The DTH is a rotating cast of faces, which makes for both exciting new life and a steep learning curve. So far we seem to be experiencing both. Just conquering the basics would be enough to keep up busy, but we’re taking an ambitious path: adding new sections, alternative story forms, pullouts and altering our daily operation process.

Some would say we should’ve eased into the changes, but you only have one year to make your mark here. Last year’s bunch did it’s part and left a high bar for us to meet. I remember Elyse Ashburn, DTH editor ’03-’04, talking about her first few days on the job. She walked around the newsroom looking for those she’d become accustomed to relying on only to realize that they’d graduated and moved on. I didn’t expect to see last year’s seniors, but I found myself demanding the same sort of work I’d expected from them. That’s not fair.

We shouldn’t set out to meet their bar; we need to set our own. I guess I forgot pretty quickly what the beginning of last year was like. There were bumps. All I remembered is the deadline-hitting machine we developed toward the end of last year. But we’re not a machine. We’re a group of individuals with unique skills and weakenesses giving away our free time to produce a newspaper. Our goal is to produce the best product possible. Not to top former papers. Not to win awards. Just to serve readers as best we can.

You’ll see us develop our own style as we go on. The DTH will feel a bit different this year, and I think that’s a good thing.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 24th, 2006 at 10:17 am and is filed under Editor, Newsroom. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.