It’s no secret that the world of journalism has revolutionized itself in the digital age.

I read local and world news on my iPhone–a few times a day. The only day of the week that I actually touch a newspaper is Sunday morning at my parents’ house.  It’s quaint, and I still need it to line the bottom of my birdcage.

As someone who earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism (a long time ago), I don’t want to see the traditional paper disappear completely, but I can’t imagine giving up the instant gratification of online news.  I know that such ease and immediacy appeal to my students and their parents as well.

So it’s only logical that the journalism class and the AES Press Club at Ascension move to an online format.  I have been very proud of the seven issues of The Authored Ascension that the students and I have published over the last two years, but I can’t overstate how exciting this opportunity is for us.

Instead of publishing three or four issues a year, we will be able to release stories as soon as we can cover them.  This format allows for color photos, slideshows, videos, podcasts, and a few other features that I still have to figure out how to use.

We can have greater interaction with you, the reader, because your comments are welcome.  You can take our polls, and every week, our provider sends us a use analysis report so we can see what stories and features you have read.

Moreover, in this age of budget cutting, the production costs of our online paper are significantly lower than they were in print.

Oh, and if anyone remembers the feature story on Coach Dardar that continued from page two into oblivion, those blunders are behind us.  I’m not saying we won’t make mistakes.  We probably will, but now we can correct them with the click of a button.

And we are mobile-device friendly.

So I invite you to enjoy all of these state-of-the-art features, and if you are a student at the Sugar Mill Pond campus, join the club; we’d love to have you.