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NEWS
| april 27, 2004
Student Publications
Magazine celebrates 3rd issue
The student publication Renegade
will release its spring issue at its launch party Wednesday.
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| The Shorthorn: Mark Roberts |
| Advertising freshman Danielle
Degiovanni, from left, graphic arts sophomore
Ryan Clayton, journalism sophomore Ebony Moore, political
science junior Jonathan Wells and photography junior Matthew
Printz are staff members for Renegade magazine. The entire
staff will hold a party for the release of its spring
2004 issue Wednesday on the Central Library mall. |
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By Jessica
Freeman
Contributor to The Shorthorn
Renegade magazine is releasing its latest issue, and the staff is
throwing a party to celebrate.
Renegade will host two launch parties noon-1 p.m. Wednesday and
Monday on the Central Library mall. Both parties will offer free
CiCi’s pizza and live bands. Wednesday, Kwik Buddha will perform,
and 41 Gorgeous Blocks will play Monday. Renegade will also kick
off sales of the new issue at the event, where it may be purchased
for $3.
Danny Woodward, the magazine’s interim adviser, said the parties
will be a platform for students to catch a first glimpse of the
redesigned publication, which will feature 64 full-color pages,
twice the content of the previous issue.
“I’m just looking forward to seeing people’s reactions
to the magazine,” he said. “The third issue is going
to be completely different. There’s kind of a new twist on
Renegade.”
Woodward, who is advising on his first issue, said the completion
of the magazine alleviated stress.
“I used to dream about the magazine,” he said. “Now
it’s done, and that’s sort of a feeling of relief.”
Ryan Clayton, the design director, said that he stayed awake for
38 consecutive hours before deadline working on a completely redesigned
layout.
“The quality is a lot better than last semester,” he
said.
Editor in Chief Ebony Moore said that the road to putting together
the latest issue was much smoother than for previous ones. She said
a returning staff and better internal operations contributed to
the success of this issue. Moore also said having a consistent adviser
benefitted the current publication. In the fall, the magazine lost
it’s adviser in the middle of production.
“We didn’t have someone hands-on who knew the field,
so we just had to ad-lib and do our best with the second issue,”
Moore said. “Operating on a semester when there was no one
to listen to and now there is — it’s different because
there’s more input from people who know what they’re
doing and care.”
Moore, who has been on Renegade staff for all three issues, said
that the growth of the magazine is apparent in the latest issue.
She said to improve quality this time around, editors had retreats
and brainstorming sessions, and responded to ideas of readers who
vocalized thoughts and filled out feedback cards in the last issue.
“We have more knowledge than when we started,” she said.
“Instead now, we know what our readers want and what we want,
and we know what it is to make it better.”
Moore said that the young magazine, which is still working to find
an identity, is in the process of starting traditions to hook readers,
including senior mug shots in the spring issue and a face shot of
randomly selected UTA students on the back cover. The magazine comes
out every spring and fall semester.
“We’re still trying to find things to get readers familiarized
[with] something to look forward to in every issue,” she said.
Moore, who considers herself a Renegade founder, said she is excited
about the release of the next issue.
Renegade won several awards for its first issue, including the Columbia
Pacemaker Award and Best Magazine at both the Southwestern Journalism
Conference and Texas Intercollegiate Press Association competitions.
“I think this actually will be our best issue,” Moore
said. “I’m very happy to take part in making it happen.”
CORRECTION
In this story, one of the awards for Renegade
magazine was misidentified. The Pacemaker award is given by the
Associated Collegiate Press.
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Publication Party
Free food and live music might be the hook for the
Renegade Launch party, but staff for the young publication
say that the magazine’s latest issue, its third,
will be the catch.
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