A word from our editors

It’s been easy for many of us Oles, when we want to catch up on news over breakfast, or work on a crossword puzzle in our notebook during class, or even just slip a newspaper under our arm to look savvy (come on, everyone does it), to grab a free newspaper from the bins around campus. Well, at least free in the sense that SGA, funded largely by tuition, pays for the newspapers.

But these salad days end whenever we leave St. Olaf, even for breaks, and will end forever at graduation. Not to be too ominous or anyhing. Then, at least to stick with your traditional city daily newspaper (if many are still around), you’ll have to pay. What’s our point? You’ll probably be reading newspapers online after graduation. You probably do now - casual observation shows that the papers in the dispenser on the first floor of Buntrock last longer than they did a couple years ago.

If you read the New York Times online, why not read the Messenger online? This isn’t about self-promotion. It’s about you participating in campus media, and not just the Messenger, in the same ways you participate in media like Twitter, Facebook, blogs, online magazines, online newspapers, and maybe even Chat Roulette (Okay, that’s another story). You must consume media online, so extend that to the Mess. We’re by the students, for the students. Hate on idealism like that all you want, but we’re trying to provide a service to the entire St. Olaf community, to tell the stories you want told, whether they’re funny or serious, controversial or strictly informational. To best do our job, we want to hear your feedback, on specific articles and the overall product. 

Every so often, we get your letters to the editor to print in the weekly paper edition. Anyone is welcome to write these. If you want to provide more instant feedback, though, go online. It makes perfect sense for a brief response, and the online forums also foster conversations. They’re an instant message board that moves much faster, to be frank, than our weekly paper. Why wait a week? Our online readership continues to grow, and we hope someday that it will be the paper’s primary outlet. It’s more sustainable – plus we can post more photos, audio from interviews, and even video (if you want to help with video, we have a sweet camera) on the website. So check us out, and most importantly, participate! Manitoumessenger.com, or we’re on Facebook. Be an active citizen of your campus!


The editorial is written each week by Executive Editor Eric Monek Anderson and Managing Editor Cody Venzke. You can reach them at mess-exec@stolaf.edu.

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