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The Polaris: Sink or Swim?
By Suki Bourquin | June 11, 2007
The word around the NSCC campus is that The Polaris is a sinking ship. Is it finally going under? As a full time staff writer that has been with the paper since the fall of last year I am heavily invested in the answer to that question.
I’ll be the first to admit: The Polaris has been a ship I have not always been proud to be sailing on. We have had problem after problem throughout the year threatening to take us under. Our editor quit, then our copy editor, quit, then our layout person quit…and I can’t even count how many business managers we’ve had come and go. I’ve contemplated the same, and more than once I have had to talk myself into staying on with the paper.
But just as I thought our ship could take no more, The Polaris received some new mates. We hired Lilly, our new layout guru, who has been setting up each issue electronically, instead of outdated cut-and-paste methods. We also hired Matt Misselbeck, our new web specialist, and we’re all proud to see the paper finally online.
When the Polaris lost its copy editor, rather then give up we banded together. In one night, staff members old and new came together to edit for each other. Claudia Bueno, our staff photographer, came that night and helped make sure all the pictures were ready. Even Kip, a former Polaris staff member, came that night to help save our sinking ship, providing much needed support and guidance on getting the issue to the printer.
Now, The Polaris has started to tread water. Oh heck, last issue was the best it’s been all year. We have the potential to start sailing once again. The Polaris is online. The Polaris has started conversations with Bob Schuessler of the communication department, and is discussing collaboration in other media areas, including the NorthSpeaks blog, and SCCTV.
In this way, The Polaris is like many other professional newspapers across the county struggling with changes in the ways that news is consumed. Many papers are changing to include blogs, online streaming video, and online print. These changes have created great potential for news people everywhere. However, change takes time and support, and it helps to have a strong existing structure and successful readership.
The Polaris has not had that working structure this year. But, I and many other staff members have been taking out archived issues and asking, “Why did we stop producing the paper like they did?” In the year ’06 –07, the paper looked pretty great. It won awards. Eric L. Patten, Tim Weeks, and Nate Wiley spent a lot of time and energy coming up with a professional structure to work within. Unfortunately, our last editor chose not to use or build on their hard work and success.
I am excited to hear the buzz in the newsroom about returning to the old ways that the paper was produced. I am elated to be working with people who believe in teamwork, professional responsibility, and pride in the final product.
A special task force will be meeting in the summer regarding the future of The Polaris. They will look at the paper, decide what the future of the publication will be and even decide to suspend publication entirely. We will not know right away if we will go to print in the fall. But for the first time this year I am hopeful. We are ending this quarter with the best paper we have seen all year, and it is the sincere hope of the staff and the advisor that The Polaris is allowed to build on what we have accomplished these last few weeks. We have a staff that has unanimously made the commitment to be here in the fall, to continue producing a paper that has relevance for our students and faculty. And I am hopeful we will be able to grow even stronger. The Polaris has served this campus since 1970. We stand ready to continue that tradition for the coming year.
Topics: Editorial | 1 Comment »
January 30th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Great to see an online edition!