University of North Carolina newspaper the Daily Tar Heel has undergone a massive overhaul recently, revamping its publication and Web site for the new media era.
After taking suggestions and comments from various social media outlets, the new editorial team of Sara Gregory, Andrew Dunn and Emily Stephenson unveiled the The Daily Tar Heel‘s new design directed at meeting its readers’ demands.
Saturday the new site was launched, with an emphasis on social media, blogging, and reader-submitted content. Along with its print publication, The Daily Tar Heel has repositioned itself at the forefront of college news.
Blogs aplenty will be hitting UNC servers with entries covering campus activities as well as the standard sports events. UNC parents will take their own turn online with The Home Team, dedicated to helping students and parents find their way around college.
Students studying abroad will blog about their travels and experiences in a section called Dispatches. The Daily Tar Heel’s own newsroom blog will chronicle editorial decisions and answer question from readers. More updates will focus on the local elections, parties, photography and beyond.
Another change to their online article format will be the use of hyper-linking. As Gregory details in her run-down of these changes, the The Daily Tar Heel’s will still attempt to bring its readers the best news possible, but “if someone else does it better, we owe it to you to share with you.”
A video noting the new changes and features to The Daily Tar Heel was posted to YouTube, and we’ve got it for you right here:
Want to be a fan of The Daily Tar Heel on Facebook? There’s a page for that. Twitter? Oh yeah, they tweet. Follow them @dailytarheel or at their breaking news account @dthbreak. Are you ‘net savvy with your RSS feeds? Follow topics, authors and blogs thanks to their handy sitemap.
More significantly, The Daily Tar Heel wants reader submissions, story ideas, or simple feedback. Send them photos or upload to Flickr, or post to their Facebook page.
Founded in 1893, The Daily Tar Heel started with only four pages and cost students $2.50 for an entire year of weekly subscriptions. In 1993 they financially separated themselves from the university by no longer taking student fee money, allowing it to select its editor instead of holding elections. During the internet boom, it became one of the first newspapers to post an edition online.
Our Take:
In an ever-adapting media world, it’s fantastic to see a school newspaper really take the reigns of social media and online content to improve circulation for its print component. Maybe the professional newspapers should take note.
As print dies out, its conceivable that many daily publications may choose to go with a slimmed down free print option to go along with its web resource. (Who does that sound like? Hm…) Today’s society is too “jacked in” for a news source that was printed four hours ago with stories that have already stopped grabbing headlines.
What do you think? Is The Daily Tar Heel on the right track? Are newspapers failing to take advantage of the internet’s user base? Let us know!
