Staff Ed: Out with the old, embracing the new with The Weekly Ringer
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The Weekly Ringer Editorial Staff poses for a photo in the mansion | Abby Magnet / TheWeeklyRinger
THE WEEKLY RINGER EDITORIAL BOARD
As the editorial staff of The Weekly Ringer resumes publication for another academic year, we extend a warm welcome to new and returning editors, writers and photographers alike. All of these positions are essential to the function of our paper, as we need writers to produce articles about the happenings on campus, photos that give readers visually appealing articles in our layout and editors who edit articles and put together the newspaper for publication.
To stick with our weekly publication schedule, The Weekly Ringer is led by a staff of editors who are elected every spring for the following academic year. The last issue of the spring semester is considered to be the staff transition point during which new editors take over emailing writers and editing articles. Every Wednesday, editors format the paper’s layout on InDesign in an upstairs office of the UMW Creative Writing House, which we informally refer to as “the mansion.” The following fall brings in a new academic year where readers can expect 12 issues each semester in which we will do our best to cover the events, opinions and experiences on Mary Washington’s campus.
Many of our writers come from JOUR 380: Practicum Journalism, which is taught by interim faculty advisor and UMW professor Lindley Estes, who is also an active journalist. She is standing in for Sushma Subramanian, who has taught the class and given great insight into the paper for years. In the class, writers are assigned to write five times throughout the semester: once for the Life, Opinion and Sports sections and twice for the News section. Students in this class can also work as staff photographers to provide photos for the newspaper.
Furthermore, starting Sept. 15, we will be distributing The Weekly Ringer on Fridays rather than Thursdays, which was determined by our publisher, Narrow Passage Press, due to rising gas and labor costs.
Though there are several changes underfoot with the newspaper, one aspect that will never change about us is that we are an independent student newspaper that serves our community with accuracy, care, passion and commitment. We look forward to another 24 issues of The Weekly Ringer over the course of the 2023-2024 academic year, so pick up a paper, give it a read and spread the word.
This staff editorial was led by Norah Walsh.
