Letter from the Editor: The Argonaut is entering the digital-first era

Society’s reception of news is changing at what seems like supersonic speeds and news outlets have struggled to keep up for years. The digital era has only served to widen the gap between news outlets and their readers. This reality hasn’t been any different for the University of Idaho’s student media and its community of readers.  

Here at The Argonaut, we don’t want to struggle to meet our audience’s needs. We want to meet our readers where they are, and that is no longer at the newspaper stands with a print paper. The Argonaut is becoming a digital-first media organization to meet our audience of students, faculty, staff and community of Moscow beginning with the fall 2021 semester.  

Surviving the pandemic, which has riddled our lives with uncertainty for over a year now, has made us at The Argonaut realize we can embody the flexibility preached by local leaders right alongside our audiences.   

With students being more scattered geographically and mentally than they’ve ever been, it’s difficult to deliver the news they need when many are attending classes from their bedrooms. When they are out and about on campus, there’s hardly time to stop, grab a physical newspaper and take 10 minutes to read over the stories within.  

What everybody does have all the time is a cell phone. No matter where our audience is or what they are doing, we have a much better chance of delivering the news through digital means. Whether we reach readers through our website, Facebook, Twitter, email or even TikTok, it is up to their personal preference, but the point is that we are meeting readers where they are rather than making them search for the news.  

While The Arg is going digital, we aren’t entirely getting rid of all our print papers. Special editions, like our fall orientation edition, will still be published in print and ready for readers when they return to Moscow.  

Reaching our readers isn’t the only major benefit to going digital, either. With many other news organizations switching their focus to digital methods as well, The Arg is preparing the reporters in student media with the best experience and preparation we can offer for future careers after graduation.   

Having the skills to reach audiences by analyzing trends on social media is expected for journalists entering the field. With the increasing need of the skills to traverse the digital landscape, we feel this was the right move to make to prepare students for the workforce outside of our student newspaper.  

The print paper holds a lot of memories and nostalgia for all of us and moving away from it was a difficult decision to make, but the most important thing for us is using our resources to prepare students and provide news coverage as effectively as we can.  

With a creative team, countless hours of planning and plenty of thinking outside the box, The Arg will continue to provide quality news coverage to our readers while training our writers, editors and content creators the skills they need to excel in their careers as we turn the page into our new digital chapter.  

Anteia McCollum can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @antxiam5