With a newly defined mission to provide a dynamic forum for debate, The Georgetown Progressive, the official publication of the Georgetown University College Democrats, has recently re-launched.

“In the past [the coverage] may have been more of a regurgitation of the news, but now we’re doing more analysis from a progressive point of view,” Co-Editor-in-Chief Josh Zeitlin (COL ’13) said.

The blog reports on campus and local events that directly affect that Georgetown community, as well as national and international news. Recent coverage has included President Obama’s State of the Union — which they covered with live streaming updates — current political unrest in Tunisia and commentary on the federal budget.

“We noticed that there was not a campus publication that focuses on [progressive] issues and news analysis the way we do, and we wanted to fill that gap,” Co-Editor-in-Chief Ricky Garza (SFS ’13) said.

While The Georgetown Progressive has had several starts and stops in the past, both as a print and online publication, Zeitlin and Garza decided to pursue the online platform for this most recent re-launch. They stated that hits on the blog vary depending on the posting, and that they had about 400 visitors during their coverage on the State of the Union on Tuesday evening.

“The online format is good because we are able to better target our readership. We can advertise through Facebook and re-tweet our articles,” Garza said.

Zeitlin added that the blog format allows for an immediate response to current events, compared to a less-timely print publication.

Zeitlin and Garza hope that the content on the blog will highlight differences within the liberal community on campus. Additionally, they plan on showcasing a number of guest bloggers from other campus student groups to add more diversity.

The staff of the publication includes Zeitlin and Garza as Co-Editors-in-Chief, two managing editors, two associate editors and about six consistent writers.

“The staff is very, very dedicated. Before it may have been just several people working on [the blog], but now every person who puts work into the blog really believes in it. We have seen very strong growth,” Garza said.

While The Georgetown Progressive operates under the auspices of the College Democrats’ Communications department, the blog is described as relatively autonomous in terms of content, writing and editing. It is only nominally accountable to the communications director, according to Jon Coumes (SFS ’13), GUCD communications director.