Letter from the Editor | Inside the ‘DP’ logic

Over the last several weeks, a number of readers have asked me how we decide what we publish. Unfortunately, there’s no quick and dirty answer. In fact, we often debate the decision to publish a photo, story or letter to the Editor within our office.

Our mission is to inform the community. We aim to tell stories that are both accurate and relevant to Penn — deflating rumors and explaining to readers why the events of the day truly matter. A variety of factors help us decide what to run. We look for articles that are timely and balanced, opinion columns and letters that argue concrete points and photos and graphics that help convey the significance of an event.

While newspapers across the country share many of these goals, we face a particular challenge. Unlike journalists at major metropolitan papers, the students who produce The Daily Pennsylvanian are members of the community we cover. We have class with our sources and are friends with student leaders. Yet we have to maintain a distance in order to do our jobs.

Maybe it’s because of that distance that readers often disagree with our decisions. That’s ok. We want you to debate us, whether with letters to the Editor or comments on our website. Tell us what you don’t like. We might change something, we might not. But we can all learn from the discussion.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.