Behind the Scenes...

Since taking over Lyndon State College's newspaper The Critic as Editor-in-Chief in August this year, I haven't had much time for blog posts. Sad face. 

But that is because The Critic staff has been doing work!

The Club Fair Edition...
As far as I know, Critic has never published an issue before the start of the semester. I thought welcoming students back, and especially welcoming new freshmen, with a bright color edition would encourage involvement in the club and start the year off right.

Big thanks to Sierra Willenburg for patiently teaching me how to use our new program, Adobe InDesign, and pretty much laying out the issue even though she had already graduated in May. Just goes to show--you might think you're done, but you're not.

Here's a picture of me, sporting the redesigned logo (thanks to LSC Visual Arts major Ashley Christie) on our awesome new t-shirts (thanks to Wheeler Sports for discounting the shirts) with the Lyndon State College Hornet!

The New Logo...

The new design features a pair of glasses leaning on The Critic text. The hope behind the glasses was to tap into what people think of when they think "Critic"--for designer Ashley Christie, it the image was hipster glasses. The redesign also offered a chance to replace the image with timely images, such as a pumpkin on Halloween or a donkey and elephant during election week.

We've been doing some cool things with our new logo.
Unfortunately, we just lost our layout editor, Ashley Christie, due to time constraints. If you're ambitious, need portfolio pieces, and interested in taking over the Layout Editor position at The Critic, please send me an email at samantha.vanschoick@lyndonstate.edu.


The Website...
As many of you may have noticed, The Critic's website is missing in action. Or stagnant in action. Which doesn't quite make sense, but strangely suits the situation.
Our former website was maintained by a service called College Publisher. However, the free trial is expired and requires $2,000 to renew. Being a small orginaztion, there is simply no way we can afford this price. So we ran a contest with a $200 prize to design a WordPress based template for Critic. Hosting has been purchased, the site is designed, content ready to go on the pages. So where's the website?

Though The Critic owns the domain name, we have no way to transfer the domain name to the new site until College Publisher releases it. So, what's the problem?

Remember that $2,000? They want it. So they are not exactly rushing to help us get the domain name transferred. I have meeting scheduled tomorrow, Monday, Nov. 12, to talk with our College Publisher rep and her boss to hopefully get the problem resolved.

The Critic (and myself) hope to announce the new website debut soon. Until then, we will posting our current editions to issuu.com and constantly updating our Facebook page.

I would like to apologize about the lack of website. Ultimately, every mistake comes down to me. If I could do it again, I would have spent more time this summer planning the transfer. However, this is what student journalism is about. Learning from mistakes and growing from them.

The Office...
This summer, I came back from South Carolina a week early and I painted the Critic Office in an attempt to make it look less like a closet. I think it worked...

The new blue walls, brand new conference table, a couch and a little reorganization gave the office a larger feel.

The coffee station is very important. 

Still messy sometimes...

The Challenges...
In addition to the problems with the website, The Critic is facing other challenges.

Last year, our advisor, journalism professor Dan Williams, was awarded a Fullbright Scholarship to teach abroad for this year. The switch to a new advisor, who was not only new to advising college newspapers, but new to Lyndon State, has been a struggle.

Critic is currently searching for a temporary faculty advisor. Again, please email samantha.vanschoick@lyndonstate.edu if interested.

As always, our small staff has always presented challenges. The Critic could always use reporters, columnists, editors, and ad salespeople. Email critic@lyndonstate.edu if you would like real experience to use for your portfolio, or if you just want to have some fun!


So...
We've had some good and some bad.
We just have to keep moving forward, learning, and publishing quality papers.