Monday, September 29, 2008

Hoos for Housing?

If you usually read The Cavalier Daily online instead of picking up the print edition, we'd like to draw your attention today to The Cavalier Daily's annual housing supplement.

Whether you're a student thinking about where you'd like to live next year, a parent wondering whether your child is telling the truth about how much housing costs, or an alum wondering if your old apartment still exists, we hope you'll be able to find what you're looking for in the supplement, which you can view as a .pdf by clicking here, then clicking on the picture of our newspaper. We have tried to make this supplement useful to as many students as possible by featuring a variety of housing options, both on and off Grounds — though as always, The Cavalier Daily welcomes your feedback about how we can improve this service for students in future years.

Friday, September 26, 2008

Managing Money

When thinking about the staff it takes to produce a newspaper every day, you have no trouble identifying the obvious pieces of the puzzle: You've got to have writers to research articles, photographers to take pictures, designers to take care of page layout and editors to make sure everything happens on schedule. "Advertising representative" might not be the first thing to come to mind, but the advertising staff plays a critical role in The Cavalier Daily's operations.

Without a strong advertising staff, The Cavalier Daily simply couldn't exist — at least not in its current, independent state. We could gather as many talented writers, artists and editors as we wanted, but without the funds required to put a printed copy of the paper in your hands every day — or to purchase and maintain the servers that keep our website running — our goal of providing news to the U.Va. and Charlottesville community couldn't succeed.

Like the rest of The Cavalier Daily's staff, the advertising department is completely student-run, although a couple things make it unique. For example, ads representatives are not allowed to contribute any content to the newspaper. We adhere to this policy to protect our coverage from any bias that could be attributed to advertising revenue. We never want an ads staffer to find him- or herself feeling pressured or influenced by an advertiser to produce certain content or to present information in a certain way. What's the upside of this? Aside from decreasing the risk of bias appearing in our content, the next time you want to place an ad, you're sure to have the undivided attention of our ads staff. Whether you're trying to figure out how to use our online classified system or don't quite know what size ad would be best for you, let our advertising staff know and they'll be ready and willing to help.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Detailing our style

Ever wondered why The Cavalier Daily formats the phrase "Web site" in the (seemingly archaic) way you see in print every day? Or why we always refer to the University of Virginia solely as "the University?" If you read The Cavalier Daily regularly and carefully, you might notice that we have a standardized set of terminology for the topics we cover often.

Why does this attention to detail matter? Most readers probably have never noticed policies about particular word choices. That's exactly how we want it. Varying our terminology — for example, switching between "the Education School" and "the Curry School" — has the potential to confuse and distract readers.

Even if one particular writer maintains consistency in how he refers to a particular institution, person or other object, he might still have different style preferences from other CD staff members. Like most newspapers, The Cavalier Daily tries to keep style consistent from article to article, and we rely on a number of resources to make sure our style remains the same. For general issues, we turn to the most recent edition of the Associated Press Stylebook, which sets style standards for reporters around the world.

But, as all U.Va. students know, the University of Virginia has its own unique lingo. There are no "seniors" here, and there's also no "campus." For first-time writers (and even those who have been with The Cavalier Daily a long time), the correct terms can be difficult to remember. As a result, we have our own 75-page Cavalier Daily Stylebook and Reference Manual, which covers everything from the proper way to refer to the University's current president (don't forget his middle initial or the "III" at the end) to whether it's acceptable to abbreviate the names of fraternities and sororities in print (it's not).

Next time you pick up a copy of The Cavalier Daily or are checking out the news online, pay attention to the style rules you see being applied. We hope that you'll have to hunt for them — if we're applying the rules correctly, they shouldn't be distracting you from the broader content of the article you're reading.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Reporting on reporters

The Cavalier Daily usually is in the business of reporting — not making — the news. Thursday, however, the tables turned, if only for a short while.
With the 2008 presidential race seeming closer and closer by the day, a camera crew from the Today Show found itself on Grounds, filming a segment about the battleground state of Virginia. The crew turned to Cavalier Daily politics beat reporter Emily Poe to get the lowdown on the University's political atmosphere. If you're interested in hearing Emily's take on students' involvement in the election — or would like to hear from other University students and staff — be sure to tune in to the Today Show next Wednesday morning, when the segment is scheduled to air.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Going back in time

Continually published since 1890, The Cavalier Daily can be a useful source of information for more than just today's headlines. Students, faculty and others conducting research or interested in reading about the University's past can find what they're looking for in The Cavalier Daily's archives. Depending on what type of information you're looking for, there are a number of ways to access our previously published content.

Though still under construction, our Web site will soon be the easiest way to access information dating back to fall 1999. If you know exactly when the article you're looking for ran in the print edition, this information is already accessible by entering in a URL in the following format: http://www.cavalierdaily.com/1999-09-16. We know this is far from a convenient approach for most of you, though, so we're working to get our search function operating for our archived content as soon as possible. Though it may seem overwhelming to look through several years worth of archives for the information you're seeking, know that we're also looking into the feasibility of making our search function more specific, allowing visitors to choose whether they want to search through content from the past month, from the past year or from the past several years.

Until all of our website functionality is restored, though, how else can you access our archived content? If there's a particular article, comic or photo you're looking for, you can contact our operations manager, who oversees our archiving, and someone from our staff will help you get a photocopy from our print archives. Similarly, some of the University of Virginia's libraries also archive our content, including the Special Collections Library and Alderman Library.

We hope these resources will help you take advantage of the U.Va. and Virginia history we've covered over the years. Good luck in your search!

