Three 2015 resolutions that I just might keep... with lots of help from students

Myself, center, with the Owens Outlook editors. (Photo by Sean Ferry)

 

    Resolutions are made to be broken, right? Perhaps because they often focus on ourselves, and without much help from others.

    So I won’t waste my 2015 resolutions on myself. Instead, my wishes for success will focus on my Owens Outlook newspaper staff. The success of my resolutions will depend on us all working together as a team. 

   These are my joint resolutions for 2015:

1. Submit the Owens Outlook online student newspaper and its staff for the Pinnacle Awards.

   Pinnacle Awards, handed out during the annual College Media Association Fall convention, honor the best college media organizations and individual students for their work throughout the year.

   I have high hopes for this ‘little engine that could.’ As I scan over their photos and stories from this past semester, how can they not be strong contenders in a national contest on the community college level? I would even pit them against four-year schools!

   The CMA conference next year is in Houston. I can’t wait to sit there during the awards ceremony and hear our school called out.

2.    Start paying the Outlook staff and buy necessary equipment through ad and photo sale revenue.

The Outlook has a new paid student business manager, and I hope she hits the ground running. We

are looking at several ways to generate money:

·       Sell ads on the Outlook website.

·       Sell their photography through sites like Flickr or SmugMug.

·       Create an end-of-semester hard print magazine that features the best content of the semester, as well as fresh, longer-form photo stories. We are banking that local companies sponsor it.

   We were once considering going to a bimonthly print edition, but with a skeleton staff of under 10 each semester, and no journalism program to support it, that’s no longer an option.

3.    Recruit deans, chairs, administration, students and community members to subscribe to the online newspaper.

   The Outlook staff works hard to cover the entire Toledo campus, but we can’t do it without the support of readership support. We need their tips for story ideas, feedback on how we can do things better, and website hits to justify our existence.

   Lofty goals, indeed. So the Outlook staff and the entire Owens community need to work together to help make these resolutions come true!