I’m not an optimistic person by nature.

Any Herald staffer that’s worked with me knows the most I’ll volunteer on a typical late night production shift is that I’m “cautiously optimistic” when things are running smoothly.

But after this staff managed to not just weather the shifting tides of student journalism, but to thrive under a new model for production and coverage, I can confidently say the change has been for the better.

This semester, as we moved to digital-first publication while shifting the focus of our print editions to be more engaging and student-friendly, neither of our products have ever been stronger.

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it 1,000 times: The Herald is the ultimate student-run experiment, a testing ground for the next generation of leaders in journalism and any number of related fields. Agility is in our blood. We will always change to meet the needs of our readers while providing unparalleled experiences for our student employees.

And after a semester’s worth of changes, we’re gearing up to launch our next innovation: expanding our operations to include parallel staffing structures for both print and online production.

This means you’ll see more features, long form pieces and photo projects in the papers produced by our print team, all while our digital team produces robust, 24-hour online coverage. It’ll give us the chance to bring even more students into the Herald family, provide avenues for new types of content and allow us to keep doing what we do best, even better.

Don’t worry, haters: You’re not rid of me just yet. Continuing on our management team for next semester is Katie Caron, who will lend her editing chops in her role as print managing editor and champion the “slow news” cycle. We’ll be joined by Will Haynes, a dyed in the wool Heralder with a sharp eye for web-native content, as our digital managing editor. It’s a team I know will continue to build the Herald’s strong tradition of rabble-rousing while bringing cool, new things to our readership.

There’s a lot in the works–we’ll keep you posted about the projects we’re excited about at experiment.badgerherald.com, a new web space for talking about what’s working, what’s not and what’s next for the Herald.

If you’re looking to write, report, design, code or take photos, make sure you get in touch. Hauling my freshman self to a new member meeting four years ago was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, and one I’d urge you to consider.

It’s enough to bring out the optimist in me.