A Note from the Daily's President




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  • 2012-05-08 13:30:07
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The first semester in the life of the newest medium on campus, the Daily, is over. It wasn't even a full semester. It has not even been a full three months after we launched the website on Feb. 20, 2012, with this allstud email that everyone received with a 12-hour delay at around noon. Only an hour later the server went down... It was not going to be an easy start, but we were prepared for that. A week later we figured out how to fix this sporadic server error and it hasn't occurred since. Many people were skeptical about a daily media at AUBG at first. They said it's too much work and that we wouldn't be able to keep it going for too long. It is a small university, some said. There won't be news every day, others said. (The latter actually disturbed us, as well, but we soon realized that there is so much happening on our campus that we can hardly cover half of it.) Even the Student Government didn't want to give us funding for an entire year in the beginning, but then, I guess, we passed the trial period. Now, not even three months after this Feb. 20, the AUBG Daily has already published 149 posts, received 73,000 pageviews and had almost 4.5 thousand unique visitors from 98 countries around the world. Our page on Facebook had a weekly reach of almost 20 thousand people last week -- students, alumni, their relatives and friends, etc. This, to me, is quite impressive for any organization as young as ours. And because none of it would be close to possible without a great team, I wanted to use this post to simply say "thank you" to the ones that believed that this idea is accomplishable and that worked hard to prove it as such. So, first of all, I want to thank Vasil Sariev, my Vice for this semester and the President-to-be in Fall, because only he knows how much time he spent together with me on this. Without you, Vasile, we couldn't have made it. Then, I would like to thank Tamo Gachecheladze for always stepping up for everything and loading herself up with tons of work and always getting all of it done. Thank you for always making everyone laugh and for being so good during the live broadcast, Tamo. Then, I would like to thank Radina Roussev, the Vice-to-be in Fall, for all her effort, ideas, and constructive criticism on the way. Thank you for the sleepless nights you spent editing pictures, Radina. I would also like to thank Dilyana Dobrinova, the Editor-in-chief-to-be in Fall, for being one of the most prolific authors and editors in our team. Thank you for always keeping our spirit high, Didi. Then, I would like to thank Rali Ilieva, whose professionalism and original style of writing became evident for the whole community during this first few months. Thank you for your beautiful stories, Rali. I would like to thank Kristina Borisova for always finding and writing about the most intriguing stories on campus and for never letting us down. Thank you, Krisi, for making the choices you made and I hope you won't be too busy for us as a Vice President of Olympics next year. I would like to thank Hristiana Kirova for the personal articles she wrote that touched so many. Thank you, Hi Po, for being who you are. A hipster. I would like to thank Milva Matseva for joining us later, but finishing the semester as one of the most copious authors. Thank you, Milva, for teaching us all something. I would also like to thank Yanita Mircheva for being so active, fresh, cheerful, and initiative. Thank you, Yanita, for your beautiful pictures and ideas. Then, I would like to thank Boyan Petkov for his stories on AUBG's American Football that made this sport at least a little bit more popular on campus again. Thank you, Boyane, for your strong sport spirit. I would like to thank Georgi Ivanov for finding the time for rage pieces and art even in his busiest moments. Thank you, Joro, for being so unconventional. I would like to thank Redon Gega for doing such a good reporting without ever taking a single course in Journalism. Thank you, Redon, you are doing great. I would like to thank Polina Kozareva for her original, underground posts that bring something different to the Daily, and especially TheCampuStyle. Thank you, Polly, for your contribution. I would like to thank Valya Nadova, our HR-to-be, Nina Kutryanska, and Ilia Panayotov for joining last, but becoming an essential part of the team in no time. Thank you, guys, for breathing new life into the Daily. I would like to thank Nino Rurua who participated in the preparations for the Daily's launch, but had to leave for an exchange program. Thank you, Nino, for managing to stay active even from there. I would like to thank Alexander Acosta Osorio and Shannon Ostrowsky for being our first official columnists, for helping with the editing, for reviving some of our categories... Thank you, Alex and Shannon, for being so involved! Then, I would also like to thank our designer, Yoana Katsarska, who created this super cool logo which set the tone for our website. Thank you, Yoni, for your creativity. And then, I would also like to thank the guys from our Web Development Team who are already working on implementing innovations into the website, some of which we might see as soon as the beginning of next semester. Thank you, Georgi Zlatinov, Rovshen Nazarov, Lorin Manco, Kristi Kristo, together with you we can take this to a next level.   To all students, alumni, faculty, staff: I would like to wish you all a great summer on behalf of AUBG Daily's team and expect more from us during the summer, even if not as often. I wish you and the Daily the best in all future endeavors, Angel Ivanov