The Beachcomber is putting its final print issue to rest after 63 years, marking the end of an era and the start of a new digital age.

For many of us on the staff, print connects us to generations of student journalists who came before us at BHS, as we have gone through our journalism journeys seeing issue after issue being hung up on our classroom walls. Even though it’s a loss of tradition, most of us agree it’s an opportunity for innovation. 

“Looking back at the old Beachcombers, I’m truly fascinated by the different designs and layouts people created throughout the years. However, I do believe that transitioning to something new, like a newsletter, could facilitate many aspects of layout and spare the staff time in editing articles and revising,” news editor So Eun Kang said. 

The transition to going fully digital doesn’t just seem practical, but to many of us, it seems to be inevitable. 

“I actually agree with us ending print,” Managing Editor Mirica Woodley said. “The majority of people who actually read The Beachcomber do so online, and so there’s little purpose in continuing to spend money by continuing print.” 

The budget that goes into printing can go towards developing multimedia resources for our journalists as well as enabling us to do more with our online news site.

There’s also the factor of efficiency, where the process of creating a layout for the print publication took a significant amount of time. Being fully online allows issues to be published quicker while also lessening the workload for the staff. 

“For a while, we have only had a few people working on layout, and it is a ton of work,” arts & life editor Alma Saltzman said. “In addition to this, I don’t think I have actually seen [very many people] reading the paper, so continuing to print may be becoming more wasteful of time and paper than beneficial.” 

For a long time, the print publication has been the best way to deliver news to the school and the community; however, we believe that it’s time for us to adapt and deliver the news in a way that better meets our readers’ needs.