Ch-ch-changes happen over the summer for college news web sites
August 27, 2009 in College Publisher, Websites, Wordpress
Quite a few college publications made upgrades to their web sites over the summer. As I am able, I’ll post a link to sites with new designs or new backend systems. If your site has undergone a makeover, drop a line in the comments or via e-mail to scmurley-at-gmail.com, and I’ll post something as I hear. #
Also, we’re always looking for additional voices to share their experiences about innovation. If you would like to write about what’s going on at your school (adviser or student journalist), let me know and we’ll talk. It’s a great way to connect with a larger community, and a chance to get your name out before your peers and industry leaders. (/end shameless promotion) #
The Arbiter at Boise State switched from College Publisher to a WordPress installation to start the school year. #
The Daily Tar Heel also moved to their own hosted site, using a custom-built version of Drupal. The Tar Heel had a tragic breaking news story – afraternity president was shot and killed by police – on the first day of classes, which tested their new web site. #
The Arizona Daily Wildcat didn’t switch platforms – staying with College Publisher – but they did redesign their site and work on their news flow. Web Director Bryan Roy said, “we’ve completely overhauled and relaunched DailyWildcat.com this semester. Not only is it a fresh look with lots of extra features, we’ve also restructured our newsroom workflow. It was certainly a lot more overwhelming than originally anticipated (getting ads and business staffs on the same page) but obviously it’s a challenge all college newspapers are trying to solve.” #
More to come … #
Brian, we moved off College Publisher to a WordPress installation this summer as well. <a href="http://www.studlife.com” target=”_blank”>www.studlife.com
Brian, here is an interesting thing to think and maybe write about in the future. Where are the sites that are not built using any type of template (word press, College publisher) but instead are building and managing their sites in-house. I am a strong believer that we are all students, and should be learning everything about site design and management instead of using a plug and play system. Granted, it takes more time, but the experience of doing it puts those further ahead of everyone else.I am the web editor, and co-designer of The Communicator Online, the student news site at SFCC. This last spring myself and the other designer sat in our newsroom and built our website from scratch. We enter every item by hand into the code, a tool that we can now use in the future. And just to prove that our site is no worst than any using WP or CP, we are currently an ACP Online Pacemaker finalist.I just think that too many sites don't care about what their students are learning, which is the whole point of being a college student
Hey Bryan, At Vandy, which you may have seen since you linked to Sara Gast's reporting, we stayed on Drupal and redesigned with Wired.com and the Daily Illini in mind. We're rolling out several other big projects (a Nashville city guide to launch with 65 sites next month based) and plan on some minor to significant cosmetic updates to capabilities throughout this semester (like making video and images a bigger priority on the front page). -KMM
At Wartburg College in Waverly, IA we are trying a new approach. Last year we started The Circuit ( <a href="http://www.wartburgcircuit.org)” target=”_blank”>www.wartburgcircuit.org) and became the online home of the schools newspaper, the Trumpet. We worked hard to build a good following online for the newspaper. In January we launched a redesign of the site to offer weekly webcasts and webisodes on multiple topics. We also become the home site of many projects around campus and hosted varied content like student senate election coverage and a special reporting on a campus wide protest. This year we are moving forward and becoming a more converged media website. We are working on incorporating the radio station KWAR and our TV statioin WTV8 into a single web platform. Each media will have their own personalized site within The Circuit. The Circuit's main goal now is to act as a portal to all of this information and become a starting point for students on the web. As we begin this experiment we would love your input and feedback.
At Wartburg College in Waverly, IA we are trying a new approach. Last year we started The Circuit ( <a href="http://www.wartburgcircuit.org)” target=”_blank”>www.wartburgcircuit.org) and became the online home of the schools newspaper, the Trumpet. We worked hard to build a good following online for the newspaper. In January we launched a redesign of the site to offer weekly webcasts and webisodes on multiple topics. We also become the home site of many projects around campus and hosted varied content like student senate election coverage and a special reporting on a campus wide protest.
This year we are moving forward and becoming a more converged media website. We are working on incorporating the radio station KWAR and our TV statioin WTV8 into a single web platform. Each media will have their own personalized site within The Circuit. The Circuit's main goal now is to act as a portal to all of this information and become a starting point for students on the web. As we begin this experiment we would love your input and feedback.
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At Wartburg College in Waverly, IA we are trying a new approach. Last year we started The Circuit (http://www.wartburgcircuit.org) and became the online home of the schools newspaper, the Trumpet. We worked hard to build a good following online for the newspaper. In January we launched a redesign of the site to offer weekly webcasts and webisodes on multiple topics. We also become the home site of many projects around campus and hosted varied content like student senate election coverage and a special reporting on a campus wide protest.
This year we are moving forward and becoming a more converged media website. We are working on incorporating the radio station KWAR and our TV statioin WTV8 into a single web platform. Each media will have their own personalized site within The Circuit. The Circuit's main goal now is to act as a portal to all of this information and become a starting point for students on the web. As we begin this experiment we would love your input and feedback.
At Wartburg College in Waverly, IA we are trying a new approach. Last year we started The Circuit (http://www.wartburgcircuit.org) and became the online home of the schools newspaper, the Trumpet. We worked hard to build a good following online for the newspaper. In January we launched a redesign of the site to offer weekly webcasts and webisodes on multiple topics. We also become the home site of many projects around campus and hosted varied content like student senate election coverage and a special reporting on a campus wide protest.
This year we are moving forward and becoming a more converged media website. We are working on incorporating the radio station KWAR and our TV statioin WTV8 into a single web platform. Each media will have their own personalized site within The Circuit. The Circuit's main goal now is to act as a portal to all of this information and become a starting point for students on the web. As we begin this experiment we would love your input and feedback.