Welcome back to all students, faculty, staff and administrators as we start another semester on the Hill. Hopefully you've all had enjoyable summer breaks and are settling back in nicely.
Despite not publishing any papers, the Daily has been pretty active throughout the summer, and we have some major changes coming your way. According to the Princeton Review, we are now the No. 7 college newspaper in the country (up five spots from last year!). Aside from the boost in rankings, though, we have two major updates for the university.
First, the Daily has undergone financial restructuring and has worked out a loan agreement with the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate. The loan is for $8,000 to be paid back over a maximum time period of three years. Second, we are launching a revamped website that will vastly improve the experience for both our editors and viewers.
On the topic of finances, we're an independent student-run newspaper. We manage our own advertisements and staff our own business department. However, the Daily hasn't always run as an efficient business, which is due to miscommunication between the editorial and business staffs as the management positions change each semester. The paper was not consistently running a profit, but past managing boards never had to worry about falling into debt. Recently, though, that hasn't been the case.
Taking over the Daily is a serious financial responsibility. That's why, after working with last semester's managing editors (who luckily identified the financial problems before they got way out of hand), we've worked out a loan with the TCU Senate. This will ensure that the Daily keeps its commitment to unbiased, well-researched journalism while at the same time functioning as an independent business should in the long run.
We're still completely student-run and we are working with groups like 180 Degrees Consulting on campus to keep the paper profitable and pay off the loan as soon as we can. Hopefully, based on our current advertisement revenues, we will be able to pay back the loan in the near future. We now keep track of all advertisements for every paper to monitor how our balances change with each issue.
While that may not be thrilling news, the Daily promises to run the same content and not shy away from breaking crucial news for everyone at the university.
We do, however, have some exciting news to share. After a summer of web development and troubleshooting, we are launching a brand new website. Along with a serious interface lift (we're not in 1997 anymore), this site will also bring our newspaper production process into the 21st century. We will be able to break news much more quickly with a streamlined, web-first production system that brings the editing process to our website.
Check tuftsdaily.com in the next day or two, and tell us what you think can be improved. We'll still give you the same printed daily newspaper, but we also want to give you the best experience online with the paper.
There will be many new challenges for our staff to sort through as the Daily makes these changes this semester. We hope that the work on our end translates to an easier, more enjoyable experience with the Daily on your end.
Sincerely,
Alex Schroeder
Editor-in-Chief
