Adversity must lead to change—Reporter to set new course
Bill Hamm
Staff Writer
We have drawn our line in the sand, we have said this far and no further, we have chosen to be controllers of our own fate. To recover from adversity and despair, one must create a powerful and positive vision, coupled with a defined direction in which to move. We at the Reporter, are committed to recovery from the financial adversity of these times, by all legitimate means possible. The effort will start by using your input to help us devise the course the Reporter must chart.
The Reporter crew, invites you to stop at our table over the next few weeks, and tell us what you think our future needs to look like in the day and age of “Fake News.” Video and online formats have been brought forward as possibilities. Ideas on how the entire media/journalism effort at MNSU can be improved to create the cutting-edge experience and excitement our students need and deserve. Information and studies looking at future media structure and function could all be useful. What do you know that we don’t? This is the fun stage, the dreaming-of-what-could-be stage, so let us be bold in our dreams of what fills this need. The invitation extends to the faculty and staff served by the Reporter as well—your input is valued reverently.
A financial need to bring the Reporter back to a healthier baseline as well as putting the paper in a position to add new technologies will require some effort. It is time to ask: how many quiet supporters does the Reporter have? A list has developed of local and national foundations that have been identified as journalistic funding sources to enable this bold new vision/course we seek to set. Among supporters, do we have any experienced grant writers to help or advise in such an effort? A good rally and a concerted effort can restore the Reporter back to a cutting-edge news organization that we can all take ownership and pride in again.
Just as these financial difficulties have developed over a multi-year period, the solution is also going to be a multi-year affair as well. Many of us will likely have to come back to see the results of this drawn out effort. Once all ideas and input are gathered an evaluation process will be undertaken to investigate and put a price tag to all these competing ideas. Then, and only then, can we begin to get a look at what kind of new organization we can create. The last fun part of this part of the effort will be choosing and determining what we can find financing for. Along with that will be determining how all this fits into MNSU as a University. The final steps will be the nuts and bolts of bring these ideas to fruition and putting them into practice.
Out of despair can come hope and growth. This ordeal should be a teaching moment. While hard feelings exist now, this should clearly be a time to understand that mistakes are an inevitable part of bureaucracy. Let us not dwell on the mistakes, but rather on the possibilities created by them. Together we can, and will, work to overcome our common adversity.