Ændrew for Gauntlet EIC 2010 — Taking it back, for the people!
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I’ve decided to run for Editor-in-Chief at the University of Calgary Gauntlet this coming year for several reasons, which I’ll outline below. But primarily, I’ve discovered that there is a dire need for innovation at this point in the Gauntlet’s history and believe that I am the only person in the office with the experience, vision and leadership skill necessary to make the Gauntlet one of the best student papers not just in Alberta, but even across Canada and internationally.
Platform in a Nutshell
Move certain sections to a Web-First process, others to a Delayed Web-First process.
Create web advertising policy that is complimentary to our print advertising policies.
Use the newly-installed Alumni website to improve communication with Gauntlet alumni and begin discussion about celebrations for the paper’s 50th anniversary.
Create emphasis on the teaching aspect of the organization by rewriting job-descriptions to better reflect new web priorities for section editors while adding a “staff education” component to the Production Editor position.
Dominate CUP
Put emphasis on content quality, but use web technology to allow inclusiveness and as a way to assist the educational motives of the organization.
Make the TriMedia Alliance a thing, not just an idea.
Use social media technology more effectively.
Help make Wednesdays more fun.
Move certain sections to a Web-First process, others to a Delayed Web-First process.
Easily the greatest achievement of my year as Production Editor will have been in updating the Gauntlet’s back-end web technology to a contemporary standard. The possibility presented by this new software is that it allows us to significantly reformat and optimize our copy-editing process so that content is both submitted and edited via the Internet. This differs from our existing process, which involves creating multiple versions of files across a variety of different formats and then uploading content to the website after it is printed in the paper.
There are many advantages to a Web-First process, the most significant of which is that it allows sections to produce content on a more fluid time-table. For instance, instead of having to wait for the slack-ass Production Editor to run his or her edited pages through an ass-backwards importing process sometime Thursday afternoon, the News Editor can prepare a piece of content for online publication, have the Editor-in-Chief sign off on it, then have it published immediately to the web. This allows the paper to have more current content and to scoop the local media outlets on campus-related news. The sections to likely benefit most from this are News, Entertainment, Sports, Opinions, Comics and Photo.
Of course, not all sections can or should publish straight-to-web. Discussion will be needed to determine individual publishing schedules for section editors and how to best optimize return from each of the web and print vehicles. The reality, however, is that section editors will need to communicate realistic deadlines on individual assignments to their volunteers (as opposed to using blanket deadlines, i.e., “All articles due Monday at five”).
There are some challenges with this system. It requires section editors to be more cognizant of their section’s web content and allow for individual article time-tables. It also requires an emphasis on quality, so as to prevent inaccurate or libelous content from being published. These are challenges, however, that I believe can be overcome through competent leadership and team communication, and need to be overcome if we wish to continue leading the Canadian student paper community in terms of quality, timeliness and innovation.
Create web advertising policy that is complimentary to our print advertising policies.
The possibility now within our grasp — for the first time in the organization’s history — is to substantially increase revenue through hosting advertisements on the Gauntlet’s website. The flip-side of this is that it offers direct competition to advertising in the print edition of the Gauntlet.
For web advertising to act in a complimentary role, policy needs to be created highlighting the uniqueness and importance of each medium to advertisers. One possibility is to give a discounted “hybrid rate” for both print and web advertisers; another is to use channel targeting to solicit advertising tenancies from specialized subsets of advertisers (IE, targeting bar and club ads within the drinking supplement). Regardless of what is decided, extensive discussion between all governing boards is necessary to both ensure maximum profit but also prevent cannibalization of existing funding sources.
Use the newly-installed Alumni website to improve communication with Gauntlet alumni and begin discussion about celebrations for the paper’s 50th anniversary.
As Production Editor, I have installed a social networking website specifically for Gauntlet Alumni. This allows past editors, contributors and staff to connect in a way very similar to Facebook and enables communication with the multifarious interconnected generations of Gauntlet staff about plans and events for the organization’s 50th anniversary.
