The Volante implements online drop box and reader’s board

The 2014 fall semester is fast underway, whether we were ready for it or not. In some capacity, the beginning of each semester brings a fresh wave of new perspectives and promises students and organizations around campus hope to expound upon to further their commitment to a set of morals or causes.

Last semester, The Volante made a promise to students of the University of South Dakota to deliver pertinent news on a daily basis through the means of a mobile-first mindset.

As a news organization, The Volante is no longer thinking about what information to share with readers in the newspaper each week, but instead searching out the news on a daily basis and delivering it to readers the very same day through digital platforms.

To accentuate this transition, The Volante launched a new website which is compatible with any mobile device — allowing us keep our promise of “keeping up with you.”

While we may have kept our promise to operate as a mobile-first news organization, The Volante fully intends to build upon that promise to better serve the campus and Vermillion community, because at the end of the day, one of our core missions is to provide a voice for all.

The staff at The Volante works hard to cover a variety of news across campus, but we admit there are a lot of areas we miss. As the fall semesters continues to progress, tools are being implemented in our newsroom intended to extend our reach of coverage.

One of the new systems being implemented is a list of campus beats, which pulls together a variety of organizations and activities into several general categories, which are then assigned to a reporter for the semester. The great thing about a beat system is it allows reporters to specialize in their reporting, which in turn leads to more in-depth coverage of several organizations and activities.

Another tool The Volante will soon be rolling out is a reader’s board. As the name suggests, a reader’s board is a group of people from the general public who come together every so often to meet with the management of The Volante to talk about story coverage. A reader’s board is important because it creates an open dialogue that might not otherwise happen and it allows the public to take part in the progression of our news organization.

Everyone is welcome to join the reader’s board and at the same time there is no commitment. If you want to take part in one board meeting but not future meetings, that is all right with us. The Volante just wants to better its news coverage by hearing from its readers.

While a reader’s board is important, The Volante also understands there are those who like to remain more low key, which is why we are implementing a news tip drop box on our website. The drop box is just another way The Volante is looking to expand its news coverage and provide voice to all.

As we venture through the semester, The Volante promises to strive to be a mobile-first news organization, we promise to broaden our coverage and we promise to listen.

(Students cheer on the University of South Dakota football team during the Nov. 16 home game vs. South Dakota State University. File photo/The Volante)