The entire Hatchet staff meets every week to discuss what we are doing well, and where we need to improve. At these meetings, people from all sections are present and can offer praise or criticism of all sections, so it’s not unusual for an news editor to make a comment about the arts section, a photo editor to comment on the features section, and so forth.
At this week’s meeting, we all worked together and decided on some additions we’d like to see in the news section. While I can’t promise you’ll see all of these changes happen immediately, you should start to see some of them in the coming weeks.
Among the changes we plan on implementing are:
- expanded Metro coverage
- the addition of regular sections (as seen in the Life and Arts sections)
- more series articles
- more national stories with a GW angle
- more news-features
We also plan on contacting different academic departments on a regular basis to find out if any of their students or faculty are working on interesting projects or research. Last year, I called SEAS and asked if anyone was doing any interesting work – they told me about a student who was building a roller coaster, and another who took a job doing top-secret national intelligence work. Today I called SEAS and again asked what they’re up to.
One thing I don’t think that all students realize is that other Hatchet editors and I strive to make this paper interactive. We don’t want to just be shooting articles at the student body; we want to hear from students and include their suggestions in the paper. That’s one of the reasons we have this blog. I’d say that almost every time a student suggests an idea for an article (not just a press release), we wind up looking into it. If you have any ideas or suggestions about things you’d like to see in the paper, I’d encourage you to post them now. As we are working on some changes in the news section, we want to hear from students about what they’d like to see more of or less of in our pages.
Since you asked for readers’ two cents on story ideas, here are a couple (in no particular order):
* the Georgetown Current newspaper has had multiple stories about proposals to tear down the Whitehurst Freeway; the removal of the freeway would have an immediate impact on traffic safety along the Washington Circle-K Street coridor.
* Georgetown University is doing battle with the National Parks Service over its plans to build a sizeable boathouse along the Potomac, near Key Bridge; GW has also made some noise about building its own boathouse if Georgetown is successful.
* GW and the DC Public Schools have reached a preliminary agreement regarding GW buying the School Without Walls’ parking lot in exchange for a substantial donation to the School’s repair and restoration. GW’s plan is to build a new building on the parking lot and tennis courts behind the School Without Walls.
* Major water pipe repairs are planned along 25th Street; there will be significant disruption to all living in the area during the replacing of old water pipes.
* Lots of construction work is going on in the parking lot behind the Jefferson House; what’s being built there?
* Parking in Foggy Bottom continues to be a nightmare. How about a story on students who bring their cars to DC and their experiences in finding a parking space?
* DC real estate prices remain astronomical. A number of students and their parents own the off-campus apartments they live in. Are they afraid of a real estate bubble? What effects would a drop in real estate values have on GW’s own property holdings?
Timmy-
I appreciate all your ideas – Whitehurst Freeway, the boathouse, and School Without Walls are all stories we’ve reported on this year and will soon be following up on.
The other stories are things we will certainly look into. I actually mentioned the parking idea at our staff meeting on Sunday. Thanks for the input, and keep it coming.
Ryan, its good to see that the Hatchet continues to be an institution that thinks ahead and shows an explicit concern for the desires of their readers.
However, I’d caution you a bit on pushing for more Metro news, especially if it comes at the expense of stories about what’s actually happening on campus. While its important that students get off campus from time to time and play an active role in DC life, Metro news in previous years of the Hatchet often seemed to be a chance for very good writers to fill their clip books with stories that students didn’t really have a attachment or connection to.
While metro news may be good for writers, especially those looking to write for a city paper once leaving GW, its important that the Hatchet keeps its audience in mind whenever stories are being proposed. For better or worse, when students want their Washington news, they go to the City Paper or the Washington Post, but when they want news about what’s happening close to them and will impact their lives directly, they go to the Hatchet. If you and the other editors at the townhouse understand that reality, I’m sure you’ll contiue producing a
bang-up product week after week.
Hi Neil-
I agree with most of what you said. I always tell reporters and editors that there is no point in us writing a story that the Washington Post could do just as easily. That’s why you’ll rarely see us write the same stories or cover the same issues that The Post does. They can cover city call, the Mayor’s office, the stadium issue, and all of that sort of thing better than us, so there is no point to us chasing those stories.
But I think the Metro section of the Hatchet is important. I may be wrong, but I think the Hatchet is the main source for community news within Foggy Bottom. I always hear area residents talking about Metro stories in the paper — most recently, Katie Rooney’s interview with the Mayor when he said residents should go easy on GW comes to mind. A good number of our readers are not, in fact, associated with the University.
Besides us, the only other community newspaper is the West End guide, and we come out more frequently than it does. The Foggy Bottom News has discontinued publication, and the Georgetown Current rarely covers issue on this side of the bridge. So I think we play an important role as a community newspaper in Foggy Bottom, West End, and possibly parts of Georgetown, and we are often able to write important stories about these areas that wouldn’t make it into the Post.
So we’re going to put out lots of Metro content — we had a web story about the mayoral debate, and coming soon we’ll have stories about some of Metro’s plans (which is important to students) and traffic issues in Foggy Bottom (which is important to residents).
I agree with Ryan that the Hatchet should cover Metro issues. For one thing, GW students do not live in a vaccum of Foggy Bottom. Things that go on in the city will have an impact on them. For example, Georgetown has had a serious increase in burglaries and robberies in the past several months. GW students are often in Georgetown eating, drinking, shopping, walking, etc. I would expect Hatchet Metro stories to focus on increased crime occurrences if they are happening in nearby areas where GW students are likely to be present.
Another example, the City Council is debating a bill dealing with prohibiting smoking at all DC restaurants and bars. This would have an impact on GW students – both for those who patronize restaurants and bars, as well as those who work at DC bars and restaurants. While a Hatchet reporter may indeed get valuable clippings from his or her Metro stories, the Hatchet audience as a whole also benefits since they are made aware of Metro stories that are probably not big enough to merit coverage by the Post.
And I agree with Ryan that the Hatchet is indeed the “local paper” for the Foggy Bottom area. The Foggy Bottom News is no longer around; the West End Guide is also defunct. But I disagree regarding Ryan’s view of the Georgetown Current. Despite the paper’s name, it very often covers issues dealing with Foggy Bottom, the West End, Dupont, Adams Morgan, Logan Circle and Tenleytown, in addition to Georgetown. The Current has covered Foggy Bottom ANC meetings, BZA hearings on development plans for the old hospital, GW Boathouse plans, and other Foggy Bottom-centric issues. Much as it pains me to say it, I find the Current’s coverage of local issues to be more substantial and in-depth than the Hatchet’s coverage of the same issues.
Thus I wholly support the re-focusing of attention on Metro stories. I would much rather regard my old paper as the go-to source of local news than any other newspaper.