The Aquilian - May 2015 | Vol 77, No 6

Page 1

The Aquilian May 2015 Volume 77, Number 6

Gonzaga College High School Men For Others Since 1821

19 Eye St, NW Washington, DC 20001

It’s a NEW Website! Theaquilian.com Has Landed By: Andy Carluccio ‘16 Associate Editor It is with great pleasure and enthusiasm that The Aquilian today announces the launch of our new website: theaquilian.com. After months of preparation and hard work, our school newspaper will be supplemented by its online reboot. While we will still publish hardcopy newspapers at Gonzaga, our articles and publications will also be available on the new website. The idea for a website began back in 2011 when then editor Michael Ledecky ‘12 realized that Gonzaga’s newspaper was ripe for expansion. Ledecky built the first website from the ground up using a WordPress platform that afforded The Aquilian the ability to distribute information on a wider scale, and interact with alumni from across the world. In addition to building

the first Aquilian website, Ledecky also founded the Washington Metropolitan Association for High School Journalism (WMAHSJ) that included school newspapers from seven different institutions across the city. Since then the WMAHSJ has rebranded as WSNA and continued to grow. Back in 2011 Ledecky wrote about the vision for the website saying that the website will “allow student writers to take a more active role in journalism. In addition to displaying content from the paper issues published throughout the year, the site will contain articles, photos, and video covering events between publications. This consistent flow of news will especially increase the relevancy of sports articles and theatre reviews. Aquilian staff members will now have

a venue to report on the outcomes of championship games within twenty-four hours, and theatre reviews will be published in a more timely fashion.” Ledecky went on to say that the website “not only eliminates certain time constraints but also provides unlimited space for content. Photos and passages of articles that could not fit onto our eight pages will find a home on the internet. The Aquilian will also post relevant WZAG features and, perhaps, the occasional Aquilian-produced news video. “ As we make this next jump into twenty-first century media there is a great deal from Ledecky’s original vision upon which we hope to build. Back in 2011 most students might have a desktop or laptop at home that they used for school work and to go online. We recognize that

in 2015, most of our readers are now equipped with phones, tablets, and laptops that make news readily available. By supporting a digital medium, we hope to make The Aquilian more accessible to students, faculty, and alumni. The website was designed with mobile platforms in mind, and so it sports a modern interface compatible with most phone displays. Our decision to reboot our online presence, though, was not just to make The Aquilian easier to access. There is certainly value in distributing hardcopy newspapers, but there are also some limitations as well. Our printed publications can only hold so many articles, and we are obviously prevented from using video or audio to enhance our reporting. Theaquilian.com will help remove these limitations. In addition to posting the articles that appear in our newspaper, we

Erik Kristensen ‘90, p.2

Rugby International, p.5

Google Rollout, p.7

Summer Plans, p.8

will also be able to upload great pieces that we simply did not have enough space to add to the hardcopy. Additionally, students who were not able to send their work to us within our narrow submission window for the paper will be able to have their articles available online whenever they are ready to send them in. While there is certainly plenty to check out on our website right now, there will be even more available when we return to school next year. As a technical aside, please let us know if you encounter any issues with the website; it’s a work in progress. The revamp of the website is the first step in a series of upgrades we hope to complete in the near future. It is our vision for The Aquilian to be more than just a newspaper, and the rollout of these new features will help us achieve that goal.


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.
The Aquilian - May 2015 | Vol 77, No 6 by Gonzaga College High School - Issuu