Rowan’s student newspaper, The Whit, won the 2009 Online Pacemaker Award in the Four-Year-Non-Daily Newspaper for its website The Whit Online.
The 2009 Associated Collegiate Press Online Pacemaker contest had 45% more entries than the previous year, according to a press release about the contest. The ACP concluded that college publications are “adapting to the steadily evolving world of media.”
Ellyn Angelotti, interactivity editor for the Poynter Insitute, judged the competition; she told ACP the top sites showed excellence “in integration of multimedia and user-generated content, navigability, coverage, in-depth reporting; custom, clean design; sound news judgment for the homepage.”
It is not surprise The Whit Online won the award; they have all of those areas covered. Just three years ago, The Whit’s online presence was lacking, it didn’t have all of the stories as in the paper, or even use the school colors.
The current layout features blogs, a photo scroll on the homepage that links to news stories, a slide show, featured video, and a widget that aggregates comments posted on various articles.
The Whit now does live blogging during events where a reporter will provide commentary about the Oscar’s, for example, and allow students and visitors to the site to join in on the conversation.
The multimedia brings the site to a new level, not only because it’s current, but because it makes the site more interesting, and eye-catching for students.
Visitors will return to the site because of its attractiveness and interactivity.
Emily Kostic, current editor-in-chief, took on the role of web editor last year, and is responsible for the big changes to the layout and design of the site.
In addition to a redesigned website, The Whit also popped up on Facebook and Twitter.
“We use social media as a means to get people to our website,” said Kostic.
Facebook has allowed The Whit to direct more traffic to the website.
“There are not a lot of Rowan students on Twitter,” said Chris Carmena, current web editor.
Carmena helped get social media off the ground for The Whit, explained Kostic.
While Rowan students may not be interested, because “everyone’s friends are still on Facebook, so they see no added benefit to go to it,” said Kostic, the Whit’s use of twitter keeps them current with both national, and global news organizations.
Current newsstories are posted tweeted, posted on facebook, with all links going to The Whit Online weekly, in addition to any breaking news that comes up.
Just a few weeks ago, The Whit Online “posted a story about the fire alarm in the library that looked more dramatic than it was; four Emergency trucks and four fire trucks for a potato being burned,” said Kostic. If it had not been for the story most students at Rowan would not have known what happened.
The Whit used their Twitter and Facebook pages to direct students to the site for the full article.
“I feel like its [Facebook] helped our transparency,” said Kostic. “We’re not these random kids hanging out in the corner of the Student Center.”
If students have tips for news stories, they are encourage to contact the The Whit via Facebook and/or Twitter in addition to the site, e-mail, and phone etc.
“I know one thing we’re hoping to do is add more multimedia,” said Carmena about future plans for The Whit Online.
Interested in getting involved with The Whit? Meetings are Monday 11:30 A.M. in the Publication Suite, Student Center or e-mail editor@thewhitonline.com
Before
After
