Archive for September, 2010

TruLife expands coverage

September 16, 2010

You might notice something different about TruLife this year: We’re moving outside of our comfort zone!

That’s right, we’re making every effort to expand our feature writing to things we aren’t directly connected to.

When Features Editor, Blaise Hart-Schmidt, and I sat down to discuss the direction we see TruLife heading, we both agreed that too many stories that had been written in the past were tired, used and overused. How many stories about happy couples on Valentine’s Day can someone read? How many times do we need to write a feature about the same old club on campus?

We wanted our features to be more focused on people, expand beyond the borders of Truman and take more risks.

The purpose of a feature is to tell a story. It’s a chance to be creative. And what is more interesting than people? This week, you’ll find a piece on professor of photography Priya Kambli. She has a history of living in two cultures, two worlds and we told the story of her photography book, which takes those two worlds and merges them through her photography.

We’ve made a significant effort to move outside of the borders of Truman campus and Kirksville. Check out our coverage of LaPlata’s Possibility Alliance this week, or last week’s story about the new acupuncturist outside of Kirksville.

We’re also taking risk. That same acupuncture story took one reporter into the world of Eastern medicine. She experienced those needles in her hands and feet first-hand. Yet still wrote an objective story on Eastern medicine in Kirksville.

We’re taking chances, we’re trying to be more creative. What do you think about our TruLife content this year? Do you see an improvement? Is there something you’d like to see covered?

Please let us know. And as always, keep on readin’.

Index website redesigned – for you!

September 9, 2010

www.trumanindex.com

Check ot our redesigned website!

Myself, Managing Editor Jack Nicholl and Online Editor Patrick Gross sat down last April to discuss a complete overhaul of the Index’s website.

We took many things into consideration when we sketched our dream website.

First, we wanted our website to look better. The previous website was bland. No color, small fonts and a boring look overall. So we’ve thrown in some color, emphasized our featured stories a little more and made some important things ‘pop’ a little more, such as our Editor, Photo and Sports blogs.

Second, we wanted our website to be more readable. The previous website was difficult to take in at once. Seeing all the top stories meant scrolling down what felt like a mile to see the News, TruLife and Sports main stories. We’ve implemented a dandy flash-screen up top on our new website. On it, you’ll see the main stories from each section, along with a multimedia project or a fourth story to go on the fourth screen. It’s much better than scrolling down to take each photo in.

Third, we wanted our website to be easily accesible. The former website’s tabs made things difficult to peruse. Now, our tabs will have options. Want to read about the women’s basketball team only? Click on our women’s basketball tab. Want to subscribe to the print edition of the Index? There’s a tab for that, too. Searching the archives of sections will be easier, too. Want to know what’s been going on in TruLife for the past few weeks? All of TruLife’s stories will appear under the ‘TruLife” tab.

We are pretty happy with the switch we’ve made. But, in the end, it doesn’t matter as much what we think about the new website as it does what YOU think about the new website. So please let us know. We want to know what you like, what you don’t like and everything in between. You can email us at indextips@gmail.com, comment on our website or you can email me personally at bmm5242@truman.edu.

We hope this redesign will make your Index online viewing easier. And we hope you’ll keep coming back to see it!

Brenna


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