Where is the line when determining acceptable advertising content? A few years back the concept of front-page advertising was sacrilegous, yet today even the venerable New York Times has picked it up. As newspaper revenue slipped, and then tumbled away, we’ve all asked ourselves, what’s next?

Well, today we found out. The Daily Bruin, our sister paper down at UCLA, ran a full-page ad for Haagen-Dazs on their front page. Their entire front page. The ad was designed to look like the front page of the Bruin and included their masthead, articles and photos, except that each instance of the letter “b” had been removed. On page two, Haagen-Daaz ran a full-page ad calling on readers to buy vanilla honey-bee ice cream to support the company’s bee-friendly garden. (We’re happy that at least they didn’t remove the letter from the masthead. They might never live down “The Daily ‘Ruin.”) For more, see the post over at Innovation in College Media, aptly headlined “Not the sort of innovation we need.”

A couple months back, Haagen-Dazs approached us about the same ad. Knowing that given our finanical condition we shouldn’t turn down any revenue outright, I took the proposal to the Senior Editorial Board. Much to my delight, I was laughed out of the room. This is clearly a step too far. And apparently, the Daily Bruin editors agree. In an editorial they released today, the editors called the decision to run the ad “distasteful at best – and dishonest and unethical at worst.” We know the editors down there, and know they are neither dishonest or unethical. But it does seem they let threats about thousands of dollars worth of budget cuts get the best of them. (Click here to read more…)

The Daily Cal staff picked up three more awards this week from the Society of Professional Journalists. The awards are for the Region 11 Mark of Excellence Awards.

Victoria Tang - 1st place - Editorial Writing

Jon Doss - 1st place - Sports Columns

Daily Cal staff - 3rd place - Best Overall Student Newspaper

Region 11 covers California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii, and believe it or not, Guam and the Mariana Islands. Because they won 1st place, both Victoria and Jon will advance to the national competition.

A national and a state college media association honored The Daily Californian staff this weekend with 33 awards at a convention in San Diego. In addition to being recognized as having one of the best newspapers and Web sites in the state and country, Daily Cal staff received dozens of awards in individual categories from the Associated Collegiate Press and the California College Media Association.

This includes 10 first place finishes, and sweeping of three categories (headline package, cartoons, and sports columns). The Daily Cal staff won nearly twice as many awards as any other newspaper.

The CCMA awards are statewide. The ACP awards are against nationwide schools that attended the conference.

Even when the Daily Cal has hit a difficult financial crisis, the student staff members have continued the legacy of excellence that the community has come to expect from the Daily Cal.

For more information, please contact Bryan Thomas at (510) 548-8300 or editor@dailycal.org.

The full award list follows.

Associated Collegiate Press
3rd place - Best in Show 4-year Daily Newspaper
2nd place - Best in Show Newspaper Web site
2nd place - Best in Show Interactive Multimedia Element - Nathan Yan

California College Media Association
2nd place - General Excellence
1st place - Online General Excellence
2nd place - Overall Design
1st place - Back to School/Orientation Special Issue
2nd place - Best Special Section - Election Issue
1st place - News Feature - Kevin Leahy “A Friendship Derailed”
2nd place - Editorial - “Keep trimming”
2nd place - Personal Opinion - Kristine DeGuzman
2nd place - A&E Review - Christine Borden
3rd place - A&E Review - Rajesh Srinivasan
1st place - A&E Column - Louis Peitzman
3rd place - A&E Column - Robert Bergin
3rd place - Sports Story - Ryan Gorcey
1st place - Sports Column - Matt Kawahara
2nd place - Sports Column - Steven Dunst
3rd place - Sports Column - Ryan Gorcey
1st place - News Photo - Anna Hiatt
3rd place - News Photo - Alex Smith
3rd place - Sports Photo - Salgu Wissmath
2nd place - Feature Photo - Skyler Reid
1st place - Sports Page Design - Annie Shen
1st place - Feature Page Design - Samantha Truppi
2nd place - Feature Page Design - Bharath Ganesh
1st place - Headline Portfolio - Matt Kawahara
2nd place - Headline Portfolio - Louis Peitzman
3rd place - Headline Portfolio - Stefanie Lee
1st place - Best Cartoon - Gretchen Faust
2nd place - Best Cartoon - Leslie Tseng
3rd place - Best Cartoon - Eric Wong
3rd place - Breaking News Online

