Opinion | From the EIC: The Panther, reimagined

The Panther will be printing on a monthly basis for the fall and spring semesters, starting in October 2022. Graphic by ANGELINA HICKS, editor-in-chief

ANGELINA HICKS, editor-in-chief

We did it.

We finally printed our first edition of The Panther since 2020. This is the culmination of months of hard work, so much stress, a few tears, many many emails, long nights and a dream.

There’s nothing like holding a print newspaper. Reading the headlines, seeing the crisp colors in the images, turning physical pages. I’ve had very minimal experience working on a print newspaper, and I knew it was something I wanted to explore as editor-in-chief of The Panther this year.

We’ve been without a print edition for over two years. When the COVID-19 pandemic began we shifted entirely to online — completely expanding our multimedia coverage, creating a brand-new website and becoming more engaged with students than ever before.

But it’s time now that the print newspaper is back. As of today, it’s here.

We created a 16-page paper: two color spreads highlighting our best stories from the first month of the school year with this semester’s staff.

It took so much work. More than I ever realized. This took months of work, stress and constant emailing to get started. Not only for me — but for all my amazing staff members who put in the hours to make this first print edition.

Last spring in a survey conducted by Chapman University, 725 students gave feedback about The Panther. Over 60% of respondents said the newspaper should have a physical, print edition in tandem with an online presence.

That was my biggest goal for the year. I’m so glad it’s finally here.

We are going to be printing monthly — once in October, November and December. In the spring, we’ll be back with monthly print editions again.

I’m so incredibly proud of each and every writer, photographer, editor and staff member. They’ve all worked incredibly hard to get to this point, and I hope every reader appreciates the time and energy that we have put in to create a print edition yet again. 

I can’t wait to move forward with the rest of this year’s publication. Historically, The Panther printed on a weekly basis. I can barely imagine how that’s possible considering the amount of work and time it took for us to create this one edition.

I have a new appreciation for the past years of staff members. The Panther has been publishing since 1926 (which is crazy to think about), and the staffs that printed on a weekly basis were truly talented and hardworking. 

Printing monthly is a great way for us to bring back physical editions, while also maintaining our high-quality online publication. In this print edition, there is at least one story by all of our writers and editors, and I was even able to find a way to include our video and podcast sections in the paper. 

I’m going to frame this first print edition of The Panther and keep it forever. I hope you all love it as much as I do.

To read the digital version of October’s print newspaper, click here.