If you search through the Daily Bruin Web site and archives, you will not find my work. Entering my fourth year at the Daily Bruin, there is very little evidence that I ever existed, save for the staff box on page 2.
No, I’m not having an identity crisis, and this isn’t a plea for recognition ““ on the contrary, everything has gone perfectly.
Journalism production mirrors production in many other industries. You will never see the name of the person who designed the front-page layout, just as many people don’t care who the camera crew was on the latest Hollywood blockbuster.
As the newspaper industry loses advertising revenue to online media, cost-cutting has run amok. Many papers are reducing their staffs, raising concerns that the final product will be of lesser quality.
After all, a movie star can’t produce a top film without an accompanying cast and crew, and a writer does not necessarily design the information graphic or shoot the photo to accompany a story.
Luckily the Daily Bruin is a little different. While this publication may face the same revenue-generating challenges of other newspapers, our student journalists are working for the experience, and there are no big salaries to be cut.
We will maintain the same level of quality that has made us a nationally recognized training ground for journalism.
However, with advertisers preferring online media, The Bruin has been adding and will continue to add emphasis on the production of online content.
While the Web site already boasts Daily Bruin-produced video, audio and interactive content, we want to add a new, exciting dimension to our online content.
This year, we plan to add a feature that will allow online readers with UCLA Bruin On-Line accounts to log into our Web site with user profiles that will enable them to customize the layout of the Web site according to their interests and share stories with other users whom they can also add as friends.
Additionally, student groups will be able to form their own pages with bulletin board and calendar features. These features will enable them to post announcements which will be available not only to other members of the group, but also the general public and will periodically appear on the Daily Bruin’s main site.
By implementing these new features, we hope to better engage our local community by serving as not only a media outlet reporting on student groups, but also a place for students to come together to share activities and ideas.
Other additions to the Web site that will be implemented this year include a feature allowing users to comment on stories, a more developed blog page featuring new blogs, as well as a better search function.
In my new position as managing editor of the Daily Bruin this year, my focus is to ensure the highest quality of production possible, in both print and online media, so that The Bruin best facilitates and enhances the reader’s consumption of news.
Just as this is the first published piece of writing in my career at this newspaper, it may be my last. After all, someone needs to be focused on the details to make sure production runs smoothly when the next blockbuster news package hits the presses.
Robinson is the 2007-2008 managing editor. He fears writing columns. E-mail him at krobinson@ucla.edu.