Quit being your father’s newspaper.

That’s what one design expert told us when he critiqued the Daily Kent Stater last spring. In the world of college journalism, it’s easy to lose sight of your audience. Every journalism student strives to imitate The Washington Post or The New York Times, and the design of most college newspapers tends to be too newsy and predictable.

As we quickly found out, that’s not what the Kent State community is looking for. After various student surveys found the newspaper boring, we set out to change the way we present information. Perhaps more importantly, we set out to change the content we put in the paper.

Instead of making a few design changes and pretending like we have a new and innovative product, we want to change what we cover. We talked with students and found out they aren’t necessarily interested in what programs the University Libraries is hosting next week.

Our readers want to know what to do on the weekends and how to save money. They want to read about fascinating people and they want quick blurbs of information while waiting for the bus.

At the same time, we’ve invested heavily in a team of reporters to write more investigative pieces. Both students and taxpayers have the right to know how the university is spending its money, and with a projected budget of more than $540 million a year, there’s definitely a lot to be curious about.

In short, readers want to know more about stuff that affects student life. The Stater has always been a student-run newspaper, written by students and for students. Over the course of the semester, we’re hoping to get back to our roots.

So stay tuned. We’re hoping it’s going to be an interesting semester.

The above editorial is the consensus opinion of the Daily Kent Stater editorial board.