We are excited to inform you all of some new and exciting developments in The Pioneer’s future! Among these changes will be a new website, currently in the works, and an added radio position on the paper’s editorial staff.

Marra Clay and I will assume the leadership roles on the paper next year: I’ll be working as Editor-in-Chief, and Marra will be the Publisher. We’re both excited to get to know the ins and the outs of The Pio, and to ensure that things are working smoothly before classes start.

We love the look of our website. It’s won a bunch of awards at the Associate Collegiate Press conferences, and despite its age (close to five years!) it’s design has stood the test of time. However, its insides are in grave need of some care. Our staff (and probably many of our readers) know that it has slowed significantly, and we had some pretty seriously problems with disappearing content last fall.

So, we are updating the system! We’ll keep you in the loop, but we hope to have a cleaned up and sharp page in the coming weeks. SNO, an organization that hosts college newspaper websites, is helping us achieve some of our online goals.  Tech-wiz rising junior Connor Hargus is also doing invaluable work backing up the site, and we are excited that he’ll be staying on as Webmaster in the fall. SNO has worked on the sites for some stellar college papers that have joined us in the ACP website finalist category this year, including the Occidental Weekly and the Daily Northwestern.

Another exciting change to look forward to is an expansion of our radio presence on KWCW. Rising sophomores Anna Middleton and Andrew Schwartz did some great, innovative things with the Pio Radio hour this year, and we’ve hired former Arts and Entertainment editor Linnaea Weld to work as a radio producer. Linnaea, Andrew, and Anna will boost the Pio’s media presence into the world of podcast-style radio programming! If you haven’t had a chance to listen to Andrew and Anna’s terrific work, here are some of their shows.

We are excited about these changes, and have put a lot of thought into them with other editors. We hope that you’re with us! Look for more updates as the summer progresses.