Welcome to my obligatory goodbye for the semester, as The Stute wraps up production and publishes the last issue until 2022. Don’t worry, it’s just a see-you-soon!
Next semester will be an exciting one for The Stute — we’ll be moving into a new office space in the University Center which will hopefully be our permanent home for a while. After a somewhat chaotic semester in terms of figuring out how to print issues again and do in-person production, both logistically and how to handle that stress mentally, next semester should be smoother.
We should also expect new distribution racks around campus next semester which we’re currently working on purchasing and getting approved. While I’ve speculated that print issues of The Stute may soon be obsolete, I guess new distribution racks make it seem like that isn’t the case. Oops.
Amidst the chaos, this semester was objectively one of the best semesters for The Stute from my experience. Based on Google Analytics which tracks thestute.com, there were 90,104 page views on our website from September 3 to November 30, 2021. For reference, the last fall semester with normal campus and Stute operations was 2019, which saw 48,177 page views. I can confidently say that our reach has just about doubled, as the 90,000 mark does not include this last issue, which should see about 10,000 views alone.
We also saw a huge growth in engagement on our Instagram, in follower count and likes. Social media distribution of news and content has been a priority this semester, and I can only imagine it will continue to be more of a priority going forward. We also put out the third annual Halloween Issue, features on student organizations and entrepreneurship efforts, and a Veteran’s Day feature.
This kind of information and more can be found in our end-of-the-semester report, appropriately titled, “Semester Report,” that we put out, wait for it, at the end of every semester. Semester reports are my take on previous alumni newsletters which I transformed to apply to anyone, not just alumni, while a monthly alumni email newsletter became an actual thing separate from semester reports.
While our primary goal is documenting Stevens history, the Semester Report is a way to document Stute history. Within the Report, you will find more analytics, top Instagram posts, staff numbers, pictures from the semester, and more. All alumni newsletters and semester reports, including the newly-published Fall 2021 report, can be downloaded at https://thestute.com/about/.
Happy Holidays from The Stute, and we’ll see you next year!
The Stute Editorial is an Opinion column written by the current Editor in Chief of The Stute to address and explain editorial decision making, discuss news and media issues, and develop a sense of trust and transparency between readers and members of The Stute.
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