The Sil is restructuring

We are making some changes.

As a student-funded service, I feel it is my responsibility to let everyone know the reasoning behind those changes, and what it means for the reader.

First: the why. The Silhouette has been a rapidly evolving organization in the last six or seven years, which means adding and removing positions as was necessary on a case-by-case basis, as we moved towards a larger online focus, and the switch to a tabloid print size. While it allowed us to expand our offerings to students, it hasn’t given us a chance to take a holistic look a the the way the paper is run. We are taking that chance now.

We set out to rework every position from the ground up, and I believe have landed on a structure that will leave room for everyone to play to their strengths, which translates to cleaner, more interesting content for you, the reader.

Second: the what. To reach this goal, we made some changes to our internal infrastructure to more cleanly divide responsibilities, most notably between editors and reporters. We want to let the writers focus on writing, and let the editors focus on overseeing the section and all that entails. We will now have a more defined hierarchy among staffers, which should result in content created with clearer focus.

We have also decided to open up a new position: Social Media Coordinator. While we did what we could this year, more can definitely be done in terms of audience engagement. We want someone on staff to engage with students on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram at all times of day, so you never feel disconnected from your source for campus news. This way students will have a two-way avenue of involvement with their student paper.

If you want to know more, don’t hesitate to e-mail [email protected], or better yet, apply for one of these jobs! Some jobs are open now, others will be open soon. You might be surprised how much fun it is being on this end of the news.