A Letter from the Editor
Bobby Goodwin
Issue date: 4/13/09 Section: Opinion
 |
MQ has gotten better with each year. Without former editor-in-chief John Wright and creator Melissa Herald, the magazine wouldn't exist.
This year's editor-in-chief Alex Barlow put MQ on the map, increasing readership 25 percent. Now, it's my job to make the magazine even better.
I want MQ to be more fun and more relevant to students. Next year we're getting rid of our News section. There's no use competing with Miami's twice weekly newspaper, The Miami Student, which does a first rate job covering local hard news events.
At this April's "Saving Good Journalism" event, Director of Harvard University's Nieman Journalism Lab Josh Benton reminded the audience that in newspapers' heyday, readers would "squeal with glee" each morning they picked up the paper. I want students to feel the same way, four times a year, on MQ issue release days.
Next Fall, look for an increase in Sports (like Maggie May Graham's "Road To The NFL," pg. 44) and Entertainment (see Amy Wachler's "Girl Talk," pg. 35) coverage, along with more Features (see Kellyn Moran's "Anonymity On The Internet," pg. 40).
For the skeptics reading this, it's fair to wonder how an economy-themed Issue 4 is fun in any way.
With over half of MQ's staff being part of the Bicentennial class, and in the midst of the worst financial crisis in our young memories, we felt it an appropriate subject to tackle. One of the hardest things journalists can do is to take a boring topic and make it interesting (see Caitlin Varley's "State of the Economy," pg. 26). With this issue, we hope we've done just that.
Even if you're not graduating, everyone needs to be informed on the job market they'll eventually face and the alternatives graduates have turned to (see Abbey McMahon's "Teach For America," pg. 30).
As for the future, some people label the journalism industry's crisis as an advertising problem. To me, it's a "readability" problem. Although that's a somewhat immeasurable quality, as long as I'm running the show, I'll make sure MQ writes for you.
Bobby Goodwin
Be the first to comment on this story