The Chronicle: What is The Standard?
Stephanie Chao: The Standard is a student-run digital publication, seeking to provide a dynamic and interactive approach to media. With a modern edge and clean interface, our mission is to elevate the way students see and talk about Duke lifestyle by featuring exceptional individuals on our campus, as well as constantly updating with content that is both relevant and insightful. Surrounded by the beauty, elegance, and diversity that make up our university, we seek to capture the richness of Duke cultural milieus, intellectual pulses and aesthetic trends. Our publication covers a broad range of topics—from editorials on art, music, politics to visual narratives on travel and style. The common trend amongst all of our stories is the approach—opinionated. We hope to provide the Duke community with a conducive space where our versatile talents and many interests find creative expression.
TC: Why did you decide to create it?
SC: The Standard started off as a conversation between four friends with a common goal—to develop a new, dynamic and interactive platform for dialogue about Duke lifestyle. All of us have had experience in other publications on campus and felt a growing need to create something different that would not only be unique in its content, but also collaborative and wholesome in its execution. Our first “official” meeting happened in April 2013. We worked over the summer in preparation for a strong start of the Fall semester. Over just a few months we have brought together over 80 talented students who are skilled in areas as wide-reaching as writers, photographers, publicists, videographers, production assistants, graphic designers. These are all extremely driven students who have shown an exceptional level of creativity and commitment to The Standard. We are a digital interface, so we don’t operate on an “issue” cycle, so we publish daily.
TC: What makes this different than other publications on campus? How is it uniquely Duke?
SC: Our whole platform is digitally-based, so we are never going to print, as most other publications at Duke do. This also allows us to relate content seamlessly across our social media outlets, Facebook and Instagram. It also make us easier to access and so increases our readership and the reach of our content, something that appeals to our entire staff. Their work is not seen by just the people that pick up a magazine on their way out from the BC.
As far as our content goes, we have the capacity to use not only text and photography—but illustration, graphic design, video. The possibilities are endless.
Writers have the freedom to develop their own stories and columns. We don’t cover events or news simply because it happens—we publish things because they have an angle and someone wants to discuss it further. It opens the door for further conversations. This generates interesting stories and really allows each author’s voice to really shine through. Actually, this is true for all our content, not only our writers.
Moreover, we are not a fashion-based magazine. We do have a style section, however, the content falls under the overarching categories of culture, lifestyle, opinion, politics, travel and more.
We have a mix of very experienced members to less experienced, but we are an extremely collaborative team. At shoots for example, we have two photographers so that they can work on that dynamic. We constantly want our members to feel like they are not only providing The Standard with their skill, but are also learning and growing from the experience.
We are extremely proud of our team. We have an eclectic mix that span all four undergraduate years and are looking to get more graduate students involved as well. One of our photographers is actually a nurse at the Duke hospital. During recruitment we were determined to bring together people from all different corners of Duke so we could really create a unique product, but that would remain relevant to the entire Duke population.
TC: What are you goals for the future?
SC: One of the main reasons we started The Standard was because we were unhappy with the administration of other publications we were working with previously. From the beginning, sustainability was one of our main goals. We wanted to make sure that we were setting up an operational model that could be managed and understood for years to come. We also wanted to make sure that The Standard had all the resources to continue growing once we left, as Maeva and I are both seniors. Applying for charter recognition from DSG was step one to ensure we were monetarily sound and had campus-wide credibility. We got approval just last week as well and it was an amazing feeling to know The Standard would have the support from the University from now on. However, sustainability is still on our minds as we think of how to transition new leadership and maintain a professional and unique product.
As far as product goals go, we do want to move on to create an App for tablets and smartphones. We are still working out the details of how that will look, but we think it is not only the logical next step to keep us on the cutting edge, but also a wonderful complement to the website.
TC: What is the significance of the name?
SC: When we were brainstorming names we had this long running list of words we thought were cool and had an interesting sound to it. The Standard really resonated with all of us because it has a very professional feel to it. From there, the name has grown to have a life of its own. It means something different to each person, which is something that we thought would be very interesting. It is an invitation for people to define and set their own standards.
TC: What are the challenges of working with online-based media?
SC: We believe digital is the next step for publications—that most media will move away from print in the future. However, we are pioneering a new realm, and so it is a lot of trial and error. We don’t have as many references to fall back on or look to as inspiration so we appreciate how accommodating our staff and the overall Duke population has been. I think one of our main challenges is getting readers to come back to our website once they’ve accessed our platform. How do we keep our audience hooked and interested? It’s wonderful that there are so many possibilities with our website, but we always need to keep in mind what keeps an audience coming back and staying on our page navigating for more than just a few minutes.
We are very excited that we have launched, but would love further input on what kind of content readers want to see on our site. Currently, we run on an eight week cycle under one theme. Our theme is Unveiled for the rest of the semester.
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