Neil Young once said, “It’s better to burn out than to fade away.” Nineteenth-century prospector and cannibal Alferd Packer once said, “The breasts of man are the sweetest meat I’ve ever tasted.” For this column — the last thing I will write as ArtsEtc. editor of The Badger Herald — I’ll focus on the former quote, if only because I don’t really know how to start this thing and the second quote isn’t really applicable.
After a year-and-a-half editing the ArtsEtc. section of the Herald, I’m stepping down from my position. I’ll be handing it off to my current co-editor Selena Handler and new co-editor Audrey Piehl, who has worked as the Herald’s associate copy chief over the past semester. If I wanted, I could continue this job for my final semester of college (the Herald doesn’t have limits on how long an individual can hold a position). But I’ve grown tired of constantly monitoring email, coordinating with writers and press people, planning an entire section’s content and editing numerous stories a week. I’ve lost the spark I had coming into this position. Audrey and Selena both have the glimmer in their eyes I used to see in the mirror when I first became ArtsEtc. editor. I’m excited to be handing it off to them. They are both brilliant people who will do brilliant things with the section. Like Mr. Neil Young, I’d rather burn out now than spend all spring fading away.
Recently, I looked back at some of the articles I’ve written over my two-and-a-half years at the Herald. I was struck by how much I’ve changed since I first set foot in the old, creaky Herald office as a wide-eyed sophomore. I’m proud of many of the things I’ve written, but as I sat there, browsing my past articles, I found myself questioning the way I had phrased things six, 12, 24 months ago. I’m sure that a year from now I will look back at this column and think of better ways I could have worded it. Being an editor has given me a keen critical eye. Often that eye falls most directly on myself. The Herald has forced me into a position of constant self-improvement. I’m a better writer than I was two years ago. I’m wiser, more outgoing and more culturally literate. I’m a better person overall.
I’ve learned more at the Herald than I have in any of my classes in the J-School. Over the past three years, the Herald has transformed considerably as a news organization. Editors-in-Chief Ryan Rainey, Katherine Krueger and Tara Golshan were all instrumental in shifting the Herald from a print publication with a meager online presence to an online-first publication. Any modern news organization knows that the future of journalism does not lie in print. That future lies online. The Herald has taught me how to make online stories more dynamic, how to headline online articles to draw in the most readers on social media without resorting to Upworthy-style tactics, how to craft effective tweets, how to track page views on stories and so on. Essentially, the Herald has made me a marketable journalist in a world where journalists really aren’t sought after all that much. This is what sets the Herald apart from the J-School. The J-School teaches its students how to make video packages on iMovie (a software no respectable publication would use), puts too much emphasis on theory/history of journalism over the practice of it and neglects teaching essential skills like data visualization and how to craft effective, viral online stories. The J-School is operating in the past. The Herald is looking to the future.
This is also what sets the Herald apart from our avian friends in Vilas Hall.
For about a year now, I’ve tried to distance myself from the Badger Herald/Daily Cardinal rivalry. Cardinalistas have called me an asshole and a douchebag on several occasions. A particularly feisty one once, unprovoked, grabbed my face at a bar. Last spring, a Cardinalista left her coat behind after the Herald/Cardinal softball game. I tweeted at the Cardinal, found out whose coat it was and returned it to her in their office. At this semester’s football game, she thanked me for stealing her coat.
I’ve tried not to reciprocate this mean-spirited animosity, which is ultimately more destructive than productive. Any time beef erupts between the two papers on Twitter, I’ve been quick to post a cute animal video, which quickly silences both parties. During Herald/Cardinal sports competitions, I try to mingle with the opposing team (after all, a majority of them are just nice J-School peers). When I’ve talked to Cardinalistas at bars, I’ve tried not to talk about either newspaper. It’s not worth the arguments.
I’ve always kept my criticisms of the Cardinal to myself. I don’t want to waste my energy on childish bickering. I think the Cardinal, like the Herald, produces great work. But the Cardinal is hosted on a user-unfriendly web space that, frankly, looks like shit. On most Cardinal articles, the Facebook “recommend” counter reads 0 (they don’t appear to have a Tweet counter). Their social media presence is lacking: Between Sept. 15 and Dec. 10, the Cardinal picked up 102 likes on Facebook; the Herald picked up 512. Currently, the Cardinal has 6,763 Twitter followers; the Herald has 12,364. Their online headlines are as dry as drywall. Their advertising, both online and in print, is minimal. The Cardinal is stuck in the not-too-distance past.
If the Cardinal wants to keep talking shit, they need to adapt to the year 2015. All that negative energy could be much better spent improving their organization. It would be great if there was a Daily Cardinal that celebrated the ideas of its opponent rather than blindly criticizing them. If both papers push each other to greatness rather than bringing each other down, they could both be the shining institutions of a J-School operating in the past.
Phew. That was some nice catharsis.
I love the Herald. I love my coworkers. I love my kick-ass arts writers. I love everything about this place, even that mold-infested mini-fridge in the corner of the office that no one is willing to open.
This place has been my home for most of my college experience. It’s time for me to burn out and say goodbye. The memories will never fade away.
*CUE FRANK SINATRA*
