Elated and Terrified

This new mission I've been tasked with will test me at every level. I've preached and lectured for years about the coming covergence in Journalism. I've taken and taught seminars, consulted with stations, and spoken at faculty meetings. Well, it's time to fish. Due to a complicated series of events, I've inherited not only our campus newspaper to run, but also trying to do that while simultaneously launching a web site that is intended to be the sister outlet to that publication.

All considered, it's a pretty cool deal. The sacred campus paper has been around for 50 years but has definately seen better days. Basically, by the end of the spring quarter, the paper was more or less dead. It had been reduced years ago from a daily to a semi-weekly. Then this last year, it went to a single edition per week, and at that, it was barely holding its own.

The business manager had retired over a year before and had not been replaced. To their immense credit, students worked tirelessly, even heroically to keep the publication on the news racks around campus, but even that was a struggle. It really looked like the end was near.

But after a couple of meetings with our new dean - who has shown more interest and passion for the world of media than we havve seen in a long time - I gave in to a couple of years of being asked to run the paper AND our new web venture.

So, I'm not getting a lot of sleep, and it's scary as hell. But this will be a wonderful adventure. My entire heart and soul is into this project. I'm elated.

And terrified.