To our readers,
Welcome or welcome back to the Hill! We at the Daily have been hard at work all summer preparing to deliver intriguing, engrossing, revelatory journalism to you this fall. Since a newspaper’s first responsibility is to the community it serves, we wanted to take this opportunity to let you know what you can expect from us this semester — both in terms of our day-to-day operations and our philosophy of how the Daily should function in the Tufts community.
In an adjustment to last semester’s schedule, we will be printing our paper once a week on Thursdays and publishing online-only on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Our audience has moved ever-more online, in keeping with trends across collegiate and professional journalism, so we’re meeting you where you are with a robust social media presence and plenty of digital-first and multimedia content. Our (newly expanded) Science section will continue to publish online-only, showcasing scientific innovations on Tufts’ campus and treating our readers to bite-size science stories that help them see the world differently. We’ll continue to send out daily and weekly newsletters, which you can subscribe to here. You can also look forward to the continuation of popular Audio and Video projects such as The Daily Read and the Newsroom Concert Series.
At the same time as we are embracing the digital age, we remain deeply attached to the printed newspaper and consider it an integral part of the Daily’s identity on campus. With that in mind, we’ve been working this summer to make our print product the best it can be and distribute it to as many of you as possible. Our weekly print papers, published each Thursday, will contain brand new articles plus a selection of the preceding week’s best, most essential stories. They will also feature a refreshed front page design, an update that embraces and builds upon the classic Daily layout style. In short, these papers will showcase the Daily’s strongest work across its written content, layout, photo and graphics sections. Grab a copy from one of our 20+ distribution locations — including many campus and local locations that we’re thrilled to be returning to for the first time since the onset of the pandemic — for timely news, fun and games, and everything in between.
We will also be increasing our focus on local coverage this fall across all of our written content sections, but particularly in the news section. Make no mistake, the Daily is still first and foremost a campus publication — however, as the local journalism ecosystem in Medford and Somerville is progressively eroded by newspaper mergers and closures, we see an opportunity to use our resources and skills in service of our host communities. We hope these local stories will be informative and foster a sense of connection to your neighbors.
We’re excited to be bringing you five special, themed editions throughout the semester. The first was our Matriculation Issue for incoming first-years and all other newcomers to Tufts, which you can check out here if you missed it. You’re reading the second, our Welcome Back Issue, right now. We will publish our (completely unserious) Halloween Issue on Oct. 28, our Elections Issue on Nov. 8 and our Host Communities Issue on Dec. 8.
Behind everything the Daily does is a dedication to high-quality, ethical journalism. When we undertake a new project or adjust the way we operate, we ask ourselves, does this serve our audience? Does it align with our values and meet our standards? We hope that when you read, watch and listen to the Daily’s offerings, you see your experiences represented and are able to gain insight into the experiences of your peers. We also hope that engaging with our reporting will equip you to be active in the Tufts, Medford and Somerville communities — whatever that looks like for you.
We’re excited to connect with you, our readers, this semester. As has been the case for the past 42 years, our goal with each new edition of the Daily is to earn — and maintain — your trust by ethically and accurately reporting on the issues that matter to you. Want to contribute to the conversation? You’re always welcome to contact us at daily@tuftsdaily.com or submit a letter to the editor to opinion@tuftsdaily.com.
On behalf of the entire Daily staff, best of luck for an excellent semester. We can’t wait to get started.
Sincerely,
Chloe Courtney Bohl, Editor in Chief
Delaney Clarke, Managing Editor
Julia Shannon-Grillo, Managing Editor
Ty Blitstein, Associate Editor
Abigail Vixama, Associate Editor
Charlene Tsai, Production Director
Sam Berman, Business Director
