The Cavalier Daily
Serving the University Community Since 1890

Living for the weekend

Today, The Cavalier Daily launches its first Weekend Edition to replace the traditional Friday edition of the newspaper.

As we outlined briefly with one of our first editorials this semester, there is one principal goal for the Weekend Edition - to make our content more relevant and engaging for readers. As it was, Friday's paper would sit on stands Saturday and Sunday until replaced by Monday's edition the following week. No ones likes reading "old news," even if the articles are still relatively fresh.

For now, readers will not notice much of a difference with content. Over time, we hope to incorporate more feature articles for the news and sports sections. Regular "hard" news certainly will not be abandoned, as we will continue to report timely stories with Friday's paper. But the Weekend Edition will be a forum to experiment with more varied content, such as news analysis stories and themed Opinion pages. There will also be a new "Week in Review" box to recount the week's most significant stories. One of our priorities is giving each section of the paper an opportunity to try new things and entertain more creative ideas about what gets covered and how.

The most noticeable changes for this issue center around presentation. As the paper underwent a redesign of the print edition this summer, we looked at newspapers that had a more traditional look, as well as those with a more contemporary layout. Ultimately, we decided to give the Monday through Thursday papers a more classical, "newsy" design, and allow the Weekend Edition to take on a more colorful and magazine-like appearance. Along with this may come a few more alternative storytelling methods, such as photo essays or timelines.

In terms of making Friday's paper more relevant and accessible for students, the plan is to adjust distribution for the Weekend Edition slightly so that more copies end up in places that students frequent Saturdays and Sundays. Issues of The Cavalier Daily will remain in on-Grounds locations, but because many students do not spend as much time on Grounds Fridays, we will shift some additional papers to locations like the Corner and Barracks Road Shopping Center.

As we move forward and find new ways to make this issue more reader-friendly, we welcome your feedback and suggestions.

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