As of yesterday, Tufts students will get their breaking news exclusively on a Daily basis. TheObserver, Tufts' 105-year old weekly newspaper, is revamping its focus, it announced in its Oct. 19 edition. Tufts' Newspaper of Record will keep its name, but will switch to a biweekly newsmagazine format that staff members hope will examine on and off-campus news in an in-depth, investigative light.
After several weeks of deliberation, The Observer's executive board, headed by Editor-in-Chief Mara Vatz, finalized the decision after meeting with staff this Monday. The Observer's statement offered a summary of the publication's history and outlined reasons for the switch, citing changes in "technology and the nature of other publications." The editorial stated that The Observer was no longer able to deliver "fresh and breaking" news in its weekly format.
"We as a staff decided to drastically alter the methods by which we operate, although our depth, breadth, and undying pursuit of accuracy will not be compromised," the statement read.
The new, biweekly publication will feature a change in layout, and more importantly, a change in focus. Its pieces will be longer and more analytical, probing into on-campus issues and their effects on the student body. A dedicated sports section will be omitted to make way for what Vatz hopes to be "accurate, high-quality news analysis as well as thorough arts, entertainment, and opinions."
Vatz, a senior who has been on TheObserver staff since her freshman year, rose in the ranks to take the paper's helm this semester. Yet her tenure has been met with anything but smooth sailing. Chronic equipment failures and recruitment troubles were driving forces behind the change, which has been in the works for about five years, according to Vatz. "This is an idea that has been present since before I came to Tufts. Over the past few years, the idea of switching to a magazine format has been suggested by a number of people, both on and off The Observer staff."
Senior Erica Goldberg, who headed up The Observer last spring, cited short-staffed departments - resulting from a shift in focus away from recruitment - as the force that drove this overhaul. "There was a larger drive for recruitments in the past. Recent Editors-in-Chief concentrated more on building internal matters, like stronger writing and editing, and let recruitment slip. Eventually, this semester, they felt the effects of that."
Until The Tufts Daily arrived on the campus scene in 1980, The Observer existed as Tufts' only source of news, arts, and sports. Originally called The Tufts Weekly, the publication moved to the forefront of campus journalism when it printed several times a week during wartime. After the arrival of its more prolific counterpart, The Observer had a new challenge to face - providing a different prospective on the news than its rival.
The Observer shifted its concentration from reporting breaking news to reporting in-depth news. Last year, the paper created a niche for itself as a Weekend Newspaper with increased comics, arts, and features.
Yet Goldberg says the newsmagazine will better fulfill The Observer's potential. "Because we do have such a successful daily newspaper, TheObserver needs to focus on different things now - not cutthroat journalism, or fast reporting," Goldberg said.
The Observer's new focus on analytical, magazine-style journalism leaves the Daily unrivaled as Tufts's source of campus news.
Daily Editor-in-Chief Benjamin Gedan welcomes the change with curiosity, but laments the loss of a more exciting news environment.
"TheObserver has been on my radar screen since my first days at the Daily, when my fellow news editors and I worked hard to keep our big stories secret and rush breaking news into print. Brian's rumors page provided recent motivation, but for the first 20 of our 21 years of existence, it was TheObserver that kept the Daily honest and aggressive."
Along with the loss of media competition also comes a loss that Provost Sol Gittleman, a 37-year Observer reader, understands - the loss of a century-old tradition.
Although this is a goodbye for the Provost, he welcomes the change as necessary - both for The Observer itself, and for a campus rife with news.
"The Observer was more of an opinion piece, and they didn't carry out the pieces on the Tufts scene that they could have," Gittleman said. "There's lots of good stories about this university that an in-depth newspaper could tell."
Vatz, her Executive Board, and her staff, will spend the next few weeks discussing and fine-tuning the new publication, and morphing their newspaper masthead into a magazine masthead.
Sophomore Erica Hirsch, who joined staff last year, barely had time to get used to her new position as News Editor before the changes were implemented. She entered the year excited about her move onto the masthead - she had specifically picked TheObserver to write in-depth articles.
Hirsch, like many of her fellow editors, is excited about the paper's new format for this very reason. Her position will not change, and the new format will allow her to hone her news analysis skills.
"I'm excited to be part of it," she said. "The editors of TheObserver have a vision of what it should be like, what our pieces should be like, what our mission is in printing the news."
The notion of change has left the staff in a state of optimism, not nostalgia. Shifts in vision, format, and morale is what will keep old editors like Goldberg on board.
"I still feel a close connection to it, and I'm looking forward to seeing it retain is place on campus. I want to help build staff, and edit...anything so we can maintain the legacy," she said.
"Everyone knows what the Observer could be, and everyone wants to see it be what it should be. Sometimes changes need to be implemented if people feel like the paper isn't meeting its full potential."
