From the first day that I began writing for The Flor-Ala, I knew I wanted to be executive editor someday. I was passionate about journalism, and worked as hard as I could to get to where I wanted to be.

Well, now I’m here, and so far my run as editor has been interesting, to say the least. The stress and responsibility associated with the job has been high, but I expected that after working as an associate editor last year.

Last year, I dealt more closely with writers, while this year, I have mostly taken a step away from that role and am managing a staff of around 12 students. It’s an entirely new job and can sometimes be challenging, but I’m beginning to get into the swing of things.

So far, The Flor-Ala has faced the tornado outbreak in late April, controversial Division I decision, tragic death of a former student, a campus spoof newspaper, bomb threat on the day of our first deadline, major technical difficulties and more.

But, we’ve been able to offer a more UNA-focused newspaper, stronger editorial stance, quality photos, regularly updated website, student-produced videos, more distribution on and off campus and increased advertising revenue.

I try to encourage the editors on a weekly basis to look at each issue critically and see where we could have improved. We value constructive criticism from each other, but especially from our audiences on and off campus.

One aspect of The Flor-Ala that is still relatively fresh is our presence on Facebook and Twitter. We’ve run into a few kinks, but have discovered how effective reporting the news can be through those media. We will continue to utilize tools such as live blogging to better inform readers of what’s going on.

One complaint I have heard about the new Flor-Ala is the lack of humor. We’re stuck between a rock and a hard place on this issue. We want to upgrade the quality of the paper and not rely solely on jokes for readership, but we want to keep students entertained as well.

Still, we recognize that humor is what some of our readers want, which is why The Flor-Ala is brainstorming for innovative ideas to meet that need. We’re also looking for volunteer student and faculty columnists to write about topics that interest students, such as humor, politics, health, sex, technology, Greek life and more.

It’s hard for me to believe that this week will be the sixth paper we’ve completed together, not including the 48-page SOAR edition we published in early summer. There are only 23 papers left for this year, but I’m looking forward to seeing how the staff evolves and the paper grows.

All I can do is push my staff to continue to be ambitious, work toward a standard of excellence and maintain journalistic integrity. I want to thank each reader for sticking with us, and for sharing praises and criticisms of our paper.

We know that without our readers, we are nothing, which is why we will continue striving to produce the best campus newspaper we can for you.

Lucy Berry can be reached at 256-765-4364 or [email protected].