Extra! Extra! Read all about it: The Guilfordian, Guilford’s award-winning student newspaper, released its first print issue this month, three years after the pandemic forced the paper solely online.

About 500 copies of the newspaper were distributed last week across the campus in buildings and newsstands that had stood empty since March of 2020.

Editor-in-chief Calley Hull ‘23 (above) was a first-year student when the pandemic hit Guilford and the rest of the nation’s colleges and universities that year. With the campus and dorms largely empty, The Guilfordian’s staff quickly pivoted all their resources online.

These days Calley likes seeing students walk across campus holding or reading the paper. She likes reading the print version herself.

“It’s kind of exciting for us to pick up a newspaper and see your name in it,” says Calley, who plans on taking a handful of papers home with her after graduation so her parents and friends can read it.

She also might have sounded like her parents when describing the printed version of The Guilfordian. “There’s just something different about a print newspaper. To me a newspaper is more interactive when it’s printed,” she says. “You don’t have to sit in front of a computer screen. You can flip through pages, make notes, underline things, see the pictures more easily.”

Visiting Assistant Journalism Professor and Guilfordian Advisor Tracie Fellers says designing the 12-page paper was a learning curve for The Guilfordian’s staff of editors, writers and copy editors that met in the basement of Mary Hobbs Hall, the headquarters for student publications. “Layout and design are fundamental parts of producing a newspaper, but this was something entirely new to most of them” says Tracie.

Tracie asked Associate Professor of English Cynthia Nearman to teach students how to use the software for designing pages. “Cynthia was great working with the students and they were fast learners,” says Tracie.

She says The Guilfordian plans to publish a newspaper every other week in the fall while still offering its online platform. 

Earlier this year The Guilfordian was recognized by the N.C. College Media Association for excellence in college journalism, receiving several awards at the group’s annual conference held at UNC Charlotte.
 
For the fourth consecutive year, The Guilfordian was honored with a 2022 Best in Show award in the online news category for small campuses. Several staff members were also recognized with awards.

Staff writer Mary-Elizabeth Wicker, an Early College at Guilford student, won third place in the opinion writing category, and former photo editor Megan Curley ‘22 received an honorable mention in photography for her photo story about Guilford’s dining hall staff. Madeline Andrews, another former staff writer, was awarded first place in sports writing.