It’s Sunday. Finals begin tomorrow. The library is filled from bottom to top with the crazies who will buy too much pizza, drink too much coffee, skip too much sleep and maybe study a little.
Where am I? Like any dedicated Editor-in-Chief at a student newspaper, I’m sitting on the floor of the library with the managing editor who holds a camera. We are in search of photos for our front page.
We climb the stairs from the basement to the fifth story together, stopping to sip our own coffees and take some pictures at each floor.
Check out the front page — when midnight rolled around, we wondered what you’d think of our efforts.
After one long year, Sunday night marked my last night as Editor-in-Chief of the Daily 49er. After three years of commitment to our campus newspaper, Sunday night marked Print Manager Danielle Carson’s last night on staff.
Some endings are bitter, some are sweet, some are, of course, bitter-sweet. This one is none of those things. It feels odd and kind of unreal, but satisfying.
We’ve done some exciting things this year at the Daily 49er …
A year ago, the hottest days of the summer were the 10-hour Wednesdays spent trapped in the sentimental basement that housed the cozy newsroom. Once a week, and for no pay, a handful of journalists gathered with me to piece together gradual success. By the end of that summer, the outdated www.daily49er.wpengine.com came to life with blacks and golds and headlines that pop and more videos than ever before. Little did we know that the news hub we had fashioned would earn first place in the Associated Collegiate Press awards for a website at a large school.
What felt like summer-time play collided with the drain of the fall semester, and we all felt it. Staff members stressed, cried and some even quit — who knew one day I’d call those months of no sleep and too much coffee successful. But an honorable mention from this year’s California College Media Awards for best overall newspaper design and best overall newspaper ain’t too shabby.
The chaos of fall faded as the print-mindedness that pervaded the old newsroom finally molded into convergence. We moved up in the campus world into a high-tech newsroom that allows us to suit up twice per week and shoot a video news program that airs in the community via PADnet and plays on our website. Everyday, we wake up to greet the sunrise with the morning radio news program that plays as a podcast online.
Students from five different course sections in the department now come in to work with us, learn from us and tell stories for us. Students from all over campus request workshops with us and join our rank. We are growing, we are improving and we are thriving at the Daily 49er …
Carson is one of many members of the 2014-15 Daily 49er team who has contributed countless hours of writing, editing, designing and carrying the newspaper into an entirely new era.
I’m honored and priveleged to look back on my senior year at CSULB and ONLY see the newsroom. Thanks to my advisors, my family, my staff and my best friend, Danielle Carson, I made it through in one piece!
Here’s to Greg Diaz, the fool who will replace me in the year to come — good luck … the private office is a great place for a nap, just remember to lock the door.
#49erNow