Failure is such a daunting prospect. I find that far too often in life, we fear failure as though it is the end of any progress. The issue is rarely as black-and-white as it seems. I’ve found that failure is the path to growth more often than not, and when possible, we should embrace defeat.
Unfortunately, The New University’s sister publication, The AntReader, has failed. It has been just about a year since the brainchild of both current and past New University members was erected. I consider myself one of the editorial board members who contributed to the partial stabilization of the new publication. The New University abruptly announced to the school and to professional staff that operations and staff would mostly transition to The AntReader. Then, we were off.
Articles, graphics, logistics, websites, financials and nearly every other service a newspaper could conceivably need were created. We had a team of trained editors and some experienced staff who worked to keep the paper afloat during a time of uncertainty and transition. The future was up in the air, but the publication had a positive outlook.
What happened between the end of the summer in 2023 and now, in spring 2024, has no place being discussed in an article such as this one. Regardless of who was to blame, which is wholly unimportant at this point, one thing was clear: the publication was not ready.
The publication was not ready to survive with a sparser staff than it had previously. The AntReader was not ready to break out independently after so little time to prepare, and most of all, the publication was certainly not ready to deal with internal conflict.
This brings us to now. We have a team of writers, editors, graphic designers and more who are willing to bring this paper back to standards we believe are possible and necessary. We cannot do it alone, however; that much has been made clear to us in the past nine months.
There is still uncertainty in the air; we are weighing a rebranding effort for the New University, still trying to create the best possible training methods, and just hired a new editor in chief. Despite the uncertainty, we believe that this is a team that knows how to build such a massive operation from the ground up. Nearly all of us have seen the New University produce at a high level; we know what it takes.
I love journalism and the New University more than I love anything at UCI. This paper gave me purpose for the first time at a school that once seemed so massive and daunting, and I feel that I owe it justice. This will not be a one- or two-person show; myself and the rest of the New University staff are unified in this message.
We are calling on students who believe in journalism and the right to expression via journalism to join us. We will push harder than we did before to retain, train and nurture the staff who make this publication possible. This comes with a promise from all members—new and old. We are willing and ready to put our best efforts out to ensure your experience with the publication is as rewarding as possible. You need to be willing to work with us and truly give us a chance to do so for you. I’ve seen it work as both an intern less than two years ago and as an editor now, and when it does, it is truly magical.
There will no longer be red tape between the editorial board and its staff. I feel that the staff of a publication is its beating heart, and they deserve to know every piece of information possible. Issues of transparency have plagued journalism since its inception, but the New University has always had a hard time maintaining straightforwardness. Transparency on all levels will be the new theme of this publication. After all, what is the point of journalism at all without full transparency?
This is a call to all student journalists and student journalists to be across campus.
We’re back.
Jacob Ramos is a 2023-2024 Opinion Editor. He can be reached at jacobtr@uci.edu.
