Dear Readers:

If you’ve made it this far, then I’ve won the battle. Our content, in some way, shape or form, enticed you to visit.

Sounds like a stupid battle, right? Self-promotion, however, is harder than one would expect at NU. Reporters don’t enjoy the tasks of paperboys, but we tried. We bombed the campus e-mail bags this time; we put up signs in acceptable places. These methods, I think, went over all right.

What we failed at, however, was obtaining a permanent link on the heavily-visited HereAndNow Web site. We asked nicely; problem was, they said NUcomment’s content “Will not appeal to our general target audience. Although the name is innocuous, the content is negative. Your stories are profane. It’s not real news.”

I was crushed; the magazine I run was deemed unappealing, negative, worthless. Crying, I ran off to change our logo to a yellow rag. Somehow, I stopped myself and realized the ignorance of their statements, and I decided to fight this petty fight.

Does it bother you at all that a small technology committee has the power to determine what's proper for its campus audience? That it links to non-campus publications like the Chicago Tribune, the New York Times and the always-profane Onion, but declines to acknowledge alternative media created by NU students? Well, it should.

With your aid, we’ll get a bit of recognition. Your hits on the site are helpful, but notes of support (sent to l-winn@northwestern.edu) are even better. I’ll forward them to the HereAndNow committee to help them see the light, namely that their target audience is more than slightly interested in (and old enough to read) NUcomment.com.

And somehow, in the meantime, we managed to put together a second issue of the quarter – complete with 1) real news, 2) a theme, 3) a bit of commentary and 4) you guessed it, negative humor. So, as I’ve said once before, click away, read up, and pass the word on to your friends. Every hit counts.

Sincerely,
Luke Winn