Thursday, May 22, 2008 3:22 a.m.
As we published Monday, the Society of Professional Journalists named The Hatchet the best non-daily newspaper in the nation.
This award was part of SPJ’s Mark of Excellence Awards for 2007, which honor student journalism. We were first named the best in the region in April, advancing to the national competition against the eleven other regional winners.
We previously won the award five years ago, in 2003. We were a national runner-up in 2004, and we have captured the regional title every year since 2002.
SPJ’s press release lists the other winners.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008 11:15 p.m.
Our May 12 issue was the first issue of volume 105 of The GW Hatchet, coinciding with our May 1 staff turnover.
Here at The Hatchet, graduating editors are given a “30-piece” — thirty column inches where they can write anything they want. The Departing Editor pieces were published in our final three issues of volume 104 of The GW Hatchet:
- Leah Carliner, life editor: No longer saving the things left unsaid (April 21)
- Ben Solomon, senior photo editor: Four good years behind the lens (April 21)
- Sam Salkin, multimedia editor: It’s all in the family: finding the folks that matter (April 21)
- Brendan Polmer, arts editor: Obviously, not in it for the money (April 24)
- Lizzie Wozobski, opinions editor: Signed, sealed, delivered: I’m gone (April 24)
- Jessica Calefati, senior news editor: True life: I’m a journalist (April 24)
- David Ceasar, senior editor: Splicing commas and growing up (April 28)
- Jake Sherman, editor in chief: The Hatchet, with some college on the side (April 28)
A list of our new staff, led by Editor in Chief Eric Roper, is available here.
We publish again May 19 (post-Commencement issue) and June 12 (Colonial Inauguration Guide), before we resume publication in the fall. Throughout the summer, we will continue to update our blogs and publish articles.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008 10:58 p.m.
If you’re still on campus, you might have noticed the sheer size of our Commencement Guide, which hit newsstands Monday. At 32 pages, it was the largest issue we have published in recent memory, and likely the largest in our 105 years.
Since converting to broadsheet two years ago, we have never published more than 24 pages, and we often publish only half that. In tabloid format, we do not believe we have ever published more than 32 pages, equivalent to only 20 pages in broadsheet.
Why so large? As we have previously said, we strive for a 50/50 ratio of ads and content. Our business staff sold about 16 pages worth of advertisements for this issue, leaving our editorial staff with a lot of space to work with.
It also made for a long, grueling day at our townhouse at 2140 G Street: we held a staff meeting at noon on May 11, and the production team left almost 16 hours later.
Monday, Jan. 28, 2008 9:04 a.m.
Today marks the launch of six GW Hatchet blogs. We’re having just a few technical issues this morning, but we’re working hard to get everything up and running. And of course, there will be additional features — and more blogs — in the coming days and weeks.
Here’s a brief run-down of our new online offerings:
- This blog, “2140 G”, named after the address of our townhouse office (2140 G Street NW). Editor in chief Jake Sherman and senior news editor Jess Calefati will try to keep readers abreast of what goes on inside the Hatchet, while I will do my best to inform readers of new and exciting things on gwhatchet.com. (We have a lot more planned this semester!)
- The news editors will staff “Newsroom“, which will be split into multiple categories and range from breaking news to our long-standing coverage of the Student Association, with Metro news and other news beats mixed in.
- “Backstage” is the new Art & Entertainment blog, run by arts editor Brendan Polmer and his contributing editors — you may want to check out his first post here.
- About a half-dozen former Hatchet editors who are studying abroad this semester are contributing each week to “Passports”. (Check it out here.)
- Our sports blog has returned with a new name, “Courtside”. And while that may have some connotations of being just basketball coverage, we’re hoping we can use Courtside to allow us to supplement our coverage of all 22 varsity sports at GW.
- You’ll have to check out “In Other News” for yourself.
And although it’s not a blog, don’t forget to check out multimedia editor Sam Salkin’s podcasts and videos portal at http://media.gwhatchet.com.On an administrative note, our blog commenting policy is still in effect, and it is available at http://blogs.gwhatchet.com/2140g/policy.
Please let us know what you think. Feel free to comment here or to any of the blogs’ introductory posts, or send us an e-mail at blog@gwhatchet.com.
