Announcement Archives - Garnet Report

Announcement

Daily Update

Exams–Ain’t Nobody Got Time For That!

Randall Stewart — December 9, 2012 — Leave a comment

As much as we hate to do it, Garnet Report will be taking a break for the next week or two. We know, we know, you guys are just dying to read our top-notch content while you take those much-needed study breaks every five minutes or so. But everyone that works for our organization is a student, which means we’re freaking out about finals just as much as you are. So we’ve given all of our writers the week off to focus on making sure their GPA stays where it should.

But don’t worry! We’ll be back after exams, bringing you the best Gamecock coverage as the Outback Bowl approaches and basketball season rolls on.

In the meantime, check out these tips on how to survive another round of exams. And don’t forget to complete our survey to let us know how to make Garnet Report the best it can possibly be. Good luck on all your exams!

Photo Credit: Well Happy Peaceful, Pintrest

In Announcement

Garnet Report is back and better than ever

Stephen Bateman — August 20, 2012 — Leave a comment

Welcome back to your University! While you were gone, the school increased the fine for underage drinking to $250 and started issuing season tickets for football. Which means it’s easier than ever to get into the student section, and 5x more expensive to get off the hook for drinking there (or anywhere else, for that matter).

I digress.

Last semester, Garnet Report sent out an email update every day with sports, news, and weather. We even thought about asking the Free Times to create a category called “best daily email”. Throughout the Spring, we learned a very valuable lesson:

Most students don’t like daily emails.

Not to be dismayed, our team went back to the drawing board. After a solid brainstorm, Garnet Report is rethinking our content entirely. We care a lot about students, and want to build this site around content that is worth reading.

Changes to Garnet Report

No More Daily Emails. They went the way of Steven Garcia. Too soon? But you should still subscribe via email to get the best stories from the week in your email on Monday morning.
A New Focus. Instead of trying to cover everything, we are focusing on three topics: Sports, Fashion, and Random but Awesome.
Drink Specials. If you look in the sidebar, there is a darn-near-comprehensive list of the relevant drink specials from Columbia’s bars for today.
More! To read more about what we’ve been up to this summer, check out “The New Garnet Report.”

To make all of this happen, we have 11 writers contributing to the Report. Last semester all of the authors were guys. There are now 4 girls contributing to Fashion, and one in Random But Awesome. Unfortunately, Sports is still a bro-fest. Regular coverage starts on Monday, so get excited.

What you can do now

There is one favor we ask of you. This site is built for Gamecock fans. If that’s you, will you follow us on Twitter?

In Announcement, Fashion, Random But Awesome, Sports

The New Garnet Report

Stephen Bateman — July 2, 2012 — 1 Comment

I’m excited to let you know that Garnet Report has been rebuilt from the ground up. While the site looks mostly the same, I assure you, it’s going to be a dramatic improvement in many ways.

Goodbye daily email

We found that our subscribers got worn out of receiving a daily email. But we believe that USC deserves the most fun stories. As a result, we’re completely rethinking the way we develop content. That means new authors, new topics, and a ton of new posts emailed weekly.

New Content – Sports, Fashion, and Random But Awesome

This semester we are laser-focused on three topics: Sports, Fashion, and Random But Awesome. We will be bringing the most fun coverage of each of those, and I’m excited for the author teams who will be hard at work producing it. Continue Reading…

In Announcement, Baseball, Fashion, Sports

What’s Next for Garnet Report: The story of Omaha

Stephen Bateman — June 26, 2012 — Leave a comment

Act One – Leading up to Omaha

Friends, I want to tell you a story. A few days before the Gamecocks were set to leave for Omaha, Garnet Report’s lead editor Randall called me and said:

Hey Stephen, I was thinking. What if we were to ask the NCAA for press passes to Omaha?

I thought about it for a second, and said: “You know, they’re just going to say no…why bother?” Now I’ve made some bad decisions before, but this ranks among the worst. At this particular moment, the Garnet Report team has been working for 6 months and received little positive traction. Our initial concept was based on sending USC students an email every day. Which we found isn’t very high on a student’s list of desires. More email. Please send me more email. Nope.

Days go by and I’m sitting at my kitchen table (which doubles as an office) when a call comes from Randall. “Hi,” he says, “you won’t believe this, but WE GOT A PRESS PASS.” Continue Reading…

In Announcement

Indie Grits – Cinemovements

Will — April 28, 2012 — Leave a comment

The Indie Grits Festival has taken Columbia by storm this week. One of the main show stopping events was Cinemovements.

From their site:

“Morihiko Nakahara, the esteemed South Carolina Philharmonic’s beloved, quirky conductor, will lead musicians from the SC Phil in a collection hand-picked compositions. Brand new silent films, commissioned by Indie Grits, will accompany the SC Phil’s performance. Film and music will collide for a rare multi-media happening.”

Cinemovements occurred on Wednesday April 25th, and we were there to snap some pictures for your pleasure!

In Announcement, Music

Friends,

It’s been 102 days since we first launched Garnet Report to the world. Really, I’m amazed by how much we’ve been able to accomplish as a team of part-time students. The semester is over and that means that you’ll be heading off to do an internship, work a job, or perhaps something more exotic.

This is our last update until August, and I want to recap what we’ve done this semester and give you a taste of what’s coming up in the future.

This semester

We had the opportunity to do a few high-profile interviews this semester, many of them thanks to the kind folks at Carolina Productions.

Bill Rasmussen - The founder of ESPN was extremely kind to sit down for a 30 minute one-on-one interview.
Rev Run – The former front man for rap group RunDMC who pioneered many modern rap techniques, like sampling other tracks and mixing Rock with Rap (so you can thank them for Linkin Park, I suppose).
Whitney Thompson - winner of America’s Next Top Model as the only Plus-size model to ever win.
Young the Giant.
Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor.

In addition to the interviews, we’ve had several hundred people sign up to receive the Report every day, and hundreds more read online during the course of the semester. Our core team added a second editor and a marketing intern who have done a fantastic job helping getting the word out about the report. Finally, we’re super grateful for friends at Carolina Dining, Carolina Productions, Flock & Rally, USC Housing for their help in making this semester a success.

The Future

I want to let our plans for next semester out of the bag, but they’re still in process and we’ve still got details to work through. However, there are some things we can reveal.

More variety
We asked our readers, and they said that they want fewer stories spread across more sections. So with that we’re going to scale it down to only a few stories per topic, while adding in more sections like Fashion, Pinterest, Reviews, etc.
More original content
It’s clear that we need more stories that are original to Garnet Report. Stories which highlight the problems facing USC students and our city, as well as coverage of the most important events. For that, we’re bringing in several authors to help produce some of the city’s best news stories.
Updated format
Instead of only a long list of links, we’re going to mix it up with some more pictures, and a cleaner design.
Super Hawt Mobile Version
iPhone, iPad, Android. Yeup.

My team and I will be hard at work this summer and we’ll be here when you get back. Thanks for being a part of Garnet Report! Have a great summer!

Garnet Report