Daily Texan's lagging online

The web editor, Jonathan McNamara, of U. of Texas's student newspaper, The Daily Texan, wrote a scathing critique of the paper's website and their selling out to internet developer College Publisher. The Daily Texan publishes in a template hosted, designed and managed by College Publisher for free...well sort of free. In exchange they have to have a fat load of ads and are stuck inside a template design not to mention College Publications is a division of a youth marketing firm. Jonathan complains that the University has talented students who could design and manage the site themselves if they were just given the opportunity, and offers the Texan's alternative publication, NOT hosted on College Publisher, as an example of that.

The Daily Texan is one of the nation's most respected college papers, so I think they need to lead the way in online journalism and give their online division what it needs to become a lab for multimedia students to learn about online news. An online news site is more than just a place to plunk information. It's a place to have discussions, to interact, to allow students to share, to expand on stories. McNamara makes a really good arguement, and I applaud him for using (a pretty good portion of) his last senior column to fight for the school's future.

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