As Editor-In-Chief, I would work to ensure that some sort of reunion is planned. Given how many absolutely amazing/funny/influential/weird/brilliant/talented people pass through The Gauntlet, I believe trying to reunite multiple generations of Gauntlet staff in this way is a very worthwhile endeavour for both networking and organizational history reasons.
Create emphasis on the teaching aspect of the organization by rewriting job-descriptions to better reflect new web priorities for section editors while adding a “staff education” component to the Production Editor position.
Given that individual section editors will have infinitely more control over the appearance of the site online once the new Hot Ink-based website is running, the Production Editor job will become really simple and probably over-paid. The base website software will in some capacity be outsourced to CUP (though future Production Editors will be encouraged to contribute to the project), web-hosting will be outsourced to a third-party webhost, e-mail has been outsourced to Google for quite some time — very little of the Gauntlet’s technology is actually still inside the Gauntlet office.
To this end, I suggest updating the Production Editor job to reflect several new priorities:
The Production Editor job will become more concerned with technical education at The Gauntlet.
The tendency is to take new volunteers, throw them into the middle of a supplement and say “Learn InDesign.” This generally works in some capacity, but the quality of the content often suffers or the issue is late to the printer. The Production Editor would teach design and layout skills to the broader volunteer base to prevent this scenario.
System documentation and knowledge transference will become major priorities so as to ensure an emphasis on “white hat” and open approaches to knowledge, while simultaneously enforcing compliance with “The Bus Rule.”
“The Bus Rule” is essentially the idea that documentation should be good enough to allow whichever poor sucker is in line for the position to take over in the event the Production Editor is run over by a bus.
Use the Web section to encourage interaction with technological issues and as a learning platform for the volunteer base.
Teach new media skills beyond what is merely done at the Gauntlet.
The Production Editor would encourage volunteers to create personal homepages, photo blogs, Flickr accounts, et cetera.
Section editor job descriptions will also need updating so as to reflect the web priorities of individual sections.
Dominate CUP
The Gauntlet has always had somewhat of an antagonistic stance towards Canadian University Press (CUP), which is something I very much wish to end. Especially because CUP is now responsible for our website’s software, not being a member of CUP is just plain silly. By joining CUP, we will gain access to their news wire, save money on conferences, save on web-hosting, add new learning experiences and give volunteers more opportunities than the Gauntlet by itself can provide.
I don’t think the Gauntlet would be content with merely just becoming a member of CUP, however. I think, given our paper’s incredible volunteer base, extensive history and focus on innovation, we would very quickly become one of the organization’s most prodigious members. In some capacity, I think this is a natural evolution for the paper. We already have very strong competition amongst the Albertan papers — joining CUP helps to level the playing field.
Regardless, the volunteer base and managerial office will need to be extensively consulted to ensure this action is in the best interests of the Gauntlet, as well as financially feasible.
Put emphasis on content quality, but use web technology to allow inclusiveness and as a way to assist the educational motives of the organization.
There is a question asked to Tier I candidates most years regarding whether they’d focus more on volunteer development or quality content. I think this is an opposing binary not reflective of reality. You cannot just be a learning organization, or just a content production agency. You have to be both. To get content at a high level (and contributors willing to produce it), you need to work with contributors to improve their skills. However, this also means having to occasionally tell contributors that their content is simply not ready for publication.
We only publish once a week and thus have time to ask for rewrites; it’s not like we’re turning a paper around every 3 days. Editors also now have the ability to publish content submitted past the print deadline as Web-First. While concerns about ensuring quality content in a Web-First process are justified, this merely means editors must be more willing to workshop content with contributors. Yes, it will require slightly more work and some organizational discipline. But we will all be more competent and effective by the end of it all if editors are willing to improve lines of communication with volunteers.
Make the TriMedia Alliance a thing, not just an idea.
Currently, the TriMedia Alliance is more of a conceptual agreement than any sort of real organization. One of my main goals as EIC would be to improve communication between The Gauntlet and CJSW/NUTV. I think web technology is one very real way in which this aim could be accomplished, but it will doubtless need extensive collaboration between all organization heads.
