From the editor’s desk: The Eagle will be online-only through semester’s end

Staff decides to forego publishing in print through the remainder of the spring semester

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused disruptions to everyday life around the globe. As Chadron State College students are transitioning to online-only courses, The Eagle staff has decided it will also make changes and will only publish online through the rest of this semester.

Articles can be found on our website, csceagle.com

“It was the reasonable and responsible thing to do,” Mike Kennedy, The Eagle’s faculty adviser, said of the staff’s decision. “Our students are our primary audience and the vast majority is not on campus, so it made no sense for us to spend student money publishing the print product with everyone gone.”

The decision means The Eagle will not be distributing a print product throughout the Chadron community. We appreciate our readers from the surrounding community and apologize for any inconvenience our decision might cause.

In times of crisis, journalists go to work. In the absence of our print product, The Eagle will continue to strive to offer quality reporting to the CSC and Chadron communities through our website.

“The newspaper staff, the students, have responded with aplomb through this entire mess, for the lack of a better word,” Kennedy said. “They’ve done their jobs and gone beyond the norm.”

As student journalists, we’re disappointed to temporarily stop publishing in print, even though we feel it is the right decision. The experience we gain simply from being in the newsroom is incredibly valuable when it comes time to transition to a professional setting. By not publishing in print, we also miss out on the experience and practice of designing our pages, something The Eagle has long taken pride in doing and doing well.

Not publishing will also have an impact on how we raise funds, according to Kennedy. The Eagle was able to publish seven of the typical 14 issues in a normal semester, meaning we’ll be without about half of our advertising funds for the term.

“It will solely affect some things we do as a club and an organization, but it will not affect our ability to publish in the fall,” Kennedy said. “We intend to be publishing then and hope this situation isn’t prolonged.”

Despite the negatives, the COVID-19 pandemic offers an opportunity for our staff to learn new lessons. As we’ve coped with the situation, our staff has transitioned to using digital apps to maintain communication and hold meetings. We’ll also be learning how to report responsibly during a pandemic, conducting our interviews via telephone whenever possible and using suggested practices from our industry to keep ourselves and the community we cover safe.

Around the country, other student newspapers have had to make equally difficult decisions in covering the COVID-19 pandemic. Friday evening I spoke with Kenna Griffin, president of the college media association and media training specialist at the University of Southern Indiana, via Twitter.

Friday, Griffin hosted a conference call with student newspaper editors from around the country. The call was the brainchild of Elizabeth Smith, adviser at Pepperdine University who also hosted her own call the same day.

Smith has been hosting a weekly call the past few weeks, according to Griffin, and there was enough interest that both decided to host their own calls.

According to Griffin, about 23 attended her call and about 15 attended Smith’s.

Griffin said it seems that most papers have gone to online only publication.

“Some are still doing special editions,” Griffin said. “There are a few who have a lot of local subscribers who are still publishing limited numbers of print papers.”

Griffin said there wasn’t one, single, common concern that student editors have had during the pandemic.

“Some common things I’ve heard are making sure their universities consider them essential and pay them, trying to cover so many important stories, trying to adjust to online only, supporting their staffs during all of the change and uncertainty and looking for things to cover to balance out all of the COVID-19 seriousness.”

Griffen said one concern student editors have had is the well being of their staff’s mental health.

“I think there’s a greater awareness of the importance of caring for ourselves and each other,” Griffin, who has expertise in journalism and trauma, said.

“This is not normal coverage,” she said. “Student journalists, just like pros, are covering this unprecedented event and serving their campus communities with critical information.”

In doing so, student journalists like us at The Eagle stand to benefit from an otherwise disruptive situation.

“You can’t replace real world experience,” Griffin said. “It’s tough to do, but the students are writing the script on this coverage, just like the pros are. This experience is invaluable for student journalists. You can’t simulate this learning experience in a classroom.”

Our staff at The Eagle stands to benefit in similar ways by continuing to do our jobs during this challenging time. We hope our readers will continue to follow us through our online reporting. We look forward to getting back to our print product and hope you do as well.

This staff has had a lot to be proud of this semester as The Eagle celebrates its 100th year of existence. When I became managing editor at the beginning of the fall semester, I challenged our reporters and section editors to elevate the quality of our already award-winning coverage. They have done an exceptional job responding to that challenge and I am immensely proud of them. I’m also proud of their willingness to continue to do their jobs as students journalists during this difficult time.

We hope that you’ll stick with us during these trying times as we try to adapt to life during a pandemic. We are all in this together, and The Eagle will do all we can to ensure our readers are as informed as possible.