DB Online heading in right, new direction at end of year
By Daily Bruin Staff
June 9, 2002 9:00 p.m.
Christine Tan Tan was the 2001-2002 Electronic
Media technical director. Â
It’s odd how even in today’s day and age of
technology, the Daily Bruin Online is last in the hierarchy of the
Daily Bruin. Rightly so, since we don’t have any writers, nor
are we required to produce original content. Online banner ads are
few and can’t compete with the advertising revenue brought in
by print ads. The work we do has largely been a cut-and-paste
affair since the Daily Bruin Online ““ known internally as
Electronic Media ““ was started in 1995. But our job
isn’t easy ““ it’s time consuming, tedious and
easy to make mistakes, some of which make people annoyed, angry or
frustrated, causing them to send us hate mail, which in turn makes
us feel annoyed, angry and frustrated. Now why would anyone want
this job? I wanted to make things better, to make production less
painful, to reach people through this new medium. I’ve been
able to work on redesigning the site, trying to make my vision of
what it should look like into a reality. But why even bother if the
Web site is in fact competing with the print edition? It
doesn’t make my job any easier when I’m told that the
work I do is in fact hurting The Bruin because people who visit the
Web site don’t pick up a paper. The answer is this.
It’s clear that we are in a new stage of our development, and
it’s about time. Time to develop our own identity that
complements ““ not rivals ““ the print edition. As the
last technical director of the Daily Bruin Online, it’s with
conflicted feelings that I leave, but I know that original content
is the right direction. It’s hard to have both technical
expertise and be a journalist at the same time. I still can’t
believe it’s over. Mike, it’s been an honor and a
pleasure working with you. I can’t imagine doing this without
you. To everyone who’s helped us, thank you. To our readers,
thank you for being the reason to do our jobs. And one last thing.
This past year the site hasn’t always been perfect, but let
me say this: I do care. More than you’ll ever know.
