About nine months ago, I agreed to become the editor in chief of The Daily Northwestern. To paraphrase Mr. Kermit the Frog: I should be proud of what I did. And just a little silly.

Since January, I’ve shied away from talking about being in charge of running this operation on the third floor of the Norris University Center.

But like a pregnant woman after a tumultuous nine months, I am so filled with joy that I have to talk about the fruits of my labor. Allow me to write a little bit about many people considered my brainchild: a systematic review of the newspaper.

For eight weeks last spring, our trusty public editor and I compiled data analyzing the variety of issues of the paper, including what types of stories go on our front page.

The results of the review were too messy to be official. But the overarching theme was that we simply weren’t fulfilling our obligations to you, the reader.

Please don’t get mad at us. We’re trying to fix it.

We – meaning the Daily’s staff – realized too many of our sources were the overpoliticized talking heads of this campus and of Evanston.

Now, we actively push for stories that highlight the uniqueness of student life, so you can see people who you can identify with.

Take a look at the front pages of The Daily so far this year. Collectively, I hope you’re seeing less of Patrick Keenan-Devlin and more of a random sampling of Northwestern students and Evanstonians.

The Daily has always produced great news stories that any journalism student would be proud to have in their portfolio.

That’s not good enough anymore. As I often tell my staff, our first obligation is always to the readers’ “personal and civic interests.”

That catchphrase comes from NU’s own Readership Institute, which has produced masses of research about the dying newspaper industry. A lot of their conclusions about this national phenomenon are applicable here to our 7,500 circulation, Evanston newspaper.

As the Readership Institute’s research suggest, every day we should have a story that makes you smarter.

Every edition should give you something to talk about. That’s how a story about spiders gets on the front page, while a localized story on new Chief Justice John Roberts doesn’t.

Most importantly our stories have to be useful to you. If we don’t meet that litmus test, we fail.

Quite honestly, we still fail a lot. Anecdotal evidence suggests we’ve failed a lot less than last fall. But only you can tell me the truth about that.

So here’s where you come in:

Take a look at my mug shot online. I’m about 6 feet tall and 140 pounds. People tell me I’m an approachable chap, provided I’m not wearing a hooded sweatshirt at night.

Feel free to stop me on Sheridan Road and tell me what you think of The Daily. If I’m not late for class, I’ll listen.

Our conversation might get something changed.

And take a look at my e-mail address. Arrange some time to talk to me about what you think is working and what doesn’t work.

Consider yourself a godparent for the child that I’m supposedly raising, The Daily Northwestern.

It takes a village to make a newspaper.

Editor in Chief Robert Samuels is a Medill senior. He can be reached at [email protected].