Managing editor and Web editor Mahala Bloom talks Buchtelite

Writing for a student newspaper shouldn't be a frightening thing, according to the Buchtelite's Managing editor and Web editor Mahala Bloom.

"If you're afraid, we have copy editors," Bloom said.  "Just do your best.  I'm not any sort of English major, but I've written stories.  Our last Editor-In-Chief was a psychology major.  I'm a design major.  You don't have to be an English major to write."

And Bloom doesn't just write stories.  Her byline can be found next to all kinds of published material, including graphics, photos, page designs and, of course, stories.  She began her Buchtelite employment as a page designer and later adopted the Web editor position as well.  She dropped her position as page editor and was promoted to Managing editor at the beginning of the Fall 2011 semester.

"I sort of went into [the page editor position] blind," she said.  "I was looking for an on-campus job, I thought it would line up with my major.  I actually accepted the Web editor position out of necessity, we did not have a responsible Web editor at the time."

Bloom says the Buchtelite has recently improved the most in its design.

"I feel that this year, and it had begun last year, we have really taken our design to the next level," Bloom said.  "We started considering some of the smaller details that are important.  Simple things like the headers on every page are the same, and we created a flow that was not there before."

One aspect Bloom said she feels particularly proud of is our ability to be not only completely student run, but also have a newspaper full of unique student generated content.

"We have generated better content through our graphic designers and our photographers instead of using resources like MCT like they did in the past,"  Bloom said.  "Now it really is a student's newspaper."