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Making the News

With hundreds of CIOs on Grounds and thousands of students involved in all sorts of activities and service throughout the Charlottesville community, there's always something happening at the University. If The Cavalier Daily were to write an article about every club event or service project, the newspaper would probably be too heavy to lift each day — or at least too long to hold your interest. As a result, The Cavalier Daily constantly makes decisions about which events and activities to cover.

How do we determine what makes the front page and what gets a shout-out in one of our weekly calendars? The News section (we hope we don't have to tell you where to find this one) usually researches and writes about five stories each day about topics as different as state and national politics, Student Council referenda and crime in Charlottesville. Your organization's activity might be cool, but it's got to compete against all these other topics. In other words, it's got to stand out.

For example, if your organization hosts an annual fundraiser that typically nets $10,000 for a local charity, we think that's great. That being said, we most likely won't be able to feature it in the News section unless there's something that makes it stand out from past years' or other groups' fundraisers. Maybe you raised more money than a fundraiser on Grounds ever has before or you worked together with a large group of U.Va. organizations and departments to put on a big event or lecture series for the first time. If that's the case, you should definitely let our News editors know.

Even if your organization's activities may not qualify for coverage in article form on the News page, The Cavalier Daily reports on student activities in several other ways. The News page often has a couple of artistic photographs, accompanied by descriptive photo captions, showing readers glimpses of life around Grounds. These images range from shots of dance groups performing to the smiling faces of student organizations' new executive boards, so contact News if your group's activity could be covered through a photo — they'll try to send a photographer your way.

Another way that student organizations frequently get press coverage is through our Life page. Every Friday, Life's community-themed page features a University CIO that might otherwise be relatively unknown to the University community. If you think your group does something people would like to know about, drop Life an e-mail.

We hope you'll continue to let us know when a group you're involved with is doing something special. Though we may not be able to feature your group every time you e-mail us, perseverance helps — keep us posted on what you're up to and one of your group's activities might be featured in The Cavalier Daily.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Mark your calendars

If you're involved with any University CIO, University department or Charlottesville organization, you know about all the hard work that goes into organizing a lecture, cultural event or other activity. The Cavalier Daily can be a great venue to share information about your group's upcoming events and activities with others — if you know the right way to go about it. If you're hoping to publicize your upcoming event, there are three main ways to do it.

tableau, the Cav Daily's arts and entertainment section, runs a weekly calendar profiling upcoming arts-related events ... so if your band is performing at a cafe in C-ville or if your best friend is in an upcoming drama production, e-mail the tableau editors by Monday so your event can be considered for publication in the calendar we feature each Thursday.

Not into the arts but still doing something readers would be interested in? The Life section runs a calendar every Friday detailing upcoming events ranging from movie showings to lectures to anything else readers should check out. To suggest a topic for Friday's calendar, e-mail the Life editors by Tuesday.

Say you've submitted your event for consideration in the Life or tableau calendar, but you want to be 100% sure you get some pre-event publicity in the Cav Daily. Have you thought about purchasing an ad? You might think that buying an ad sounds expensive; with this in mind, we've designed our CIO Advertising Program to fit even a small CIO's budget. If your event is sponsored by a University department or local organization, think about asking them to fund an ad — you'll be surprised by how much funding is available. Special rates for University departments and non-profit organizations make it more affordable, too. If you want to know more, e-mail our advertising staff to decide what kind of advertising will be most effective for you, whether you're on a tight or a generous budget.

Now that you've got the pre-event publicity settled, you're already trying to figure out how to get post-event coverage of your group's activities, right? If so, stay tuned for the next entry about how we decide which events get post-event coverage in The Cavalier Daily.

Monday, September 8, 2008

Welcome to the University's Journalism School

Attention new students: It's not too late. Now that you've settled into classes and gotten used to your dorm and O-Hill food, why not try something new? The Cavalier Daily is a great place to learn things you can't find in a classroom at the University and to make great friends.

Don't have any journalism experience? That doesn't bother us. Most of us aren't even English majors — and besides, there's a lot you can get involved with at The Cavalier Daily other than writing. Whether you're interested in drawing, honing your layout and design skills, running a small company, or becoming the next Katie Couric (a Cav Daily alumna, by the way), you can find a place at The Cavalier Daily. (To check out a description of all the departments, click here.)

Still skeptical about whether The Cavalier Daily is right for you? The vast majority of positions on our staff have no application or tryout process, and most staffers come in with no journalism background — you'll pick up everything you need to know from other students on the staff. And if you're worried about the time commitment, don't be: If you come in to see what life is like as a staff writer, page designer, photography staffer or graphic artist, you haven't signed your life away in any sense. You can come in to contribute to your section once a month, once a week or daily — whatever suits your schedule and interest level. In fact, many staff members do just that; The Cavalier Daily is a great place to build a portfolio of articles, photographs, comics or page design.

So, what's stopping you now? E-mail recruit@cavalierdaily.com today or stop by our office in the basement of Newcomb Hall to get started. We hope to see you soon!

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Welcome to our new Web site!

As you've discovered, our move into the 21st century (just a little bit late, right?) is allowing us to implement a number of new features and services, one of which is before your eyes. This space is intended to give you — a regular reader, a prospective staffer or a curious alum — a peek behind the scenes at what goes into the 12- to 20-page paper you can pick up each day or browse online.

If you check in here regularly, you'll find 2-3 new posts per week on topics ranging from how The Cavalier Daily chooses which topics find their way into print to how our writers and designers are supported by the often under-appreciated work of our advertising and IT staffs. If there's a topic you're itching to learn more about, just shoot an e-mail to meditor@cavalierdaily.com or leave a comment here at any time. Within the next week or so, we'll have a Cavalier Daily FAQs page up and running for your convenience.

Until next time, enjoy the new site! Your thoughts about it are welcome here or can be sent to webmaster@cavalierdaily.com.