Here to Stay
The history of the student newspaper at King’s has been rocky to say the least. The Student Voice/ Empire State Tribune has always endured harsh criticism. In 2008, dissatisfied students formed competing online publications: the Gadfly and the King’s Court Jester. By the spring of 2010, the student newspaper simply ceased printing. (The Gadfly and Jester also fizzled out as their creators graduated.)
Then former King’s student Tiffany Owens decided to resurrect the Tribune. After a rough first semester, the Empire State Tribune (made up of mainly freshmen) published a handful of stories online every Wednesday. We pulled together an end-of-year print edition while studying for finals, an accomplishment we’re proud of.
Last year, we built our foundation. This year, we are ready for much more.
On behalf of our staff, I’d like to welcome you to our new website, www.empirestatetribune.com. We will soon offer six categories: News, Features, City, Entertainment, Sports and Opinion. We will update our website with stories continuously throughout the week for more timely coverage. Find us on Twitter and Facebook to catch our live updates, and subscribe online to receive a weekly newsletter. Though we are not printing this semester, we will provide weekly flyers with our latest headlines, helpful announcements and even coupons from time to time.
We hope to bridge the gaps between House communities, staff, faculty, parents and alumni by providing accurate, timely and reliable news about the happenings on campus. We aspire to be a virtual quad for a campus that has no grass – a central hub of communication. It is our hope that you will enjoy our site and find it so useful that you will bookmark it.
I’m not asking for premature praise. We are not yet the competitive college newspaper we hope to become. But I am asking for your support. Most of us came to King’s for its mission: to transform society and to shape and eventually lead strategic institutions. The media is an institution we can begin to shape now. The Tribune, though focusing on the King’s community now, has the potential to draw readers from outside the basement of the ESB – from Midtown, from Manhattan, from other colleges in the city, from around the country!
As your student newspaper, we want to serve you. What do you want to read? What do you need to know? What can we do to help you? Partner with us. Use us as a resource. Give us feedback. Believe in us.