Campus paper strives to increase online presence
By Maria Pericozzi
Being a journalism major, I am commonly asked, “Why? That’s a mistake. Newspapers are dying. Everything is going digital.”
One day, newspapers might disappear, and journalists will be writing for online-only news organizations, which have begun to pop up around the country.
At The Oswegonian, we are moving with the changing times to increase our online presence. We still have a circulation of 2,500 papers a week but are always working to increase our digital presence.
Readers of The Oswegonian include more than 10,000 students, faculty and staff at SUNY Oswego, as well as more than 18,000 residents in the city of Oswego. Most of our readers view articles online, but some still prefer to read the newspaper instead.
During this past year in particular, our staff has worked more to use Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat to our advantage. We live-tweet and Snapchat events, post pictures from events on Instagram, and circulate articles on Facebook and Twitter. We are dedicated to delivering our news to our readers, in whichever way they want to read it.
“I believe that the future of The Oswegonian, and all news media, is hinged on how well we use the internet and the technology afforded to us,” said Alexander Gault-Plate, the incoming managing editor. “Without using that resource, we would be doing a disservice to our readers and we would be doing a disservice to ourselves.”
In the next 10 years, I believe we will still have a newspaper circulating around campus and in the community. For editors, only about 25 percent of the week is spent on editing articles from writers. The rest of their time is dedicated to creating a layout, headlines, photo captions and more to produce the print edition of the newspaper.
For student journalists, being an editor gives an experience nothing can replace. We are able to put on our resume that we have experience with more than just writing.
In this day and age, learning how to gain an online following is also an experience nothing can replace. The Oswegonian has only begun to develop its online presence and use technology to its advantage.
“I hope to increase traffic to our web page by placing important, interesting multimedia elements on there, that you could not get from our printed paper,” Gault-Plate said. “I will work to encourage writers and staff to find new, interesting and challenging ways to report on stories that will bring something new to the table, something The Oswegonian has only begun to work on.”
When someone says going into journalism is a mistake, I always respond and will continue to respond by explaining that while the number of Americans who read print newspapers continues to decline, people will always need to read about what is going on in the world somewhere, whether it be in a newspaper or online.
Maria Pericozzi is part of the team that publishes the Oswegonian.
