by Victoria Sherwood
editor-in-chief

It’s official. As of the spring semester of 2014, the Purple & White will reinvent itself once again; and become a online newspaper. It’s no secret that much of our generation mainly consumes news that comes in the form of 140 characters or Buzzfeed memes. How often do we pick up a national newspaper, watch a morning news broadcast or visit a website that our professors would deem as actual news? We are truly an info snacking generation, and we love it!

Therefore, the publications board, (the Millsaps arm that “lightly” controls the Bobashela, P&W and Stylus) due to recent budget cuts that left the publication with half the allotted amout of funds then the previous three years, has decided to move the paper online. I will be the first one to tell you I am uncomfortable with the switch to an online paper, but there are both positives and negatives. The positives being it will fit new our budget (Correlation with the drop in student enrollment perhaps?).

Going online opens up the possibility to get important news to our campus faster, and gives the staff the ability to share links to interesting pieces elsewhere in the news sphere. The negative side of going online, other than the complicated logistics of when to publish, how often and on what format (so it looks like a professional, acceptable platform for Millsaps news rather than just a blog) is will Millsaps students really read an online newspaper? I have heard different opinions. How many students even read the student news, sent out twice a week, or any other of the other millions of irrelevant emails we are sent each week? Will you take the time to visit the P&W if it is on an online paper? Hopefully, your answer is yes and our campus doesn’t allow our college newspaper to become completely irrelevant.