The Accolade News has decided to radically change its format.

The Accolade has come far in its first year of existence, and its editors and staff are proud of what it has become and the work that we have put into it. We have published well over 100 articles since we first went live, including the breaking news announcement of the new YSA stake presidency. However, after much consideration we have decided that The Accolade can better serve Southern Virginia and fulfill its desired purpose by shifting its focus from a written news blog that relies on updates and contributions several times a week to an audio podcast that will be released weekly. Though we feel we have done the best we can as a club and news organization serving Southern Virginia, we find it difficult to maintain watch over even the very mundane and routine aspects of the University without at all being able to pursue the more ambitious projects we feel would be more interesting and beneficial to both our audience and our writers. We believe that the podcast format can solve this problem.

The website will continue to function more or less as is, but posts will build upon or relate to the content of the podcast and rely less on frequent contributions from various students. The podcast will be the central focus of the site, and will be produced by a handful of students who can dedicate the time necessary to each project. Stories for the podcast can be contributed by the student body at large, and the editorial board will select people from the student body, faculty, or the community to interview and feature on the podcast. We are grateful for the writers and photographers who have contributed to The Accolade over the last three semesters, and welcome their future involvement. In fact, we hope the new format will give them freedom to explore their own ideas and creativity.

There are several reasons for this major change. When The Accolade was first started by JJ Feinauer, Stuart Enkey, and Jeff Gasser over a year ago, the original intention was to create a place where students could be engaged in a dialogue about Southern Virginia, the liberal arts, Mormonism, or any other topic that was important to them. It was also going to be a place for students who had a genuine interest in journalism to meet and learn how to write for the press. In its current state, The Accolade serves as merely a recap of weekly forums, dances, and occasional club events. We know we are capable of so much more.

As editors, we have made a conscious decision that The Accolade should be an unpaid, amateur project that focused on educating those involved as much as informing our readers. Though we are not opposed to earning revenue through advertising, we would use that money to better our website. Because of this decision, it has been increasingly difficult to maintain an active membership when competing with the Paladin news magazine, which began offering compensation around the time of The Accolade’s inception. We strongly feel that this new direction, by offering opportunities separate from The Paladin,  will increase recruitment and involvement.

Again, we are grateful for those who have contributed to The Accolade and the students who have shown an interest in what we do. We honestly hope that this change will benefit the school as a whole, and especially those who want to participate, and we can return The Accolade to what it was originally hoped to be: a gathering place for student information and ideas.

-  The Accolade Editorial Staff