By Jacqueline Hyman
@jacqbh58
Editor-in-chief

Dear readers,

You may recognize me from previous columns or articles for the Mitzpeh. Before I became editor-in-chief of the Mitzpeh, I was the opinion editor for two years. I’ve edited for a few other publications on campus, but became connected to the Mitzpeh much more deeply and have stuck with it above the others (the other campus publications are great too though, check us all out!).

As you may know, we transitioned from a monthly print publication to an all online publication last November. The transition has been hard and slow-paced, but we have been constantly breaking new ground and are ready to bring you some really great content this year.

The world of journalism is constantly changing along with technology, and any publication that isn’t keeping up is going to get left behind. It is a bittersweet reality that no longer can a print medium be considered “enough” for a publication to get by. Bitter because creating and reading a print edition are great experiences, and a physical product can always be read on Shabbat. But it is also sweet, because we get to use and focus on all new forms of media which are constantly evolving. The news media can be at the forefront of technology.

In that light, we have many goals this year that we hope to achieve in order to bring you the news in the best ways possible. Firstly, we are striving to use as much social media as we can and get our content out in as many ways as possible. We currently have Facebook (umdmitzpeh), Twitter (@Mitzpeh), and Instagram (umdmitzpeh), and are working to post more each day so that you can become familiar with us and our material. We are also playing with ideas for other platforms, such as Snapchat, which will appeal to viewers in unique ways.

Since everyone is constantly on their phones nowadays, we want to be able to bring you content wherever you go — and that’s one great thing about being all online; we can be a completely mobile publication. Additionally, we aim to add as much multimedia to the mix as we can in the future. We’ll have video stories (and more) popping up on our homepage as well as articles — something you can watch and listen to on your way to class or just lying in bed when you’re bored. Visual and audio effects are so important in today’s world, and we want to give them to you.

The goal is to bring you content like this — as well as good old-fashioned, written articles — constantly throughout the week. This has been intimidating for a publication that before had an entire month to prepare for publication, but we are working to get that on the roll because we know there are newsworthy events happening and people walking around this campus and in the Jewish community every day.

I am excited to keep moving the Mitzpeh forward and know there is always more we can do to improve the quality of our publication. If you ever have any suggestions — or want to write a letter to the editor about something happening in the world, or just about something we wrote, feel free to email themitzpeh@gmail.com.

Sincerely,

Jacqueline Hyman

Jacqueline is a junior journalism and English major. She can be contacted at jbhyman@terpmail.umd.edu.