I spent the better part of a Thursday afternoon in the office, sorting through my and past editors’ clutter and accumulation, looking for handouts and words of wisdom for the incoming staff.

This week, a group of nearly 50 student journalists is in the Emerald office, trying to get the necessary footing for the upcoming year. It’s a scary thing, being a journalist. Day in and day out, you contribute something for the paper, something that you know — well, hope — will be analyzed by 10,000 of your peers.
Lately, I’ve expended a lot of energy thinking about what a newspaper is. Clearly, it’s a piece of paper with words and photos and advertisements. Leaving it at that, the Emerald is no better and no worse than any paper in the country.
What makes a strong newspaper is the content it brings to readers each day. If you pick up the paper and don’t see stories that interest you, odds are you’re not going to read it.
Another aspect of a good paper is its visual appeal. Readers want to quickly see what a paper has to offer. If the paper is designed in a way that makes it difficult to find what you’re looking for, or if the paper is just a block of text, odds are you’re not going to read it.
To end this simplistic overview, the final ingredient of a solid newspaper is its staff. News happens everyday. News is going on right now. But you can’t be there to see and hear it all, so you want someone to tell you about it. If you can’t trust the person who’s telling you the story in the paper, odds are you’re not going to read it.
So I suppose that’s why I’m sitting here, sifting through desk drawers, trying to find the magic that will ensure an ideal paper.
And guess what?
I didn’t find it.
I don’t think I’m going to.
Not where I’m looking, anyway.
The three things I mentioned do indeed create a strong newspaper. But I can’t find content in my desk drawers. I can’t shoot photographs from inside the office. And I surely can’t create an element of trust between the staff and the public with an inspiring guest speaker.
For many of the staff, this week is going to be a crash course in journalism that doesn’t make any sense and seems quite overwhelming. In a few weeks, some of the training exercises will become worthwhile. In a few months the job will become routine. By the end of the year, these journalists will come up with ideas of their own about what makes a good newspaper, and how it can be accomplished.
Journalism is a gradual learning process. We’ll be here on a daily basis, until the paper is done. And in that time, we’ll find the stories that interest you and we’ll share them. We’ll create a paper that you’ll want to pick up. And, more than anything else, we’ll work to get it right day in and day out.
Of course, you can aid in this process by keeping in contact. Drop me an e-mail at [email protected] with story suggestions, general ideas and complaints.
So thank you, in advance, for reading the Emerald this year. Simply, I want you to read the Emerald because you want to.
Maybe I’ll write that one down. They may not be words of wisdom, but it is the truth.