Adam Robak and Leo Shaw
Editors-in-Chief
As La Vista, along with Mira Costa itself, celebrates its 60th anniversary this year, the time presents an opportunity to reflect on our history and discuss our future. La Vista’s rich history of award-winning student journalism and its colorful personality have made it a venerated part of the Costa community as well as a staple source of news. This year we renew our commitment to being both.
The most apparent evidence of our efforts is the overhaul of design throughout the paper. The process of scrutinizing every design element of our print edition has lasted over two years, and we have made several changes in order to better present the information our readers expect. As the print medium becomes more sensitive to online media, we’ve made it a priority to deliver a high-quality physical newspaper.
That isn’t to say that La Vista hasn’t been exploring the potential of online journalism. We now have a continuously updated website, a Twitter feed, a Facebook page and video capability. It is exciting to announce that, as we mark a milestone in La Vista’s existence, we are branching out as a true multimedia enterprise.
Despite all of these ostensibly large changes, the basic framework of La Vista, and journalism as a whole, is the same. Our primary priority is still to get the most informative, relevant and interesting information to the reader, even if we are doing that slightly differently. Our mission hasn’t changed, but we’re hoping to carry it out this year in a way that adapts to how much the media paradigm has changed in recent years.
The advantages of operating in the online medium have been immediately apparent. Within one hour of the recent lockdowns, La Vista had a photo and story online with the details of the incident. Even though most of our readers probably weren’t conscious of our website’s existence, they could have accessed that information before any official announcements were made to students or parents.
If you’ll excuse our shameless self-promotion, the episode does demonstrate how this new capability allows La Vista to fully transcend its origins as a print-only publication for students to become a universally accessible and trusted source for the whole community. Completing that journey and perfecting the transition into becoming a truly modern media enterprise will be the story of La Vista this year, and we couldn’t be more excited.
Adam and Leo, this is a terrific piece. Well written and nicely done. Congratulations to you and all the La Vista staff on your first edition this year.
Indeed. I’m proud to see this stuff kicking off.
Great job you guys! I’m truly honored to have been on staff with you two and can’t express the pride I feel in seeing just how good a job you have done since I left.