Letter to the editor: Clay Helms, outgoing editor-in-chief

Dear readers,

Thursday, March 19 marked the official staff transition day for The Collegian. My time as Editor-in-Chief has ended, and Jack Nicholson will lead The Collegian as editor for the next year. Jack is a strong leader and a dogged reporter, and I hope you’ll join me in supporting Jack as he continues to reshape The Collegian’s place within our campus community.

Just over one year ago, The Collegian became a fully online publication. Despite the grumblings of some students, faculty and alumni, we cut our print publication and dove into foreign waters in the vast landscape of digital news. We made this decision for several reasons—to be modern and cost-efficient, to provide a realistic, fast-paced newsroom for our staff members entering the journalism field, and most importantly, to provide breaking news stories and high quality content to all of you.

One year later, we’re thrilled with the results we’ve seen from this transition. The Collegian is breaking news faster than ever before. Our video content is rich and engaging students all across campus. Our presence on social media has never been more profound. Since September, our website has generated nearly 400,000 pageviews.

I mention these achievements to acknowledge how hard The Collegian staff has worked over the past year, and to show how much room for growth remains for Jack and his staff. The efforts of each and every staff member has allowed The Collegian to make an incredibly dynamic transition, and has built a template for Jack and the new staff to pick up and adjust to continue to better The Collegian. I have no doubt that Jack and his staff will do just that.

Good luck to all with the rest of the semester.

Kind regards,
Clayton Helms

Contact Clayton Helms at clay.helms@richmond.edu