Hey. You with the bro tank, Chacos and plastic wayfarers from your apartment complex. You have a minute?

You probably remember or, in most cases, have heard of the trials and tribulations The George-Anne has faced over the last four or five years. If you’re elderly you might have been here when the infamous GTSNP opinion column printed (if the acronym is foreign to you, Google it).

You’ve probably giggled over misspellings on the front page and hilariously simple errors made all over the paper and all sorts of silly shenanigans we messed up on over the past few years. If you were quick, you might have noticed we mistakenly changed former Statesboro Governor Joe Brannen’s name to Joe Branman in our paper.

Anyway, the point is that we make errors here, there and everywhere and sometimes we make decisions that are less than ideal. That is because we, like you, Mr. (or Mrs.) Happy Hour, are students.

The cool thing about being like you is having the ability to think like you. We don’t like to read 500 words of quotes stacked on top of each other with one photo slapped on to the side of the page. We don’t like reading stories that are made a bigger deal than they actually are, and we don’t like reading stories that minimize the effect an issue may have on our community.

We picked up our papers from the last few years and gave them a good read-through and realized something incredibly obvious that made us feel a little silly.

Bar some exceptions, the way we were bringing you news was not a style that was conducive to understanding a complex issue, peaking your interest or purely entertaining you. Listen, if we get bored reading our own paper, then we know you’re using it as either a placemat for lunch or a good way to get your bonfire going.

So this year our aim is to create a publication that is tailored to you, the Georgia Southern student. We’re going to cut the fat off big topics and break down the things you need to know while answering the questions you’re asking. We’re going to deliver breaking news across campus in a fast and reliable way and present you with the facts you need to know. We’re going to rattle out some wicked feature stories covering anything and everything under the blazing Georgia Southern sun. We’re going to pull our best Bruce Lee impression and be like the water to your cup. . . or something really deep and thought-provoking like that.

Thanks for reading,

Will P.