Another semester has come to pass, and with it another installment of The Badger Herald’s editorial page. These have been an eventful several months for those of us at the Herald, marked by significant changes – the most important of which is a pivot to an online-first publishing model, coming next semester. Along the way, we’ve had our fair share of adventures.
We had a great group of writers this semester, each with his or her own area of expertise. This is part of what we believe makes our page great – it’s not just a place for political science majors to talk about politics. Among our columnists, we have economics, Scandinavian studies, sociology, math, physics, journalism, history, psychology and yes, political science majors, as well as a law student thrown in for good measure. We have done our best this semester to foster an inclusive environment with a variety of opinions.
Of course, the editorial page is much more than a place for our writers to hold forth – it’s a place to have community-wide discussions. Thanks to letters to the editor from readers like you, we’ve been able to represent the views of a great variety of people and groups.
If you’ve enjoyed reading the editorial page this semester, you might consider writing opinion columns next year. If you didn’t enjoy everything on the page,or even if you found a column infuriating, we encourage you to send us a letter sometime. At its core, this page is a medium for conversation, and we want you to be part of it.
Although we’ll be heading our separate ways for summer vacation, here at the Opinion Desk we’re already thinking about next fall – we’ll both be here again next semester. The Herald will be prioritizing online content, and the editorial page will be no exception.
We look forward to the opportunity to experiment with a more immediate and interactive form of content – we’ll be putting more emphasis on shorter pieces that will be posted much quicker relative to the event they’re discussing. We also want to find new ways of engaging with our readership, whether that be through Twitter or our existing comment section.
However, none of this means that the editorial page as we know it is going away. We’ll still be publishing full-length columns in print twice a week. We also want to take advantage of this newfound freedom from print constraints by producing more long-form, in-depth pieces.
Regardless of the changes that take place here, the editorial page will remain, at its heart, what it has always been – a forum for fostering ideas.
If you have any suggestions for ways to improve the page, or are interested in getting involved, please email us at [email protected].
Charles Godfrey ([email protected]) and Joe Timmerman ([email protected]) are the editorial page editors.
