The Rocket will enter next school year with a new staff motivated to continue the success the paper has gained over the years.
During the month of April, The Rocket held interviews for the new staff of the 2013 fall semester. The Rocket was looking for new ideas and fresh faces and minds to keep up with the prestigious reputation of the award winning school paper.
Will DeShong is the exiting editor in chief of The Rocket. DeShong is a senior Journalism major who plans to attend graduate school at Point Park University of Pittsburgh after graduating from Slippery Rock. He is optimistic that the new staff will be able to continue to find success next year.
“I think the new Rocket staff will find great success in the upcoming year. Each of the retuning staff members are very talented what they do, and I have confidence that the new faces will be able to fill in nicely,” DeShong said.
DeShong is also confident that the new staff will bring a mix of skill to the paper.
“There is a perfect mix of returning faces that know the positions and of new staff members that will bring new ideas into the mix,” DeShong said.
With the exploding rise in social media, The Rocket has to keep up with the trends in order to keep weekly readers. The Rocket has already incorporated an online paper, Facebook, and Twitter into news sources for Slippery Rock, but as technology is becoming a true mass medium, the demand for something new is always happening.
Catie Clark, a junior public relations major, is the new editor-in-chief of the paper. Her plans for the paper focus heavily on increasing the online presence of the Rocket.
“We’re really looking to amp social media and break away from the weekly news cycle,” Clark said.
The Rocket is really looking to start letting readers know about news the second it happens as opposed to finding out in the paper on Friday.
Two new staff positions were created with the sole focus of increasing social media and web presence.
“The Web/Social Media Editor position will certainly help keep the Rocket engaged throughout the week,” DeShong said. “And the Multimedia reporter will certainly put a bigger emphasis on web-only content.”
Clark made it quite clear that The Rocket has won 34 awards this year and they are really looking to keeping that recognition while adapting to new trends.
“We are hoping to continue our legacy next year, and improve by becoming more social media savvy. Our new positions will help with that.”
