The Daily O’Collegian

Albert Einstein once said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

We know it’s cliché to start with a quote, but we think it’s appropriate this time.

For the past 50 years, newspapers have, for the most part, been doing the same thing over and over again. We put some news on the front page with headlines of varying size. Throw in some photos here or there and voila — you have your front page. Oh, and maybe even a graphic or fancy chart.

Meanwhile, circulation has continued to decline about 2.5 percent year-to-year for dailies and 3.3 percent for Sunday editions, according to The State of the News Media 2008, an annual report on American journalism. And our age group, 18-to-24-year-olds, continue to shun newspapers, according to the report.

In 2007, about 33 percent of us read a newspaper in an average week, according to data from Scarborough Research.

Basically, most of our generation doesn’t like the bland, dry newspaper articles that our parents are used to reading.

And we at The Daily O’Collegian don’t want to bore you.

We want to give you content that will inform you, educate you about your community, entertain you and engage you.

This past week, you might have noticed the O’Colly looked a little different in terms of our front page.

For the next two weeks, the O’Colly staff will continue to make changes, primarily in design. If you see something you like or dislike, let us know. Our e-mail addresses are to the left, and we usually respond pretty quickly. We like constructive criticism, and we love hearing from you.

In 1995 the O’Colly received the National Newspaper Pacemaker Award, often considered the Pulitzer Prize of college journalism, and from 1989 to 2002 received All-America honors, the highest rating given by the Associated Collegiate Press and National Scholastic Press Association.

In 2000 it was inducted into the Associated Collegiate Press Hall of Fame.

One of our goals this semester is to start that winning streak back up again.

Between the hard work and dedication of this semester’s staff and adviser and constant reader feedback, we firmly believe we can achieve that goal.

-The O’Collegian Editorial Board