Follow along as the U of O’s English language student news outlet goes exclusively online
Last academic year was a special one for the Fulcrum.
At least for the foreseeable future, it was our final year publishing in print after a strong run of 77 years. Our final print issue — focusing on the history of the Fulcrum and the evolution of our coverage of the University of Ottawa, the city and Canada — didn’t make shutting down the presses any easier.
Although that issue came with a hearty dose of nostalgia and its fair share of sadness, it also underlined the importance of the work we do. At a time when student media across the province is now being threatened by the provincial government’s Student Choice Initiative, it reaffirmed the fact that we aren’t going anywhere.
Digging through the decades of archives, it was hard not to feel a sense of power jump from the pages of the Fulcrum. We read through thousands of stories produced by hundreds of our talented alumni who have gone on to do essential work, both inside and outside the journalism industry. Dozens of those stories sparked concrete and fundamental changes at the university, while dozens of others opened our readers’ eyes to issues facing students and staff at the U of O.
In our online-only era, we’re committed to continuing to build on the award-winning and thought-provoking work we’ve become known for, with a little help from our digital friends.
And of course, venturing into the online-only world does come with its fair share of perks.
For starters, we’re able to deliver you the news you need faster and more efficiently than ever. In our previous publication cycle, it might’ve taken up to a week for some of our reporting to reach you. But now that we’re online, our articles will go live on our website and across social media as soon as they’re ready. We’ll also be able to get you the scoop on breaking news the moment it pops up on our radar.
And while we can’t recreate that warm feeling that comes with holding a copy of our newspaper and breathing in the smell of fresh ink, our online platform also comes with a few key perks print mediums just can’t offer.
We’re now working multimedia into everything we publish. That means you’ll be seeing a ton of videos, photo essays, interactive maps, timelines and data visualizations from the Fulcrum, adding more depth and insight to our reporting. We’re also working with podcasts and newsletters so you can enjoy our reporting in whichever way suits you.
Finally, our move away from a weekly production cycle gives us the freedom to invest our time and resources in larger investigative projects and in-depth feature reporting that form the backbone of the work we do. This will help us better cover the crucial and complex issues facing students, staff, and faculty at the U of O, while also shedding light on other stories that might never be told in the first place.
One common concern we’ve heard about our online-only transition is presence: how are we supposed to reach our devoted readers without those paper copies around campus? But let’s be honest, what’s more likely: You reading a newspaper, or finding your news through social media, surfing the internet, or plugging into a podcast or video instead? Thought so.
This special year marks the start of a new chapter for the Fulcrum, not the end of our story. We’ve been around for almost 80 years, and we plan on living long past our 100th birthday. Tag along as we carve an exciting and innovative new path in our history.
Editorials are written by the Fulcrum’s six-person editorial board and express the opinion of the board.
