 "Photo: bu.edu/today")
In an effort to inform and connect the Boston University community, Marketing and Communications Director Stephen Burgay developed BU Today, a daily online source launched last week that puts university information at students' fingertips.
The site features news stories, photographs, sports and an extensive events calendar. By retiring the BU Bridge, the university's weekly newspaper, and bringing campus news to the internet, Burgay said he hopes the BU community, including parents and alumni, will use the site to stay apprised of the goings-on at the university.
"There was nothing before [BU Today,]" said Burgay, who arrived at the university last October and collaborated with the Bridge's editorial staff to create the news site. The process took about a year to plan and design, because Burgay said he "spoke with hundreds of people to see what they were looking for."
Editor-in-Chief David Craig, who previously edited the Bridge, said he welcomed the transition from putting out a printed publication to working on a daily website.
"The Bridge had a lot of long, soft profiles about the administration," Craig said. "In contrast, BU Today has shorter, hard pieces - more consistent with online journalism - which people can read every morning when they log on."
According to Burgay, BU Today will be "content-driven," with "substantive pieces, editorials and multimedia." He stressed the website's usage beyond that of a calendar, and hopes students and faculty from around the university will begin contributing content, including feature submissions and letters to the editor.
Craig, who wrote for the Somerville Journal and Cambridge Chronicle before joining the Bridge five years ago, works with a full-time staff that does much of its own reporting. However, some content for BU Today is borrowed from individual colleges' newsletters, alumni magazines and WBUR, according to Craig.
"Our writers are experienced reporters who dig up a lot of their own stories," he said. "But we do work closely with the administration to deliver the news they feel is most important."
Although many students have yet to visit BU Today, some said they think the news stories will not be completely objective.
"BU writing news about itself would be like me writing about myself," College of General Studies sophomore Katie Fleming said. "I'd only want to tell you about the positive things."
Craig acknowledged the potential for a biased perspective in the stories, but wants the BU community to read the paper for clear, daily news and not to expect controversial topics.
"We have a sophisticated and extremely intelligent student body,î"he said. "I don't think anyone expects to go an administration newspaper and read exposés about the university."
Students did say, however, that they will check out the site anyway.
"Sure, it might be a little slanted," College of Arts and Sciences graduate student Laurie Bacon said. "But that doesn't mean it's not worthwhile to read."
Another issue surrounding BU Today is possible redundancy in producing stories also covered by The Daily Free Press. Although students did not express concern, Burgay discussed the possibility of overlap.
"With two publications covering events on a single campus, there will be many instances where we identify the same stories as newsworthy," he said. "But there will be days when the content is very different - BU Today is not an attempt to supplant or compete with The Daily Free Press."
"If we're both doing our job very well, it's natural to have overlap in our stories," added Craig.
Students did seem pleased with the university's attempt to enhance communication.
College of Communication freshman Shelly Donovan said she likes the idea "because it provides easy access" to news she might find interesting.
With more people turning to the web for news and information, Burgay is confident BU Today reflects a judgment call that the internet is the appropriate medium for news in a university setting.
"We want to be where the readers are looking, to reach people more frequently," he said.
Although BU Today was officially launched Aug. 29, Craig said the staff is pushing hard to promote the website this week, displaying its logo on bags sold at Barnes & Nobles and using it as the homepage on the BU Central kiosk public computers.
"We wanted to have a quiet launch to work out the kinks beforehand," Craig said.
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