Letter from the Editor | Redefining Relevance

By Taylor Culliver 01/28/14 9:10pm

I have changed.

When I arrived on campus two and a half years ago, I was nervous, afraid and unexposed to the vast amount of diversity that Penn had to offer. I kept wondering how a small-town fish from the southern pond of Alabama was going to find some sense of relevance in this ocean of a school.

In a way, we, The Daily Pennsylvanian, are facing the same challenges I faced as a silly, naive freshman. The days of producing a newspaper every night and having an automatic, built-in audience guaranteed to be there in the morning are gone. We’re swimming in a sea of not only print, but everything in between — Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, Buzzfeed — while at the same time competing for your time. We always find ourselves asking: How do we stay relevant?

We continue, as we have for 129 years before us, to commit ourselves to telling your stories, to giving you information you can use, to speaking up about the issues you care about and, most importantly, to providing a platform through which your voice — as as member of the Penn community — can be heard.

We’re trying harder to think about how you as a reader consume information and present our content accordingly.

Hopefully you’ve already recognized a difference in our work. Maybe you’ve seen our bolder, more dynamic front pages. Maybe you submitted an Instagram photo for our snow day photo contest. Maybe you’re taking the words on our opinion page to heart — and continuing the dialogue.

This is no longer business as usual. We’re redefining our relevance on this campus and within the global Penn community.

So submit a letter to the editor. Share your favorite stories on Facebook. Tell us your thoughts in the comments section of thedp.com — they may even be published on the opinion page.

The 130th board of editors and managers is coming at you differently, with fresh eyes and new perspectives. Hold us accountable, and let us know what you think. At the end of the day, this is about you.

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

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.