As The Cavalier Daily shifts into summer mode (no printing after this special issue and fewer updates online), it’s time to consider what the staff should think about doing before classes and printing restart in the fall. When I started as the Public Editor it was coincident with the move to a digital first shift for The Cavalier Daily that offered a chance to shift how the staff reported and opined on the news of the day. Readers have yet to see the promise of digital-first fulfilled, in part for the obvious reasons of the incredible weight of so many stories that took over the paper in the intervening time.
I have paid particular attention to the digital elements of the paper including the mobile applications, Twitter feeds, multimedia efforts including video and the website among others. They have all changed over time, seemingly growing in fits and starts.
To my way of thinking, and from the handful of readers who contacted me when I asked, the mobile apps are not very useful. They do not offer features to recommend them above the mobile website. Unless, of course, you find the absence of the comments section in the apps native display a feature, which I suppose you might. No one I heard from uses the apps. I checked the iOS app regularly for some time but eventually moved onto the mobile website, only checking back on the app to be sure it still works as intended.
The Twitter feeds are, generally, helpful. As I’ve written about previously, the live-tweeting from the Sports department is fantastic. In fact, the live-tweeting from several non-Sports news events stretching back to the turmoil around President Teresa Sullivan’s ouster and reinstatement was also valuable. The rest of the Twitter feeds essentially announce new pieces on the website. It would be great to be able to interact more with some of the feeds.
This semester I also kept an eye on The Cavalier Daily YouTube channel.Some of the videos are interesting to watch and have high production values. See, for example, The Cavalier Daily at a Glance and the recent update on the Rotunda renovation and reconstruction.Other videos, like the news updates, feel more stilted and choppy. They just don’t hold up to the quality of other parts of The Cavalier Daily.
The website needs cleaning up, from improving search to consistently updating pages for local news and Honor and so on. It also needs a shift to incorporating more links and more ways to navigate around the information in The Cavalier Daily and the places those creating The Cavalier Daily are drawing their information from.
What the digital-first effort needs is careful planning to make sure every piece published, regardless of type, meets the quality level The Cavalier Daily is capable of producing and works to hold itself to. I hope that’s what the summer staff will focus on so when a full staff returns this fall and print, again, requires attention, the digital-first push will be just that.
Christopher Broom is the Public Editor for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at c.broom@cavalierdaily.com or on Twitter at @CDPublicEditor.
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