CJSW does Internet streaming radio and local FM radio very well. NUTV does video very well. We at the Gauntlet do photo and text very well, but I feel we also do Internet technology very well. If elected EIC, I would work towards rebuilding the TriMedia website to act as an aggregated source of UofC-related content. This would be a good first-step in realizing multi-format content between the groups and emphasize strengths over weaknesses.
Use social media technology more effectively.
The Gauntlet needs a Twitter account. Actually, each section should have one. But I don’t think section editors necessarily need the ability to post to these Twitter accounts, and perhaps should not if the Gauntlet name is directly attached. Thus, I propose the Gauntlet use Twitter much like Harper’s Monthly does, as a sort of article live-feed that essentially replicates RSS functionality.
Help make Wednesdays more fun.
Ever since I started as Production Editor in 2006, Wednesday nights have become less and less fun. People go home really early and are just glad to get out of the office; others run off the second their pages are finished. Some don’t even wait until I give them the go-ahead! This saddens me. Wednesdays should be balls-out, off-the-wall, totally-flipping-awesome. I believe if we cannot make Wednesdays fun, we have very little chance of gaining new and interesting volunteers, or retaining our existing ones.
The structure of Wednesday night is going to change regardless. With the Web-First process, much of the copy-editing will be finished earlier and there will likely be less backlog at the EIC desk. This gives section editors more time to talk to volunteers, more time for the Production Editor to give workshops and increase the office’s knowledge base and more time for the Editor-In-Chief to improve teamwork and office communication.
I know this is all very vague, but know anyone else running LAN parties in the office?
Media Experience
Production Editor, The Gauntlet. 2009 – 2010.
During my second term as Production Editor, I worked to move the organization to using a Web-First process and replace the aging Gauntlet website with a modern Content Management System (CMS). This will be the first significant web technology upgrade to the website in over half a decade. I also implemented a social networking website for alumni.
Managing Editor, Hotbox Magazine. 2008 – Present.
Hotbox Magazine is a web-based multimedia project designed to inform alternative culture stakeholders about issues relevant to them. More than anything, it was and continues to be an attempt to see what is possible with a zero-dollar budget and a fancy website. I also implemented all the web technology.
Copy Editor, Treating Yourself Magazine. 2008 – Present.
As Copy Editor at Treating Yourself Magazine, I am really the only person to look at copy before it’s given to the layout editor and put on page. As such, I am really the only fact-checker and type editor there. TY publishes to an international audience bi-monthly and requires roughly 4-6 hours of my time every two months.
AP (Co-)Editor, The Gauntlet. 2008 – 2009.
I helped with a few of the pages, but the recognition goes mainly to my other co-editors. 2008 – 2009 was a year where I focused outside the Gauntlet.
Opinions Editor, The Gauntlet. 2007 – 2008.
As Opinions Editor, I produced a very tight and balanced section with an emphasis on quality.
Frosh Editor, The Gauntlet. 2007.
I and Christian Louden produced a mighty-fine Frosh supplement back in 2007.
Production Editor, The Gauntlet. 2006 – 2007.
During my first term as Production Editor, I completed a visual overhaul of the Gauntlet’s website, along with a few other tasks. I worked to improve documentation and started a wiki, which was promptly destroyed by Ryan May. :’(
Spoof Editor, The Gauntlet. 2006.
I co-edited the Gauntlet’s 2006 Spoof supplement with Jon Roe. We spoofed Dose.
News, Entertainment, Photo, Web volunteer, The Gauntlet. 2005 – Present.
91 stories at last count!
SU Election Supplement 2006, The Gauntlet. 2006.
SU Election Supplement 2007, The Gauntlet. 2007.
I contributed to the annual SU election supplement in both 2006 and 2007.
Editor-In-Chief, The Central Clarion. 2002 – 2005.
I was editor of my high-school paper from pretty much grade 10 onwards. I transitioned the paper from a “paper-and-glue” layout process to an electronic one, started a simple website for the paper and a few other things.
