Editorial:
It’s not easy being the showrunners

Those of us who have ventured into the lands of Rider’s student-run media — the Rider University Network (RUN), 107.7 FM WRRC and The Rider News — know that we have some of the most thankless jobs on campus. We’re barraged with a variety of insults almost constantly for the mistakes we make and the less-than-popular stances we might take. Sometimes we even get a nasty letter or phone call or E-mail because someone who is not involved with the behind-the-scenes efforts to put this paper together doesn’t quite understand that we were actually doing our jobs properly. And we take it all with a grain of salt because, hey, upholding the First Amendment is kind of a big deal in the media.

No one sees the student with the bloodshot eyes who’s been holed up in the TV studio because he’s playing baby-sitter to our university’s television network. No one sees the hundreds of dollars worth of broken equipment in the radio station — even though much of the damage comes from horrifically irresponsible student DJs who see nothing wrong with leaving doors unlocked and having dance parties during their shows. And no one sees the week-long process that culminates in the very paper you’re holding right now.

While both RUN and WRRC have had a plethora of problems that most students can’t even begin to fathom, they still run well because there are indubitably capable students manning
their respective vessels through the maddening terrain of worst-case scenarios. The Rider News is a little bit different and, therefore, a little bit luckier: We have an entire staff of people who work far more than our time sheets are allowed to reflect because this newspaper is a labor of love. We swear at this paper, we threaten to stab it, and we’re barking mad with frustration when our computers rise up to rebel against us.

But rest assured: You won’t find a more devoted college newspaper staff anywhere in this state.

In a world that deals in the purely black and white — it’s either a truth, or it’s an opinion
— perhaps the previous statement may seem cozily at home in this section of the paper. If one were to peruse the final results of the New Jersey Collegiate Press Association’s Better College Newspaper Contest, one may be surprised that The Rider News is the best overall student newspaper at a four-year college in New Jersey, having garnered the top spot in the “General Excellence” category of the contest. It wasn’t Seton Hall’s The Setonian. It wasn’t Rutgers’ The Daily Targum. It wasn’t even The Daily Princetonian.

Those of us who work tirelessly to bring the news to Rider’s faculty and students are thrilled to receive an honor of this magnitude. Amid a smattering of typos, some technical problems, misguided jumps and missed deadlines, the dedication of a decidedly talented editorial staff has shone through all the muddle rather resplendently.

It is not an easy job to make this paper work, just as it’s not easy to make any sort of student media run flawlessly. After all the planning and the organization and the time and the writing and the tweaking a layout just to scrap it all last minute because something has changed, the work can get a little tedious. But it is all worth it and it’s safe to say that the entire Rider News staff would not trade this experience’s pitfalls with its high points because the only thing better than seeing the finished product every Friday morning is getting a little recognition for the passion and hard work that has gone into every page of this paper.