By Ryan ReehThe Daily Northwestern

42: the meaning of life, according to The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy.

This number is also roughly how many weeks I will have been on the Online Desk at the Daily. The pajamas managed to stay in one piece, as I worked on keeping the promise made in my very first Perspectives column: the eventual panacea of fixing the Web site.

If you would so indulge me, I would like to finish this, my final column, with an issue that I started: Did I keep my promise?

One of my earliest memories of working on the Online staff was the coverage of the NU hazing scandal last year. Yes, we would all like to forget that tarnish on the school’s reputation, but I bring it up because the story gained nationwide attention, enough to get the school on television. What really surprised me, however, was that ESPN aired a segment about Northwestern Athletics, and the story featured the then re-designed www.dailynorthwestern.com. It was a brief moment of glory for the three or four of us on the staff because we knew our work was paying off.

But the high did not last. Our little staff got downsized to just one and the Web site’s design quickly fell apart, leaving nothing but a tattered visage of what we hoped it would be. The little-Web-site-that-could looked liked it would see the end.

However, I had the support of my family, my friends, and you, the audience, to keep me to my word. I’d also like to thank one fan in particular – her kind words and actions really kept me writing, especially when I thought my columns were uninspired.

But that’s what all of this has always been about: serving the audience. All this promise of new technology and enhanced methods of telling stories in multimedia journalism is nothing without you. If you didn’t read it, respond to it, or think about it, there would be no point. Time Magazine was not wrong to pick “You” as the person of the year last year.

My final gift as Online Editor, then, is the conclusion of this 42-week labor of love: the professional look of this Web site. It is finally time for me to serve the audience in a different role.

Yes, there are problems with the site, but nothing that can’t be fixed or improved by future generations of multimedia journalists. I trust you will teach them what to do as you have with me.

I don’t know if my promise was kept, but that is not for me to decide anyway. At the very least, I will always have these pajamas.

So long, and thanks for all the fish.

Reach Ryan Reeh at [email protected].