Last year, Ashland University’s student-run newspaper, The Collegian, hit a landmark issue in the paper’s near 100-plus year run. With much thought and consideration, the staff decided to switch from a print-only edition of the paper to exclusively online.

It was in the December 4th, 2015 edition, that The Collegian formally announced it’s final print issue, accompanied by bold, block letters, stating that no more would The Collegian appear in print format. Less than a year later, AU will soon see a familiar presence upon the doorsteps of multiple buildings around campus, The Collegian back in it’s original print edition.

With changes in modern technology and a revolving door of media’s influence on society, there is certainly a need for The Collegian being online.  AshlandCollegian.com has been revamped and updated to help meet today’s standards for online journalism, something the AU campus and the Ashland community needs.  

With the availability of online journalism, stories and updates can reach readers at a much more efficient pace compared to a print-only version of The Collegian.

However, feedback from readers in Spring 2016 showed that both AU and the Ashland community missed having the print edition of the paper.  In addition to wanting back a print edition of The Collegian, many readers were unaware of The Collegian’s website, unsure of where to get the latest news and information on both AU and the Ashland community.

While The Collegian will be returning to a print edition format, it will only appear in print every two weeks. With this change, all major sports updates will be online and the print edition will consist of sport feature stories.

News stories, features pieces and opinion articles will operate very similar to The Collegian’s sports coverage, with updates being online and more in-depth pieces appearing in the bi-weekly print edition.

The days and weeks The Collegian is not in print, the staff will be posting every story on their website while also re-posting it on both Twitter and Facebook, giving much easier access to both students and administration to read the articles.

Many readers, even those who worked closely with The Collegian during their time at AU, may question the switch back to a print-edition of The Collegian after making the switch to online-only less than a year ago.

In reality, the answer is why not? Why stick to a particular edition of the paper when readers want both the rapid availability of online journalism and the old-school feel of a weekly newspaper? Why limit the way our news is covered and distributed when we’re capable of using both mediums to get readers the news they want and need faster and more efficiently?

With careful consideration of our readers feedback and the reasons listed above, The Collegian will return to its print edition in a bi-weekly format, starting with the orientation issue.

Every two weeks, The Collegian will be distributed across the AU campus in print, covering the topics that involve and affect our readers directly. From both AU and Ashland news, to in-depth features pieces and opinion articles, The Collegian aims to give its readers the most complete student-run newspaper it possibly can, both online and in print.