To our readers:

With this issue, we commemorate The Hoya’s 90th anniversary. But the climate of the media industry makes our celebration of this landmark unique. They say that it’s a rough time to pursue journalism. They say newspapers are on the decline, making room for 140-character Twitter updates and a ticker of breaking news on the bottom of the television screen as a primetime series airs.

Yes, it is no secret that journalism is evolving – but what we must remember is that it has been evolving since the day it was born. Gutenberg and his printing press changed the face of media. William Fox Talbot and his halftone, enabling us to print photographs, changed the face of media. Thomas Edison and his radio changed the face of media. The list goes on, but what is longer than this list of breakthroughs is the list of those who were put out of jobs because of these innovations, and the list of those who were discouraged from entering the field because of these advances.

But we don’t remember those who were discouraged by change. We remember those who showed up for work to provide a public service and would use any format to do so.

If the founders of The Hoya traveled 90 years forward in time, we believe they would be amazed by the dramatic procedural changes in journalism created by technology. The Hoya has published online since 1998 – the oldest article available is a relatively simple opinion piece with the headline “Football, Tradition and the American Way.” Since these first steps in adopting an online format, The Hoya has often struggled to maximize the opportunities presented by the Internet. Today, as we remember the past 90 years of our history and eagerly anticipate the future of journalism, we are pleased to announce the launch of Saxaspeak, The Hoya’s news blog.

Saxaspeak will provide more regular and, occasionally, more casual coverage of the events and trends that affect Georgetown students. It will not supersede the content of The Hoya’s main Web site. Instead, it will augment our customary high-quality and in-depth coverage with shorter, more frequent pieces to keep up with the pace of life at Georgetown. The blog is also designed to simplify the search for information by collecting relevant news links in one place.

Most importantly, we believe Saxaspeak will serve as a forum for the exchange of ideas and opinions, both between The Hoya and the Georgetown community and within the Georgetown community itself. To this end, we encourage both comments on individual posts and the submission of ideas for future posts through use of the “Contact Us” page. Head to saxaspeak.thehoya.com, and come along for the ride.

Marissa Amendolia (COL ’11) Editor in Chief, The Hoya

Meghan Bartels (COL ’11) Online Editor, The Hoya

Jan. 14, 2010