Final Word

For all the time the staff here spends chronicling each day at Boston University, it’s easy to lose track of time after stepping into the office of The Daily Free Press. We work, play and sometimes sleep near the heart of Kenmore Square, but inside the newsprint-covered walls of our cramped newsroom, night and day become a blur. Though the staff here works hard to keep the pulse of Boston University and its surroundings, time waits for no one, and sometimes it gets the best of us. Call it the BU Bubble, only magnified five days a week all through the semester.

This matters because most college students get their news from their campus newspaper. After the discontinuation of free Boston Globe deliveries to campus this semester, our responsibility to inform the BU community only becomes more important. The problem is that while college students may seem the ‘hip, with-it’ technological adapters every national magazine story wants us to be, the fact that none of us is here to make money makes it even harder for a college newspaper like the Free Press to change with the times. Like the employees of a massive media organization owned by shareholders, we struggle with dwindling ad revenue and consuming debt. But the danger doesn’t seem as immediate to those of us who struggle to stay awake glued to our computer screens each night.

Still, change we must. Our student-run publisher is working to update and enrich a website that will ultimately become a destination for all things BU, following the sink-or-swim realities of the news industry. We will make both editions – print and online – more interactive by reaching out to students though on-campus events. Our content will also likely change to reflect the attention span of a 21st century readership.

One thing we will not change, however, is our independence. For 38 years, the Free Press has covered each controversy that sweeps BU with the voice of the students who write for it. We ask questions. What will the next four years on Beacon Hill and in Washington mean for students? What is the administration doing to make student life more convenient and BU education more valuable? Why do BU executives make so much money during an economic downturn? Stay tuned.