The Rider News: Looking back and moving forward

By Libby D’Orvilliers

As we wrap up the 2024-25 academic school year, we at The Rider News want to take a brief moment to reflect on our past year of publication and look optimistically into the future of our organization.

It was a tumultuous school year, to say the least. Through major events, the Rider community could bet that The Rider News was there to cover it. This year, we published several breaking news stories such as when Head Coach Lynn Milligan of Rider women’s basketball was let go, we shared photographs of popular campus events such as Rider’s Valentine’s Day drag show in photo galleries and on our social media, highlighted some student’s initial reactions to the 2025 Presidential election and captured video footage of the historic move of the Rider Rock. When something big was happening in the Rider community — The Rider News was on it.

For many of us at The Rider News, this publication is so much more than just a pastime or another job for us — it is our favorite thing about Rider. The Rider News has created a “found family” for many while we are away from home and at school. It offers an opportunity for us to connect with others and collaborate with peers with a variety of different interests and backgrounds that we might not have otherwise had. Additionally, working at The Rider News has helped many of us get hands-on real-world experience practicing journalistic interview skills and a few of us even landing internships with larger papers, such as with the Asbury Park Press.

Seeing positive feedback on our graphics and photos that we share in our publications is invaluable. The Rider News offers a great space for us to artistically represent ourselves and share our talents with the community. This paper means a lot to us.

We hope that The Rider News means a lot to our readers as well. Even though some of our readers might not initially see the value of our paper, we serve as a vital source of information for our campus community. We strive to keep students up-to-date on important campus occurrences, events and accolades. Hearing “I saw in The Rider News…” from the table conversing next to us in Daly Dining Hall, is a more common occurrence for many of us than expected. We strive to ensure that our paper serves as a platform for diverse voices and creates a sense of unity in addressing and covering issues that are important to the community.

At a time when print papers are dying, The Rider News is proud to say that we still print some copies of our issues. Next academic year we are fortunate enough to announce that we will be having four print issues scheduled in addition to our weekly digital issues.

Even though we are disappointed to only have a limited number of print issues, we are still thankful that we have a few print copies showcasing our hard work as we transition to a digital-only model. That being said, in addition to retaining our print issues, we are also looking forward to continuing to expand our digital presence and incorporate new digital elements into our publication.

We would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to our readers for your patronage and we hope that you will continue to support us at The Rider News as we work to continue to provide you with coverage and entertainment around Rider University. We look forward to seeing you next fall!

This editorial expresses the unanimous opinion of The Rider News editorial board. This week’s editorial was written by opinion editor Libby D’Orvilliers.