For those of you who have yet to read our First Amendment coverage on page 5, here’s a recap: the First Amendment is important. “Important” does not even begin to describe it, actually: it is VITAL to existence as we know it, especially attending a liberal arts university where ideas, opinions, religion and the like exist in a constant dialogue. The First Amendment prevents laws regarding five things: (1) the free exercise of religion, (2) freedom of speech (3) freedom of press (4) peaceable assembly and (5) petitions for a governmental redress of grievances. (See Bill of Rights, Amendment One)

So, when you are not peaceably assembling, petitioning the post office, going to temple or arguing with your friend/professor/guy-you-hate-in-philosophy-class about abortion, what does this have to do with you? Well, a lot, actually. It has to do with us, too””the press.

For over 110 years, the Trinitonian has existed at this university, doing its best to simultaneously record history and be a campus watch-dog (or watch-tiger, as it were). To much avail, the majority of news sources, including us, hold a symbiotic relationship with the the capitalist system: we rely on advertisers to purchase enough ads per issue to print, and, in turn, we depend on having enough readers of our content that advertisers find our “market” (the newspaper) worth their investment.

Unlike a club or a class, the Trinitonian functions as a business, relying upon this advertisement to determine the size of each issue, how much content we can print and, in the end, if any of us get paid. For this, we would like to take the time to thank not only our excellent all-student advertising team, but also our writers who produce the content worth reading, the editors who correct our glaring errors and lay out pages, the business team who crunches our numbers and writes our paychecks, our advertisers who make this all possible and last but not least our readers, who remain an integral part of this system. While we do this for the love of the job, mostly, we are here to serve you, so by grabbing this newspaper at the start of your weekend, you are helping us do that.

This editorial was not meant to be Newspaper 101, but a friendly reminder that the system we operate in is a precarious one, relying on many individuals and groups, mystifying experts as more newspapers close up shop. So as you go about your year keep in mind that if you think something is worth covering, tell us so we can look into it. If you have something to sell, let us know so we can help you advertise. If you have have qualms, concerns or praise about us or the campus community that you would like to see voiced here, write us a letter. We appreciate the part you play in keeping us printing, so please, keep reading.