Chris Coon, Buchtelite sports editor

Chris Coon, our sports editor, knows he works for a good publication.

"We’re unified.  It’s like a real newspaper," Coon said. "Even like the Buchtelite two years ago, do you ever look at those old newspapers?  They’re just bad.  They’re all dark and dreary."

Coon said that writing for the Buchtelite is a good experience becuase getting published will help out any resume.  There are some things we could be working on though, he said.

"We need to be getting students aware that the Buchtelite exists," Coon said.  "Today there was a kid in my class who was like, 'What's the Buchtelite?' And he was a communication student."

After graduate school, Chris thinks he will continue to cover sports, but probably not in the area.

"I don't like the cold," Coon said.

Chris is a fantastic member of the Buchtelite staff, but he's not the only one.  In the next few weeks, I hope to introduce you to the rest of the staff as well!

Have a good day!

David

The Buchtelite Get the Word Out Campaign

Our staff has been doing quite a bit to promote the paper as part of an effort to increase campus awareness that the Buchtelite even exists.  So far we have mainly been promoting ourselves inside our own paper, but unfortunately that puts us in a real Catch 22 position.

More recently we've changed our strategy.  First, members of the Buchtelite staff have been visiting classes.  When they visit, they not only promote the Buchtelite, but they also encourage students in the class to write.  We are always looking for new writers!  Starting next week, we're also starting a poster campaign.  These posters will not only promote the Buchtelite, but also my blog as well!

Check 'em out!

Have a good day!

David

Special Issues coming in the Buchtelite

Last April, the staff of the Buchtelite released their first ever Sex Issue.  This issue, although controversial, was extremely successful.  Our website received more page views than it ever had before, and emails (both praising and critical) poured into our inboxes.

With this in mind, we will have several "special" issues coming up.  Tomorrow (October 13) will be our first of two Halloween issues.  You can expect a second Halloween-themed issue on October 27.

The one I'm really excited about is our Tech issue (November 10).  We're hoping to make this issue extra-large.  We also want to really feature Akron technology.  This might include how professors are using technology in unique ways in their classrooms, technology that professors are developing or how Akron in general is using technology better.

Got any ideas for special issues we can do?  Or any ideas for our Tech issue?  Let me know!

Have a fantastic day!

David

Journalists are fun!

Just to prove that journalists aren't always boring, I thought I would post this video.  This was shot in our office around 1:30 a.m.  So to give these women some credit, we were losing it.

Have a swell day!

David

The Buchtelite: Still getting used to using the Internet

This semester, the Buchtelite completely revamped its Website.  First off, we moved from College Publisher to Wordpress (something that I would strongly recommend to anyone using College Publisher).  This gave us a lot more flexibility with the design of the Website and removed a lot of the headaches we've had in the past while using College Publisher.  Now, the Website is much more streamlined, much more reliable and much more attractive.  However, we could still be doing more.

Unfortunately, having an editorial staff as small as 12 people makes it very difficult to do everything we would like to.  Ideally, we would be posting new stories online on a daily basis.  If, for example, you wanted to find out whether the Zips won or lost over the weekend, you could log onto buchtelite.com and find out.  To make up for this we try to have the sports blog updated as often as possible, but sometimes we just can't make it work in time (This is in no way discrediting our sports editor Chris Coon - he is a very hard worker and does a lot behind the scenes).

Also, we have puzzle solutions and polls on the website.  This is all well and good, but I would love to have video and audio available as well.  These would either be their own stories or they would be part of another story.  Again - in a perfect world we would have been doing this all along, but with such a small staff these things can be difficult to organize and take advantage of.

Anyway, I just wanted to say that I have all intentions on adding new features to our Buchtelite Website in the future.  The only question that I can't answer yet is how long into the future this could be.

Have a swell day!

David

Commedian George Wallace will be in the Buchtelite's October 11 issue

It's always a treat to meet or talk to someone with any sort of star power.  For example our sports editor Chris Coon shared a story with me about how when he was a little kid, Jerry Seinfeld actually handed him a paper towel in a restroom.  Another friend of mine, who used to work at the Gamestop located in Summit Mall, sold a game to drummer Patrick Carney from the Black Keys.  Last year, as the Arts and Life editor of the Buchtelite, I had the opportunity to interview Nashville-based rocker Will Hoge.

For our next issue, our Arts and Life editor Heather Beyer has been given to the opportunity to interview comedian George Wallace!  Heather learned that Wallace worked at Firestone in Akron and actually went to the University of Akron.  Actually, he's good friends with Jerry Seinfeld as well.  Interesting.

Please check out the Arts and Life section this Tuesday for more on George Wallace.

Have a good day!

David

An evolving page design

The the front page of the Buchtelite has never had a static design.  In fact, this page in particular is the one I see changing the most.

Some days the page holds several stories.  Others it has only one.  Sometimes the page might resemble a page found on www.newseum.org (which is a great resource for inspiration).  Other days its design is completely our own.

The Oct. 4 issue of the Buchtelite has one of those front pages that make me proud to be a part of creating the independant voice of the University of Akron. 

After the origional concept was thought of by our News Editor Molly Gase, the idea evolved, and soon the design itself became a work of art.  One of our page designers, Brian Palubiak, even hand painted some of the graphic elements.  Our head page designer Emily Poor spent much of the night working on making the overall concept and design absolutely perfect.

Check it out!  Read the paper!

Have a good day!

David