Here at The Post, a whiteboard with notes, reminders and the occasional inside joke adorns the wall space inside our newsroom door.
Before our last round of staffers leave for the night, they scribble the time of their departure on the whiteboard’s color-stained surface.
Last I checked, a figure on the late side of 4:30 a.m. was scrawled for all to see.
It’s been that kind of week.
The good news is that we’re another seven days into the semester, are nearly settled into our routine and have picked up some steam heading into week three.
I’ve been particularly pleased with the amount of interaction we’ve had with our readers since I arrived on campus two weeks ago; I’ve heard from a number of you about what you’ve enjoyed from The Post and what you think we could do better.
Two topics were mentioned multiple times: Our front-page design and Twitterfeed.
My conversations about the former topic were generally positive. Alumni and students alike wrote me to say they have been pleased with the way our front page looks. I’m glad to hear it, but it’s hardly my place to take the praise.
Our design staff, led by Jake Newton and David Sebo, has spearheaded an initiative to better showcase our stories and photos in print. Judging by comments from our readers, it seems like we’re on the right track.
Parallel to our print efforts, we’ve also looked to improve our appearance on the Web. This process, however, hasn’t been without its hiccups.
As you likely know, we made the transition to a new website in late July. We’ve been consistently tinkering with new settings and features, with more additions to come in the near future. One that seems to have been a swing and a miss, however, is the website’s auto-tweet function.
We tried it for several days last week. The result? Reader feedback like this: “Just scroll down the @ThePost feed. It's super repetitive and spammy. Don't do that.”
Needless to say, we’ve cut that out. We’ve also refined our online workflow to make sure that we have fresh content on our website throughout the day instead of just during the morning hours.
While we continue to improve our operation, both in print and on the Web, I encourage you to drop me a line to let me know what you think. My colleagues and I value your opinion.
As always, thanks for reading.
Jim Ryan is a senior studying journalism and political science and editor-in-chief of The Post. Love this week’s front pages? Annoyed by our Twitter tactics? Contact him at jr992810@ohio.edu or on Twitter at @Jimryan015.
