The Edit is Glasgow Caledonians University’s student magazine. This academic year has seen The Edit be completely redesigned, introduce new sections and be created under a new ethos; The Edit is a voice for student opinion and a platform for showcasing GCU student’s talent.
The magazine is overseen by a brilliant and experienced editorial team; each Editor has drawn upon a variety of their own talents, skills and contacts to ensure the magazines quality never falters and at the same time branched out and formed their own networks with student contributors. Thus meaning The Edit has seen one of its most successful years yet in 2012/2013.
Objectives
The main objectives for the magazine this academic year is;
- To reach more GCU students improving on last year’s statistics
- To showcase more of GCU students talent
These objectives have partly been met through the introduction of three new sections; Caley Campus Style, What are you Saying? (topical questions in relation to each issues theme are asked to the students) and The Gallery (students are able to submit photography, photos of artwork, baking, product design work or any other talent they may have). All three sections have helped cause hype around the university and opened the doors to students not just interested in writing.
- An improvement in Social Media and the blog
The Edit appointed a PR Manager and came up with a plan to constantly update Facebook and Twitter with status, pictures, polls and links to the blog. The Facebook has gained over 300 likes. An introduction of a blog rota for the team and advertising for regular student writers has improved The Edit blog following and daily readership. Both improvements have significantly improved the magazines ability to reach the student body.
Changes and Improvements
- Design; the layout and design were carefully looked at to think about how it could be more attractive to students than prior years design. This saw the introduction of illustrations and the creative use of photography within the magazine. This has made students more excited about seeing their articles and work published.
- Content; the content is more student focused as last academic year far too many press releases were simply regurgitated. The content is now more specific to Caledonian students, as the team work with the GCU press team to bring students the latest news, we have opportunities for contributors to go out and do the interviews and have more creative pieces as well as news based ones.
- Team; there were slight conflicts in the 2011/2012 team so in the Role of Editor this academic year tried to ensure that the team meet once a week, take the teams input on all decisions, hold several creative brainstorming sessions, have regular team building events and always try to highlight the achievements The Edit is making.
- Radio Caley; The radio and magazine almost acted as competition to one another previously but this year The Edit and Radio Caley have worked closely together and put on two successful events, have regular meetings with one another and join forces to promote to our audiences, through events, stalls and Edit radio shows.
Student Contribution
To help encourage contributions from GCU Students The Edit team have communicated the opportunities for contributing through a number of mediums. The magazines Social Media and blog has allowed the team to target students and post on GCU related pages about issue themes, deadlines and how students can become involved.
The Edit held a Freshers and Refreshers stall; where students were able to look at past editions of The Edit, become involved and sign up to the mailing list (managing to gain over 300 email addresses in one week).
Other than this The Edit held a media themed Scavenger Hunt, did several lecture shouts and have worked closely with lecturers to encourage student participation. The success is evident in the number of contributions this year (over a 120 for 4 issues).
Non- Media Student Contribution
It has been a key aim to encourage non media students to contribute to the magazine and this has been done by the introduction of three new sections as mentioned above, which has seen students from a variety of courses become involved as they do not just have to write.
The Edit has reached out to several courses, including, Business, Law, Fashion, Science, Computing and a number of societies; International Students, Cycling Club, Business Society, Fashion Society and Sport Societies and encouraged them to write articles on computer gaming, the latest technology, science discoveries which may affect students, health issues, sporting and so on.
This has seen great success and The Edit has published articles on Dementia, Muay Thai, Global warming (to name a few) and has regular photographers from courses such as Finance and Computing.
Student Campaigning
The Edit News Editor has worked very closely with the Student President to discuss and write about the latest issues involving students, such as the Student cuts march in London.
The Edit has also followed and supported the NUS student cuts campaign through articles, powerful photography and various links on how to get involved with the campaign.
The Edits current issue is themed around Scottish independence and the aim is to raise awareness of impact it could have on student’s lives within the university. To do this the team asked several students views on independence and reported on the debate through articles and photography.
Statistics
- 125 overall student contributions
- Several societies have come forward to collaborate with the magazine (for example ran a short story competition with the International Student Society)
- 428 Facebook followers (from just 90 last academic year)
- Up to 200 readings on the blog per day
- 1500 magazines printed and gone from the shelves within days
- The online Issues average around 400 views per week.
Edit Website: www.theeditgcu.co.uk
Edit Blog: http://theeditgcu.wordpress.com/
Edit Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/theeditGCU
