Published 2002-08-28T00:00:00Z”/>

Jen Cooper<br>Managing Editor

While The Orion’s designers were reworking the paper to give it a new look, they kept one thing in mind: you.

We’ve made quite a few changes to The Orion, but everything we did was meant to help you, the reader, enjoy the paper even more. And underneath the new fonts and page layouts, we’re still bringing you the stories, columns and comics you love.

The new design is the handiwork of masterminds Brent Hainsworth, The Orion’s art director and Colm Conn, a former Orion art director. Throughout the paper, you’ll find little changes they made to help you navigate your way through the paper.

One of the most noticeable changes is the absence of Column One – the column on the front page. It was my decision to get rid of that. But before you fill my inbox with hate mail, let me explain my reasons.

For more than 10 years, Column One has been written by the managing editor, the top position at the paper. In past semesters that’s meant, in addition to editing the other sections, working with reporters and juggling conflicts as they came up, the editor also had a weekly column to worry about. And such became The Orion tradition to put that column off until Tuesday morning.

So oftentimes, instead of editors writing columns because they had something to say, they were writing their columns because they had to say something. It makes more sense to remove the column and open up space for more stories and photos on the front page.

But there were also other reasons for removing the column. Too many readers were reading Column One and interpreting it as the position of the entire staff, when it was really just the opinion of one person. In fact, the institutional opinion of The Orion is found in the editorial on the opinion pages. All the editors decide the position of the editorial at a weekly meeting. Also, as journalists, we guard our objectivity fiercely, and it gave The Orion a biased look to have a news story about a controversial topic right next to the editor’s opinion on that same topic.

There were other factors that went into this decision, but they’re long and my guess is most of you don’t care to go into them. If you do, send me an e-mail or give me a call and we can spend some quality time talking about everybody’s favorite topic: media bias.

Of course, when we removed Column One, that opened up a whole discussion on whether we should get rid of all the columns on each section front. We thought about it, but decided in the end to keep the columns because so many of you like them.

To replace Column One, we added a visual index. This is to help give you a better idea of all the great stories you can find inside the paper. Also, we’ve reserved a spot to keep you posted on what you can find on our Web site.

Speaking of our Web site, you should check it out if you haven’t already. May I suggest that you make it your home page, if you really want to reap all the site has to offer. Already, we have forums for you to post your feedback on any of our stories. For example, you could point your browser to www.orion-online.net right now and post a comment on what you think of this column and our redesign. (All I ask, though, is that you refrain from “your mom” jokes.)

Also, feel free to post your own submissions for The Orion thumbs. (An example would be: “Thumbs up for The Orion’s new look.”)

We’d love to hear what you think. I’ve even labeled a brand new manila folder and will keep all your comments for the next time The Orion gets a makeover.

Your opinions are valuable because, without readers, we’d all be without jobs. So send us your feedback. Pick up the paper every Wednesday morning. And keep reading.

Jen Cooper can be reached at:

<a href= “mailto:%[email protected]”>[email protected]</a>