The student staff at the University of Georgia’s Red & Black newspaper infamously walked out and created a rival publication after the board of directors attempted to exert more influence over editorial content. That was a year ago this week.
One year later, with the staff rehired, several board member changes, and the loss of its longtime publisher Harry Montevideo, it appears that the worst has passed for the independent, student-run newspaper.
At its summer meeting last weekend, the paper’s board of directors decided to grant its two student members—the editor-in-chief and the ad manager—voting rights under new bylaws that will be adopted in November, according to an article on the Red & Black’s website.
According to a post on the Student Press Law Center’s blog, granting voting rights “is the last of the students’ original demands to be fulfilled.” Also decided at the board meeting: Natalie McClure, who has been acting as general manager for the newspaper since Montevideo’s resignation, was officially named as the general manager.
Things seem to be settling over in Athens for the time being, and we can only hope the staff are ready to turn a new leaf and direct all of their attention into the 120-year-old newspaper. It’d be nice to see the Red & Black turn last year’s antagonism into this year’s award-winning investigative reporting and publish some impressive headlines rather than be the focus of them.