Welcome to The Minnesota Daily’s newsroom blog, the Newsstand. The purpose of this blog is to increase transparency of our coverage and give reporters an opportunity to blog news that doesn’t make it into print. The blog will be used for: Transparency: Explaining how a story was covered to the University community. National: News that isn’t on campus but has an impact on students. News Analysis: Looking at how media has covered certain stories and the varying coverage. Local News: Content that may not merit a full story, but something that the University community would still be interested in knowing about. This could be an event preview, an observation of a development on a beat, etc. This could also be live blogging of notes gathered at an event. Spill Over: A reporter might blog about additional aspects of a story that may not have made it into print. This could include other sources or information that developed after deadline or the reporters’ observations at an event. Forum: Many of the posts could and should stimulate discussion by asking the readers a question, or asking for a response and feedback on the post. Readers are welcome to respond to posts, provide story ideas, ask questions, etc. In general, we hope that the blog provides additional information that is useful to our readers, and informs the University community. Enjoy, Vadim Lavrusik Editor in Chief and Co-publisher