THE VARSITARIAN is taking online journalism to a new level.
Amid the changing media landscape and the demand for a multimedia-driven platform, UST’s 88-year-old official student publication launched its new website last Dec. 19 during the first day of Inkblots, the UST National Campus Journalism Fellowship.
The website retained its existing domain, varsitarian.net, but was redesigned and given a new web host.
The new site retained articles and content dating back to 2000, when the first ‘V’ website was launched.
New features include a video library and digitally published versions of the newspapers via Issuu, an electronic publishing platform. Stories can now be accessed quickly through Facebook’s Instant Articles feature.
The website still features extra-editorial activities like the Creative Writing Workshop; Inkblots; the UST National Campus Journalism Awards; Gawad Ustetika, the longest-running campus-based literary derby in the country; and Pautakan, the oldest intercollegiate quiz contest in the country.
The Varsitarian was established on Jan. 16 1928 through the efforts of Jose Villa Panganiban, a writer and linguist who became director of the National Language Institute.
Through the years, the Varsitarian’s pages would be graced by some of the most notable personalities in Philippine Journalism: Joe Guevarra, Teodoro Valencia, Felix Bautista, Jullie Yap-Daza, Jake Macasaet, Alice Colet-Villadolid and Eugenia Duran-Apostol, among others.
Literary titans also served as writers of the ‘V’: Bienvenido Lumbera, F. Sionil José, Ophelia Alcantara-Dimalanta, Paz Latorena, Cirilo Bautista, Rogelio Sicat, Cristina Pantoja-Hidalgo, Eric Gamalinda and Vim Nadera.
The Varsitarian is a recipient of the Award of Excellence in the publication category of the the prestigious Quill Awards and has been named best college publication by the Catholic Mass Media Awards.
