you: the reader, the listener, the viewer and the participant.
We aren't the first news organization to take steps like these, and we certainly won't be the last. But we are the first group on campus to approach news so broadly and convergently, and we can't wait to see the results.