Thanks For A Great Semester

Stephen Bateman —  April 23, 2012 — Leave a comment

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!

 

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Stephen Bateman

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Stephen graduated from USC in 2011. He enjoys coffee, website design, and British authors. During the day, he writes for Garnet Report and builds websites freelance. At night, he rages.