Lauren Finegan, Amanda Negretti

Nearly two weeks ago, the Torch elected a new editorial board. Throughout the past year, we’ve worked to revamp the way we bring you, the St. John’s community, the information you care about. We’ve built upon our digital presence and created more engaging, attractive designs, which include our centerspreads and front pages. We also expanded our coverage on campus. But now, with a new editorial board, we have a fresh set of goals for the Torch.
Moving forward, we plan to continue our efforts to grow our digital presence. Using the social media team we built last year, we’ll continue to post stories to our Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts. But stories won’t be the only thing you’ll find as you continue to follow us. We’ll be bringing you more “Torch Docs”—which are short documentaries about things students care about on campus. We also plan to incorporate more podcasts into our online coverage.
When it comes to our website, we want to develop a breaking news team, that way we can provide our readers up-to-date information as quickly as possible. We also want to build our online team with students who are skilled at creating multimedia content, such as interactive charts and videos.
In the print edition, students can expect to see the same, detailed coverage that we have already provided. However, we’re going to work on creating more “beats” (focused areas of coverage) among our staff writers. We’ll also work on increasing our coverage of the local Queens community, as well as groups on campus. Another one of our goals consists of writing more detailed features about our students and faculty, focusing on their many talents.
We also want to get more familiar with our student body by hosting events and workshops. This past Friday, we hosted a panel discussion with our alumni that proved to us that journalism is not only alive and well, but that the bond the Torch creates is one that transcends time and age. We want to give our fellow students more opportunities to hear from people like our alumni—many of whom aren’t even involved in journalism anymore, but who have a lot of valuable advice to offer. To incorporate our reverence for journalism into our interactions with our staff and other students, our editor-in-chief and managing editor will plan journalism-centered workshops for students to learn more about things like reporting and graphic design.
Finally, we hope to instill an element of community service within our organization. Journalism is a public service, but we believe there’s more that we can do to serve the surrounding community. At the moment, we’re searching for high schools and middle schools whose newspaper programs are in need of assistance. We can’t think of a better way to exercise the closely-held Vincentian beliefs of the SJU community than by helping younger students learn about the very thing we do— journalism.
We encourage you to come work with us on any and all of the initiatives listed above. If you have a new ideas that you’d like to see implemented at the Torch, let us know. Never hesitate to email us or stop by our office—our door is always open.