Staff Ed: changes to come next year as Blue & Gray Press seeks help from UMW community

By THE BLUE & GRAY PRESS STAFF

Over the course of the year, The Blue & Gray Press staff has worked hard to produce the highest quality product of news. In what could be called one of the most challenging years in the history of journalism, we take pride in staying true to our mission of striving for accurate news to benefit the University of Mary Washington and the Fredericksburg communities.

While at times this goal was not always met, one of the most important parts of journalism is not letting mistakes or criticism take control of your operation. This year, we have strove to produce more in-depth, “hard-hitting” articles, often met with opposition and strife.

These reactions are common, and in many newspaper offices, expected. However, despite acting as a professional and high-quality publication, The Blue & Gray Press is still a student-run organization with much room to grow and much to learn. This isn’t to justify mistakes, but to extend an invitation for student, faculty, staff and administration to help us in our journey to produce the highest quality product we can.

All students at UMW may write for the newspaper as long as the editors approve. All advice and constructive criticism is welcome, as long as healthy discussions can be made of it. In recent years, we have heard demand for more multimedia productions, which we followed up with by introducing the “Blue & Gray TV” series. Although it is still a work in progress, BGTV is a focal point of The Blue & Gray Press’s future.

Recently, we have also heard from faculty that a decrease in circulation should be considered. We are happy to announce that we will be decreasing our weekly circulation from 2,000 copies to 1,000 copies starting next academic year. This is to reduce the cost of our production as well as reduce the weekly waste we produce.

The motto of The Blue & Gray Press is “Campus news with student views.” While our staff consists of 12 editors and around 40 staff writers, all 5,000-plus members of the UMW community are a part of what makes our paper. To be the best paper we can be, we need the involvement of the entire campus community, whether that be picking up the paper or writing for us. Only then will we live up to our motto.