Every other Friday, students get a chance to forget the troubles of exams and projects by getting a few laughs from the Tangerine.
The satirical and humorous paper is written, edited, designed and distributed by a staff of UT students. Its editor-in-chief, Judd Cowan, came up with the idea two semesters ago, with Cowan sitting in class “going out of (his) mind.”
“I was sitting in one my math classes, bored out of my mind,” Cowan recalled. “It had always been an idea in my head, I just realized how I could make it a reality.”
Cowan had worked as a writer for a predecessor of sorts to the Tangerine, known as the Weekly Hangover. The Hangover ceased publication in 2010, and without a comedic news source on campus, Cowan soon created the Tangerine.
“We wanted a newspaper that was focused on campus, relevant campus issues,” he said. “Something that students could take pride in that was UT’s own thing.”
Cowan noted that a difference between the Hangover and the Tangerine is the style and focus of humor. Cowan said that the Hangover had a more broad, party sense of humor.
As advertising coordinator Maya Wimmer put it, the Tangerine’s humor needed to focus primarily on UT culture.
“With the Hangover gone, we wanted a newspaper that was something that wouldn’t need to be taken seriously. … We wanted the paper to represent the students and not just something scandalous to read,” Wimmer said.Cowan added, “We all love satire. We all thought that the campus needed a satirical paper so we all got together and made one. … I confidently say it’s getting better and better.”
The Tangerine’s staff is filled with a variety of majors. Wimmer herself is a sophomore economics major and Cowan is a junior in mechanical engineer. Wimmer said that while there are a few English majors on the staff, many of the writers are majoring in engineering, computer fields or microbiology.
“This newspaper was just something we wanted to do,” Wimmer said. “So we sat in the Media Center and learned how to do it and we made it! It shows you that you don’t have to be a specific major to do what you want to do. We encourage anybody to join our staff. It’s not something that needs to be exclusive.”
The Tangerine’s schedule is such: The staff meets once a week to brainstorm and pitch ideas for content. On Monday, Cowan joked that they “like” for stories to start coming in. Editing starts on Tuesday, but it’s Wednesday when the Tangerine goes in to crunch mode as Thursday’s publication deadline draws near.
“Wednesdays are generally all-nighters,” Wimmer said. “You can expect to see us on the computers in the South Commons working away and Photoshopping away.” Cowan added with a laugh, “We’ve started editing earlier and earlier.”
Creating and writing the Tangerine has been a constant learning experience. From the get go, Cowan and Wimmer both agreed that it was a tough start.“I didn’t even know InDesign even existed before I went into the Studio,” Cowan joked. “I went in and said I need a program to do newspapers. And they showed me Adobe InDesign … and like an hour later, I knew how to use it enough to get the paper done.”
For Wimmer, the struggle was getting businesses to buy ad space. Not having a vehicle at the time, Wimmer would set out to the Strip and go into each store and restaurant trying to sell the Tangerine.
“At first it was really hectic and I didn’t know if I’d be able to do it,” Wimmer said. “I would go home and say, ‘These businesses are telling me no, and I don’t think we can get enough money.’ But eventually people started trusting us with their money. Who would have thought?”
Part of their eventual ad success comes from the Tangerine’s self-described cheap ad space. With the only intent being to cover the cost of printing, the Tangerine can sell ad space on the cheap and get a variety of business support.
“It’s just that our prices are so cheap and we’re reaching such a large student body, it’s a perfect way to test out the market in a very cost effective way,” Wimmer said. “Two thousand copies hand to students is a perfect distribution.”The editing process has also been improved and streamlined since the Tangerine’s inception. They’ve added steps to improve communication and ability to coordinate the flow of getting an article moved from its first brainstorm up to putting it on the page.
“Every once and a while, we would lose articles,” Cowan remembered with a laugh. “We’ve cut that out completely. … I mean, that sounds kind of absurd that you would do that, but when you get 40 emails a day. …”
But the big push for improvement now is in the realm of Photoshop. During those Wednesday crunches, Cowan said most of the time spent is not editing articles are working on layouts, but editing photos.
An example of the Tangerine’s photoshopping can be seen on their blog, which currently features members of the SGA Amplify campaign’s party candidates riding former presidential candidate, Lindsay Lee’s electric scooter through a galactic rainbow wormhole.
“Most of our time is spent doing Photoshop,” Cowan said. “Trying to get better and learning new techniques and trying to make funny pictures.”
And why go through the time and trouble? The paper does not make a profit, and their ad revenue only covers the cost of print.
For both Wimmer, Cowan and the Tangerine staff, it’s a labor of love. Despite the hard work and the continued learning experience, seeing the final product out and in the hands of students makes it all worthwhile.
“We’re not trying to make a profit off of it,” Wimmer said. “This is something that we’re doing just to have fun and gain experience.”Cowan elaborated further, “A lot of students aren’t really feeling the school spirit right now. With our crappy football team … on top of construction, on top of constant tuition raises, students are feeling cheated, and hopefully our newspaper can kind of help get rid of that feeling.”
