Editor-in-chief
LOOK AT OUR NEW WEBSITE.
Just look at it. I can’t seem to stop.
Although we made it look effortlessly perfect, it was far from it. The process of switching over the site to a new theme with innovative design and much more interactive activities actually began mid-2013.
I was working as online managing editor and, not to be dramatic, had one of the scariest moments of my life. I was uploading my fourth or fifth story in my new position, and the site crashed. The screen just said ERROR repeatedly followed by old code that I could only partly understand. It was not a pretty site.
Our homepage just housed a big, black box and more code. This was worse. You guys could actually see this.
After three days of calling every tech-savvy person I could think of, meeting with media editors and contacting the couple who made our site, the answer was on the wall: it was time for a new site.
Thus, this beauty.
But let me tell you, besides the moment of panic and three days of worry, this has not been an easy transition.
Picking a theme, customizing said theme, transferring old stories, putting them in a format that pleases our readers all while producing new stories and attending school has caused for many a-sleepless night.
And I can only thank my staff for making this happen. Jumping back into school this semester, the team knew we would be launching our new site and putting together a rushed print and iPad publication. And a deadline has not been missed.
Just a look inside of Ball Bearings: This is a great support system. And that, in my opinion, has been the tone of the semester.
Through the crazy, and seemingly endless, nights, I am so thankful we can call each other (at 3 a.m.) to answer that one question or rant about the inability to comprehend all of this new technology.
That said, I invite my staff to join our readers and gaze in awe at their hard work for a second. Just a second. Then it’s back to work.
