This is my last column for The Cavalier Daily. I’ve been the paper’s ombudsman for more than four years, offering critiques and advice to the staff and trying to explain journalism to readers.
One of my other jobs, I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, is teaching freshman composition. When I’m doing that, I try to emphasize that the skills necessary to produce a decent essay — the ability to evaluate sources and information; to organize thought and argument; to make a point concisely -— are also useful outside an English classroom.
It may be dead by now, but last week a bill in the Virginia General Assembly would have required the University’s Board of Visitors — and board of visitors at every four-year public university in the Commonwealth — to include a student member elected by students.
Call me a cynic, but I doubt anyone who says cutting back on something is going to make it better. So I was more than skeptical when I read about The Cavalier Daily’s “comprehensive plan to shift focus from the traditional daily newspaper to a digital-first newsroom,” that would replace the nearly daily newspaper “with a revamped biweekly newsmagazine and expand online and mobile content offerings.” The newsmagazine, we’re promised, will “offer extensive analysis, informative graphics and an increased focus on features, local entertainment and weekend previews.” Matt Cameron, in his last days as the paper’s editor-in-chief, said the newsmagazine will have “more of the in-depth, investigative journalism that our readers crave.” Meanwhile, the new digital emphasis will bring “mobile and tablet apps, a daily e-newsletter, high-quality multimedia content and an increased emphasis on social media and web graphics.” In a memo to the staff, the managing board declared itself “confident about the benefits this plan will produce.” Managing board members said of the restructuring: “It will expand our coverage opportunities by allowing us to afford sending reporters to out-of-state events.
OPEN HONOR trials are rare things. I read in The Cavalier Daily that there have been only three of them in the past decade.
Someone sent an email asking why I do what I do the way I do it. The writer made it clear the email was a private communication so I won’t reprint it here.
The Cavalier Daily should have sought coach Mike London’s comments for a series of columns.
Sports article about Virginia football coach Mike London should have included the coach.
The Board of Visitors did the public a disservice by not allowing student into its meeting.
Newspaper endorsements are of value to readers.
