This spring, we tried an online-only version of The Uniter for reading week. This fall, we got a second reading week, and so we’re continuing on with this tradition. It’s more than a response to emptier halls on campus – we know that many of our readers are all over Winnipeg, as well as in the university. This is our chance to explore and consider the various forms journalism is taking beyond print.

We’re not – I repeat we are NOT – giving up the weekly print version of The Uniter. But for these special issues, we’re switching up the formats a bit. Look for embedded tweets, more video, more first-person narratives, more listicles. Never mind the debate over which form of journalism is rising or falling or which will prevail. This week, we’re asking which online tools can we use to tell this story in the best way possible?

Generally, we are still working with the same focus as every other issue. We’re looking for the stories that aren’t being told elsewhere, those cool little niches of Winnipeg, those cultural enclaves, those underdogs rooting for change.

And of course, we’re also responding to the forms and trends that online-only writing and publishing have popularized. This issue, we’re talking about memes and phone photographers, quidditch and barefooting, organizing local co-ops and your local corner store.

There is lots of potential for distraction online, and we’re joining in on that celebration. There are many cats here. There’s also a lot of potential to discover new perspectives, to connect with others, and then to take those connections on into the rest of our lives.

So let’s read and chat and connect. If you want to play, enter our #uniterwhosecat contest, or if you just want to browse, by all means - enjoy!

Published in Volume 71, Number 6 of The Uniter (October 12, 2016)