Letter from the Editor | Building a better ship

By Taylor Culliver 12/10/14 12:28am

M ore information exists at your fingertips than ever before, but how much do you really know about what’s going on in the world? Better yet, how much do you really know about what’s going on at Penn?

Not being informed about the things going on around us may seem like a non-issue, but the fact is, even if it doesn’t affect our grades on our finals, our performances on our presentations and our job opportunities, it still has an impact on our lives.

The media is extremely powerful and has a massive influence on the way we all view the world. We have access to an incredible amount of information but most of the time we actively choose to ignore it. Information overload is no excuse. If anything, the greater the amount of information that exists, the greater the opportunity we have to affect change. The tools are here, but they don’t matter if we don’t use them. We can’t do anything with information that we don’t have, and that’s exactly why the DP matters.

In yesterday’s paper, an ad ran listing the 250-plus students that it takes to ensure that you have the opportunity to be informed about Penn and matters related to the larger Penn community. I am extremely grateful for having had the privilege of leading this group and The Daily Pennsylvanian, Inc. through what has been a tumultuous year.

I showed up on the scene at the beginning of the year with one broad goal in mind: increasing our relevance on campus in every aspect of what we do. I am happy to report that after a year of taking bold steps, the 130th Board of the Daily Pennsylvanian is that much closer to accomplishing that goal, and I feel extremely proud of how far we’ve come in such a short time.

We revamped the entire business side of the company, creating new promotions, analytics and circulation departments to bring our business operations into the 21st century media organization it should be. We created the Innovation Lab to encourage an innovative culture and push the status quo. We cut the Friday print edition and redesigned our websites in the hope to focus more on our digital presence.

None of these moves have come without their fair share of challenges and bruises. And there’s still a lot to be done and to improve — as is always the case here at the Pink Palace.

In recent years, print media has often been referred to as a sinking ship. We’re all seemingly aware that we need to turn the ship around, and many would say that we’ve done so. But I go a step further — it’s not just that we’ve turned the ship around. It’s that we’ve started to build an entirely new ship. A new way of thinking for a new time. We have a ship to be proud of and I hope you’re all on board for what I know is only the beginning of a revolutionary time for the DP and the students who will continue to move this new ship forward.

Taylor Culliver is the President and Executive Editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian. He can be reached at culliver@thedp.com.

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