We’re BACK – and we’re online

With a new year ahead of us, the Waltonian staff has spent the past week and a half brainstorming, planning and dreaming of how to make this paper the best resource possible for you, the students.

If you remember – but I doubt you do – we actually won a few awards last year, but missed out on some first-place titles. This time, we’re going all out.

For those of you returning, hopefully you’ve already seen a few new things that we are trying out this year.

For you first-years, get ready, the best is yet to come – when we unveil our new and improved Web site.

We had a site in the past (waltonian.com), but practically no one knew it existed and it was extremely difficult to maneuver through.

This year, everything will change. Well, except the URL – waltonian.com. Not only will the home page look completely different, but there will be numerous features and shortcuts so that you will know exactly what is going on.

Unfortunately, our new site may not be completely ready when you read this, but don’t worry, it’ll be here soon. I promise.

When it’s ready, if you don’t feel like actually picking up the paper from one of our wooden stands, you can access a digital version. The pages even flip on the computer screen.

We are also hoping to start some blogs within the next month, along with the option to post your comments about any article or feature in our paper.

If you are not really into expressing yourself online, even though you probably update your facebook status every hour, there will be other ways to get your opinion out there.
Every issue will have at least one online poll asking for your thoughts on either a story or something occurring on campus.

Since we can only put so much in each physical paper, we often have a slew of great photos from events and games, many of which you have never see – until now. All the photos we have will now be posted online and linked to a story.

I think one of the things our staff is probably the most excited about this year is the addition of a Flip video camera.

We hope to bring you videos from all of the big campus events and games, as well as special interviews, video player profiles and, well, other entertainment.

Finally, waltonian.com will have an ongoing event calendar, updated instantly when things change, so you’ll always know what’s happening at Eastern.

Oh, and there may be a few breaking news stories on there as well, since we are a newspaper.

As the editor this year, my main goal is to serve you guys and bring you the best, biggest and most useful news possible. And have a little fun with it as well. (Have you seen our photo cutline contest? Need I say more?)

If you’ve made it this far and have any ideas for stories or online features, Bettie Ann is working on expanding my inbox space, so shoot me an e-mail. If it still bounces, send one to thewaltonian@gmail.com. I will answer.