Michigan Independent Launches
The Michigan Independent launched last week. The intent is something like a liberal version of the Michigan Review, funded by Campus Progress (a project of American Progress).
I sat in on one of the early meetings to see where the project would go and offer assistance if needed. I still haven’t seen a copy on campus, but I haven’t looked very hard. I haven’t read through the issue yet, but I went straight to an article about the Killer Coke campaign, run by SOLE, a group I was involved with as an undergrad. The article is exactly what I was afraid of. There was a lot of talk at the first meeting about making sure an invitation to participate was sent to all “the groups.” By soliciting articles from groups rather than recruiting writers and planning stories, you get articles that read like an informational flyer rather than a real story. Stories are more compelling.
Other observations:
* Why offer articles as PDFs so prominently? The only people who are going to print out articles are the writers’ parents.
* Why not make the article titles links to the article’s page?
* No RSS feed? Dammit!
* Nice calendar. Wish there were more “more info” links.
* No iCal feed? Dammit!
* No comments? They’re missing a chance to build community and do their job better. As journalist Dan Gillmore says, “my readers are smarter than I am.” The online community may emerge, but if they don’t provide the space for it on their site, and engage that community, they’ll be missing a big opportunity to grow their impact.
Update: Editor-in-Chief Ryan Werder graciously mailed me a physical copy of the Michigan Independent. I’ll post my thoughts after reading the entire thing.
April 18th, 2005 at 9:20 pm
My name is Ryan Werder and I am the Editor-in-Chief of the Michigan Independent. First off, thank you to Scott for his help with the early stages of this project. His help with finding a printer and some initial advice on previous campus politics were quite valuable.
Not to be too defensive, but I believe the launch of the Michigan Independent was an overwhelming success. I’m afraid that the tone and content of this blog might lead readers to think otherwise.
The reason the author was unable to locate a single copy on campus is because we did not opt to buy any newstands for our first edition. Our distribution method was to pass out all 5000 copies by hand to students on the release date of the 12th. In fact, a note of congratulations is due to all the Independent staffers who gave so much time that day to stand outside for hours handing out copies. Successfully too, I should add, because 4900 were handed out. That is why you were unable to get a copy. I have 100 left in my room right now slated to be mailed out to people who have expressed interest from off of campus. That said, the author of this blog can expect a copy in his mailbox within the week.
Many of this entry’s comments, however, are very helpful. Especially the website related ones. Be assured that we are already in the process of developing a comment system and expanding upon the value of the calendar. The point about courting students rather than student groups is also a valid point. Nonetheless, I believe it’s important to point out that we recieved almost four dozen individual student submissions and the Coke article is the only example of a piece submitted by an organization. (Furthermore, in the actual magazine, the referred to Coke article was cut down to less than 300 words).
As I said before, Scott was generous in offering his help to this project, and any other advice (especially relating to his website expertise) would be more than welcome. I do encourage everyone, though, to check out our website: www.michiganindependent.com. It is an excellent site which was put together in only two weeks. Many, many thanks to our webmaster Safee Sabadia for his remarkable work on it.
The Michigan Independent is more than simply an alternative to the Review. It is in a class of its own. Our mission is, “…to engage the community in constructive debate and to inspire activism for positive social change.” We aim to continue working towards that goal when our next issue comes out in fall semester of ‘05.
April 18th, 2005 at 10:18 pm
[…] under: Blogosphere Technology — Rob @ 11:15 pm
My friend Scott has posted a few thoughts about the Michigan Independent (and its website) on his new blog. The Independent is a new stude […]
April 18th, 2005 at 11:00 pm
Ryan,
Thanks for the response. Please consider my post a critique and not an attack. I think it’s great that you handed the magazines out directly — I’m sure you get more copies actually read that way. It worked great for E3W when they first started.
The web stuff is take-it-or-leave-it. I’m no web design maven, but I always find it helpful to have someone give their quick impression of a site. The initial impressions is one of the most important factors to getting people to return. That’s what I tried to do hear.
I think the most important point I want to make is: write *stories* and not *brochures*. If your goal is to engage the community, engage them, don’t hit them over the head.
Welcome to the media.