Well, hello everyone.
My name is Juliana Lepore, and I am the new editor-in-chief of the Good Five Cent Cigar.
Welcome to the first Cigar edition of 2023. I am so glad that you’re here. This year, you can expect all of the good, quality journalism that you know and love, with some new, modernized twists to it.
Our motto is that we are the University of Rhode Island’s student voice, and we don’t take that job lightly. The Cigar strives week after week to cover the stories that matter and the issues that matter to the URI community. We pride ourselves in giving a platform and a voice to these issues and work every day to improve upon ourselves.
The Cigar has a lot in store for this upcoming year.
We have a new staff of driven, passionate students that work tirelessly year-round to bring you all that you need to know about URI each week. I have full faith in their abilities and know that the Cigar will only get better from here.
In addition to our weekly paper, podcast and newscast, we are starting a weekly newsletter, a “mini Cigar” that will go out into subscribers’ inboxes each week. To subscribe to our newsletter, click the link in our Instagram bio, @rhodycigar and find it on our website as well.
Since this is my first column as editor-in-chief, it would be wrong of me not to thank everyone who has helped me get to this point. Thank you to the three editors-in-chief that I have had the pleasure of working under — Theresa Brown, Kate LeBlanc and Jason Phillips — for showing me what it takes to run this paper with grace, strength and dignity. I hope that I can continue to carry on the legacy that the three of you have left in the Cigar office and at the University.
To my managing editor, Ronan Himelrick, we’ve come a long way from being those scared little contributing reporters joining Cigar meetings on Zoom. Thank you for answering my million text messages a day – I truly wouldn’t want to do this job with anyone else and I can’t wait to see what we accomplish this year. To Liz Fusco and Maddie Bataille, you two have turned into my older sisters this past year. Thank you for listening to my crazy ideas and for sticking around an extra semester. The Cigar is a better paper because of you and I am a better person because of you.
There are approximately a million people that I could thank, but we don’t have all day, and I have a paper to put out. I have been working for the title of editor-in-chief since my very first meeting and I know that this upcoming year is going to be amazing. Thank you to everyone who reads the Cigar week after week. We’re excited to get started.