The next issue of The Linc — the student newspaper I edit — is coming out soon. I’m very excited about the issue, it has some really good stuff going in.

This year, I’ve enlisted the help of a student to help me revamp the website, which currently is just a blog.

What should a good student newspaper attempted to achieve on the internet? I’m in ‘talks’ with the university over a podcasting project, which I’m very excited about, but I’d like some input from the blogging community over what they think makes a student website good.

I’ve been looking at a few examples.

Cherwell 24, the web edition of Oxford Uni’s popular Cherwell rag, has recently revamped its site. And it’s a great effort. The CMS being used (does anyone know what it is?) is perfect for its purpose. Navigation is simple but comprehensive. Content wise I feel it drops a couple of clangers; this feature on David Blaine is not fit for web. Don’t get me wrong, the article is good, but without so much as a picture the huge slices of text just boggle the brain somewhat.

They have, with great enthusiasm it seems, embraced blogging with open arms. The blogs listed are a little inactive, although it’s unfair to judge at this time as it is (despite the rain) still summer. Will be keeping an eye out and seeing how it develops.

Cardiff’s Gair Rhydd (that’s ‘Free Word’ in English) is a cracking example, but there’s a distinct ‘old media’ feel to the outfit. A great, quick-loading design would do well to have some good blogs and new media touches bundled in. Perhaps the odd video clip — even if it is just syndicated from a local news site. In their defense, there are comment facilities for most stories, so the progression is certainly being made.

What strikes you immediately about Gair Rhydd is that of all the student newspapers, it is by far the most professional of the lot. But, with much of the editorial staff actually being paid up members of staff who have graduated already, I’d argue that Gair Rhydd is less a student paper, and more a local Cardiff paper with student contributors. EDIT: Turns out only the editor is a full-time employee — the position is an elected sabbatical position. I take back the above comment.

UCLan’s Pluto, edited by the hugely talented Ed Walker, has experimented lately with web formats, and at the moment is running a fairly small scale site that would suit a newspaper like The Linc.

Looking at all the sites above, and considering our own man-power and expertise, I think the website for The Linc should aim to achieve the following:

- News. Articles lifted from print edition complimented with more regular splatterings of daily pieces hoiked from around the web and personal findings.

- Blogs. Two blogs. News blog and sports blog. Simple. I’m not going to kid myself — like I did last year — and believe that I could create a thriving blogging with lots of contributors and eager readers. I can’t. But we can have a news blog and a sports blog, no problem.

- Multimedia. Ah! This is where it gets fun. This years word of choice is podcast. Podcast podcast podcast. Students at Lincoln are podcasting every day, except it never gets uploaded. Siren FM, our radio station, has some great shows on it, and where do they go once they’ve come off air? Nowhere. They drift off into the air, never to be heard again. Stick them on the website and we’re on to a winner.

And that’s it. If I’d have approached this a year ago I’d have been talking of message boards and all sorts. But why would students visit a newspaper web forum? Facebook does it much better. So, of course, our forum will be on Facebook.

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