December 2, 2006: Leaving Memorial Stadium after a 27-16 Cal win in the Big Game, I came across the first batch of protesters climbing the oaks in the grove west of the stadium. I groaned a bit. Not because I disagreed with their cause, but because I knew those protesters had just ruined the rest of my day, because I would have to report instead of celebrate. What I didn’t know, was that they were also beginning to shape the next many months of my Daily Cal career.

At the time I didn’t think the protest would last through winter break. Campus entered finals and then emptied out, but through rainstorms and cold, the tree-sitters persevered. When we returned in mid-January, they were there waiting for us.

At the time I was the city news editor, and because the student athletic center issue took on aspects of both city and university coverage, I spent a lot of my time over the next year talking and writing about the the tree-sit and lawsuits. Thanks to a tip, we were there when the UC police arrived to supervise the construction of the first fence in August 2007. (That’s the glamor of this job. There’s nothing like getting up at 5 a.m. to watch minor construction.) We were there for the second fence too, and all the protests, nude or otherwise, in between.

Now, a year later, most of the oaks are gone. I was a bit upset to hear this on Friday, again not because of my personal feelings about the grove, but instead because I was out of the country when it happened. Through 600 days of protest, I’ve barely missed one of the big days, but unfortunately family duties called, and I missed the epic climax of the battle.

Driving back into Berkeley on Saturday morning, I made a point of driving along Piedmont Avenue to the grove. Workers were busy clearing away the felled trees, yet four tree-sitters persevered, and still do, in the redwood they have named Redwood Mary. It’s hard to describe my feelings on this site, except to say that it seemed all too anticlimactic. What had been a grove of such importance to so many people, now looked like nothing more than a cleared construction site, awaiting a foundation, some walls and a roof.

I’ve been continually surprised by events at the grove, and by now I’ve learned my lesson to not call it over until all sides say it is. I know those four tree-sitters are still up there, and I know a lot can happen before the university begins construction. But the central physical feature which served as a daily reminder of the battle–a battle over trees, safety and philosophy–is now gone.

Life goes on, and the Daily Cal’s coverage certainly will. But when I look back at my time at UC Berkeley, I will remember the battle for the oaks, as I’m sure many of my peers will too. It was no Free Speech Movement, or Vietnam War protest, but it was ours, and so while we are relieved, excited or saddened by the events of the last few days, I think we can all be bit nostalgic.

Today’s paper was the last Wednesday print edition for the immediate future. As we announced this week, we will no longer be printing a Wednesday edition of our paper as a cost-saving measure. We’ve gotten a lot of response, and a lot of questions, but I’d like to address one that keeps coming up, both from our staff and our readers.

Why Wednesdays?

Unfortunately, I don’t have a perfect answer, save for perhaps, “Why not?”. We take pride in every issue we put out, and so we certainly do not have a day which we would like to cut at all.

That said, there are a few points which we considered:

• Wednesday is the only two-section issue of our publication schedule. We publish the arts & entertainment page on Tuesdays and Fridays, and the opinion page on Mondays and Thursdays, but on Wednesdays it’s just news and sports. Cutting Wednesday means less of a disruption for our readers.
• It’s important for us to keep our sports section strong, and overwhelmingly their coverage is greatest closer to the weekends.
• So it really comes down to the last section which is most affected, our news team. The simple truth is news happens every day, and there really is no better or worse day to not have a paper. And as we move toward a 24-7 news cycle online at www.dailycal.org, we will be using our print edition more to feature long-term reporting and features, and get the breaking news to you faster on the Web.

