‘Review’ switches schedule and format

Seniors Andrew Amsler, editor-in-chief, and Erin Biles, executive editor

4:58 p.m., Sept. 16, 2005--The Review has a new look and a new publishing schedule this semester.

While the award-winning publication continues its 120-plus year tradition as UD’s independent, student-run newspaper, the paper is now being published weekly in a tabloid format. Previously, The Review came out twice a week in large newspaper format.

Andrew Amsler, AS ’06, and a Newark native, serves as the paper’s editor-in-chief, and Erin Biles, AS ’06, of Adamstown, Md., is executive editor.

“We made the changes because we wanted to attract a younger audience,” Amsler said. “We thought it would boost our audience and make us more responsive to students and help facilitate a greater discussion with and among members of the UD and surrounding communities.”

The new format has allowed the paper to condense familiar sections while expanding the number of stories within each section, Amsler said.

“The tabloid style allows us to do things we couldn’t do with the old broadsheet paper,” Amsler said. “Now, readers can view the whole page at once and this allows us to do different things in terms of layout and graphics.”

To heighten the paper’s visual appeal The Review also hired graphics editor, Kathleen Cunningham, AS ’06, who created the new look, including logos and page design.

On the web

The online version of The Review also has been updated, and is available at a web site [www.udreview.com] that went live during the spring 2005 semester.

“The new web site allows us to do much more than we would normally be able to do in terms of getting the latest news to our readers,” Amsler said. “We also will be listing notices of stories in the print version of The Review that will only be available online.”

In addition, the online version includes a classified ad section and a scoreboard that features live updates of UD sporting events.

“We also will have a new weekly poll, where we will ask new questions and post the results the next week,” Amsler said. “We are doing these things to draw more readers to our online site.”

From the past to the present

From its beginnings in 1882 as a collection of poems, essays and campus news, to its present print and online formats, The Review has won many awards, including the Pacemaker Award, college journalism’s most prestigious and oldest prize for general excellence in print and online newspapers.

Amsler said editors looked at Reviews from the 1920s to today to find what was worth keeping while designing a new look to attract new readers.

"I think that we have lost some of our history and with it an understanding about how the paper got to be what it is today," Amsler said. "We want these changes to get the message out to members of the UD community that The Review is still here and interested in the UD community."

Article by Jerry Rhodes
Photo by Duane Perry

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