So the semester’s first production night has just ended, and I’m really tired, but I thought I’d make a short post because I’ve been neglecting the blog for, oh, the last month and a half. Tuesday’s opinions section carries an inside our pages piece from me about The Hatchet’s featuring a small front-page color ad starting this Thursday. The ad, which will run every Thursday during the spring semester, virtually ensures our having a color front page for the term’s all 29 issues.

No doubt it’s an unorthodox move that flies in the face of traditional journalism tenets. But after a few weeks of thinking last semester, I concluded that the benefits of a small front-page ad greatly outweigh its drawbacks. Sure it’s tacky, but it also guarantees a better product. Our excellent photo department (which I believe is in the top five among college newspapers nationwide) deserves a color front page every issue. And so do our readers, especially at a time when major newspapers are losing college-age readers in droves. I think color entices more people to pick up the paper.

This is an experiment; we’ll see how it goes. I’d greatly appreciate feedback from readers of this blog. I hope everyone had a happy holiday season.

Michael Barnett