As a reminder, you can expect full fresh content Wednesdays (and every day) online. That includes a special Web-only columnist, to be announced.

Thoroughly unsatisfied with this answer? Let me know in the comments or at editor@dailycal.org.

Today we are announcing some difficult changes at the Daily Cal. I can assure you that these decisions were not reached lightly and we are actively working to reverse many of them as soon as possible. For updates on the situation, see www.dailycal.org/notice.

I would like to use this space to highlight a few of the things which are going VERY well around here.

While many students were on summer vacation, the Daily Cal continued putting out great work. Of particular excellence was the ongoing coverage of the Memorial Stadium showdown, as well as our sports desk’s coverage of Cal Olympians. (Examples here, here and here).

This summer also saw the debut of Daily Cal video content. All of it can be found on our YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/thedailycal. Check out what Call football coach Jeff Tedford had to say about his quarterback pick.

Entering the fall semester we have an energized staff and you can expect great things. I will be using this space on a frequent basis to keep you updated on our internal workings. As always, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to e-mail me at editor@dailycal.org.

The Daily Californian launched its redesigned Web site Sunday evening. It was another step in our efforts to increase our online capabilities. The redesign has been in the works since July, when we had our first online summit to brainstorm new features. In addition to having a much cleaner look and feel, we wanted the site to address several key issues:

1. Improve user navigation and interactivity of our content
2. Organize the many projects we’ve introduced such as blogging, photo reprints, multimedia, Marketplace
3. Increase our online revenue-generating capabilities
4. Better feature our articles and special issues

(Click here to read more…)

As you may have noticed, The Daily Californian Web site is undergoing a major overhaul. We realize there is still a lot of work to be done, and we ask you please be patient! Although we have many new features in the works, the most immediate concerns we are addressing are implementing our more advanced site search and improving our article organization system.

The purpose of the redesign is to ensure our organization’s online presence is competitive with other newspapers. The first sentence of the Daily Cal mission statement reads: “The Daily Californian exists and functions to provide an opportunity for the students of the University of California to receive training in journalism and all aspects of newspaper production.”

Most professional newspaper organizations are increasingly integrating podcasts, photo galleries and video to complement their coverage. The Washington Post’s summer internship application this year included a separate section asking applicants to “describe your multimedia experience or interest.”

A major focus of the Daily Cal over the past year has been on multimedia development. This semester, we are making an even greater effort to produce more audio slideshows and podcasts. When the bulk of our changes are implemented we will be able to more effectively display these features.

(Click here to read more…)

Two months since the launch of The Daily Californian Editor’s Blog, we’re making a few changes to better fulfill the original purpose of this project.

As part of our commitment to editorial transparency, this blog will now include posts by all Daily Cal editors. It will continue to explore issues on editorial decision-making, ethics and coverage, but the posts will now be from the people directly involved.

I’m going to come out and say it: This is the year the Cal football team earns a trip to the Rose Bowl in January.

Personally, I do not believe in jinxing the thing. After all, Bears fans have tried every trick in the book for almost a half-century to no avail. Plus, it’s my senior year. One can hope, right?

Whether you agree with me or not, you must at least acknowledge the possibility of Cal playing in January, and with that in mind, the Daily Cal is poised to bring you comprehensive coverage of Bears football all season long.

There will be four writers on the beat—sports editor Steffi Chan, Steven Dunst, Ryan Gorcey and Gerald Nicdao. Chan said the extra personnel will mean more analysis and features on players who otherwise would not get as much coverage. This week’s articles included features on Jahvid Best and Shane Vereen, and Craig Stevens.

The special Saturday Gameday editions will again be passed out at all home games and at the Big Game in Stanford. We hope to generate awareness about the issues and devise a more efficient distribution plan, especially for the students attending the games.

It can either be a magical season or just another heartbreaking chapter for Cal, but we’re ready to bring you all the details. For the next four months, let’s savor all the memories!