The Daily Wildcat is committed to moving forward in an ever-expanding digital era while focusing an equal effort on our print production. The newspaper went through a dramatic change in fall 2015, moving from a print-focused medium toward a more balanced diet of digitally focused news production.

It was a process that involved dedication and restless nights in the newsroom working to produce the best content for the widest variety of readers across multiple platforms. We had to adapt to a more technologically savvy readership with every story we produced and we are continuously working toward that goal.

It was a long but necessary process to get the Daily Wildcat where it is today. We broke into a territory that our newsroom had not yet experienced in its century-long history, but our attention now turns to what comes next.

Bridging the gap

As journalists, our staff’s priority is to gather news and report it. This semester, we are honing in on creative ways to promote print stories online and digital stories in the paper. Our editors and executive staff are creating new techniques to make sure our main media can work together and coexist.

We want to show our print readers what we have to offer online, using social media and a website that will focus on multimedia and interactive features to complement your typical print story.

It’s also important for our online-only audience to recognize what we have to offer in print. Our editors and reporters will be working nonstop to turn your typical time-sensitive news article that shows up instantly online into a lengthy, in-depth piece that will make readers pick up a paper.

New special editions

Our staff is also very excited to offer a new aspect of special editions to the Daily Wildcat. We were fortunate enough to bring home the Associated Collegiate Press Best of Show for a newspaper special edition last semester for our gun violence issue. That issue will remain the standard for all issues we produce throughout this semester and beyond.

We are excited to introduce a data editor to the newsroom to help the news desk form accurate and engaging investigative and long-form feature pieces. These pieces will aid the improvement of our online medium to better support feature stories and special issues.

Part of our effort to send print readers to DailyWildcat.com consists of online-only special editions. The same can be said for circulating online readers to news racks by also including print special issues on our website with interactive features and in-depth interviews, videos and multimedia pieces that will enhance print stories like you haven’t seen before. Our goal is to connect readers across both media.

Our newsroom is looking forward to the opportunity of working closely with our new videographer, UATV and KAMP Student Radio to add multimedia pieces, time lapses, podcasts and more new exciting features to standout stories.

Renovating the design

While we continue to focus on making advances on the digital aspect of the Daily Wildcat, our design desk is also enthusiastic about a new print design for our newspaper.

We made the controversial switch to a tabloid layout from broadsheet with the hopes of sparking interest among a wider print readership. That goal still remains with the ambition to retain credibility as a college newspaper. Our staff wants our print product to look professional while keeping the fact we are a college publication in mind.

The cover will consistently feature a lead story worthy of front-page recognition, along with art, teasers and a quote to note that will make it impossible to resist the urge of picking up a copy every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

I would like to invite and welcome readers across all media to help turn the page in the newest era of the Daily Wildcat.

Follow Dominic Baciocco on Twitter.