The year is 2099. Hologram President Elon Musk has just signed an executive order dictating that all publications must ditch the internet and get with the times by uploading news stories directly into people’s brains.
Adviser to the Citrus College Clarion, Schmatrick Piedt, quickly creates a Neurolink account and complies with the order to give students the opportunity to learn about what it’s like to be a journalist in the present (future) times.
Well… Not really. Who really knows what the Clarion will look like in 76 years? Not us. But we can say that 76 years ago, the publication that became the Clarion began as a print publication, and 76 years after that, the Clarion is transitioning from a print to a fully online format.
A comparison of our website traffic and amount of print newspapers on the stands revealed that more Clarion readers get their news online than in print.
To adapt to an ever-changing media landscape and to give students the opportunity to learn in an up-to-date environment, the Clarion decided to move from being online and producing a print edition to focusing solely on our website and social media.
Although seeing the Clarion not in print anymore is sad, it’s a needed change. We plan to further keep up our online presence and deliver pertinent news to your email through our weekly newsletters.
The Clarion has never failed to deliver print news to its audience, except in 2020 and 2021, the years of the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic that hindered the production and distribution of the Clarion print newspaper.
Despite this physical hindrance, Clarion reporters still had news posted online.
In some ways, seeing the Citrus Clarion discontinue its print publication is disappointing, as this will mean future student journalists will not get to experience the joy and feel the adrenaline of designing print pages on deadline.
However, the Clarion’s purpose is not to give students the opportunity to “play paper.” The Clarion’s purpose is to prepare students for being professional journalists and, as such, the Clarion must follow where the industry is going.
Nothing beats the feeling of holding the completed physical copy of a newspaper filled with your work but nonetheless, the Clarion will evolve to give future student journalists what they will miss from print publication – even if that means uploading stories directly into people’s brains in 2099 or encoding stories into people’s DNA in 3075.
Throughout all of these changes, one constant will always remain. The work of Clarion reporters will be of no importance without readers, so, as we transition we want to thank you, our readers – students, faculty administrators and the rest of the Citrus College community– for reading our stories.
We also want to encourage you to keep tabs on our latest stories by subscribing to our newsletter and following our social media handles where we update you on the latest stories:
On Facebook– Citrus College Clarion
On Twitter– @ccclarion
On Instagram– Citruscollegecllarion
On Tik Tok– Citruscollegeclarion
The Clarion releases the last issue of its print edition on June 13.
Editorials are the opinion of at least 75% of the Editorial Board. Views expressed do not represent those of the adviser, faculty, administration, Associated Students of Citrus College and/or CCCBOT.
