Hello, and welcome to the first edition of the Oregon Daily Emerald for the 2004-05 academic year. This issue marks the beginning of a special year for the Emerald.
We are in our 106th year as a campus newspaper and have served for 33 years as an independent student-run publication working
to report for the University and Eugene communities.
This issue begins a new look for the Emerald: Color on the front page five days per week, a redesigned nameplate and a more vertical, clean layout.
The new design incorporates both traditional and modern styles evoking both the cutting edge of a college publication as well as the long and prestigious history of the Emerald.
The goal of the redesign is to make the paper more useful and easy to navigate. Our map and text breakout boxes will provide at-a-glance facts, quotes, diagrams and contact information. Online boxes will point to links on featured Web sites and to www.dailyemerald.com, the paper’s Web site, for breaking news and online-only photos and stories.
The front page no longer features the day’s weather. A three-day forecast now finds its home regularly on Page 3, but it will occasionally move to Page 4. By removing the bottom banner from the front page, the Emerald can provide more space for local, city, state and regional news.
The commentary page, always Page 2, has a more fluid design, permitting the publication of daily columns and editorials four days per week while creating greater flexibility for the number of guest commentaries, letters and illustrations.
During the summer, the paper transitioned from using Knight Ridder wire-service content to stories by The Associated Press. It is a change that will allow us to cover national and international issues better than ever on our daily Global Update page, usually on Page 3.
We have also expanded our freelance base to allow the reporting staff time for more in-depth pieces on issues that affect students and the community the most.
It is an exciting year for news with a variety of issues to tackle at the University, in the nation and internationally. Most of all, we want the paper to be relevant, accurate and interesting in its features, hard news, sports, entertainment and commentary work. We welcome your feedback and hope the time you spend reading the Emerald is as rewarding as it is for us to produce it.