STORY BY JASMINE ANTHONY
After 44 years, more than 1,000 issues and 10 awards, The Sheridan Sun’s print publication has met its final deadline.
The weekly publication, which has not missed a scheduled issue since 1971 when it was first published, was produced during the school year by students in Sheridan’s Print Journalism program.
September marked the emergence of a new program merging the Print and Broadcast Journalism. Because of the curriculum needed to fit into the merged program, there is not enough time for students to produce a print publication.
“We don’t have enough hours in student time tables, naturally, to devote to print as we do in a print-only program,” said Kathy Muldoon, coordinator of the Print Journalism program and lead professor for The Sheridan Sun.
The end of the print edition is a milestone for any paper, but Muldoon says that she “thinks that it’s great the Journalism program is going the way of all media for the future.”
About her time at the paper, Muldoon has good things to say.
“It’s been really rewarding, and I guess thrilling, to create as much of a real-world experience as we can within the confines of these walls,” she said.
“People act as staff members, as staff reporters, and as photographers working to the same deadlines as any weekly newspaper would adhere to.”
Her proudest moments, though, are not limited to the walls of S209, the paper’s home base. Instead, she said they “show up in other newsstands when our students go off and get jobs and send me links to things they’ve written for other publications.”
Cheryl Vallender, Journalism professor and incoming program coordinator, has worked on the Sheridan Sun online for five years.
Vallender says the focus on the online aspect of The Sheridan Sun will be beneficial to students when they’re looking for a job.
“I think that the students will still get the skills that they always have. They’ll still lay out a paper they’ll still get all those skills, they just won’t get it in print. And I think that their online portfolios will be stronger for it.”
This sentiment is shared by Nathan Mallet, former Print Journalism program coordinator and managing editor. He says that the change to digital, in general, is going to be good for the industry.
“Digital offers so much more flexibility for reporters. We’re not locked in by the print production schedule, not locked in by having to make everything fit on the page,” he said.
“A newspaper has no lasting appeal,” he added. “That lends itself to digital. It’s transient information. As soon as you’ve consumed it, it’s not very useful to you anymore.”
Asked if he thinks newspapers will ever make a comeback, Mallett is doubtful.
“I think we’re going to look back at them in 50 years and say “Oh, how quaint. We used to print all of our words on a page and print it off by the tens of thousands,’” he said. He thinks it will turn into an anachronism, “like rotary phones, or sending telegrams to people.”
Although there are many positive aspects to the switch to a purely digital platform, there is also a sad side.
There are moments that students will not get to experience without a print publication.
“(Students) run over and grab their copy, race through it and find their byline and there’s an immense amount of pride when that happens, especially the first time they do it,” said Mallett. “That big moment when it finally arrives and they get to see their work published in print.”
Although the print publication will no longer be available, The Sheridan Sun will still be available online at thesheridansun.ca.
