Jill Stocker

MUSH!, a progressive alternative newspaper that published only once at NIU last year, will start over this semester with a fresh approach and a new name.

The paper, which will be called “The Public Address System,” will have a more serious approach this year, cutting out the poetry and less newsworthy articles found in MUSH!. It will be in tabloid form and will cover features and investigative news stories not found in The Northern Star, as well as political satire and editorializing.

“We’re writing this paper because people on campus don’t get a chance to say what they want to say, and some people are disappointed about some things that don’t get covered,” said Tom Long, one of the paper’s organizers and writers. “It’s a paper with a liberal focus, unlike the Star, which a lot of people consider to be very conservative.”

Another writer/organizer, Glen Szczypka, said some subjects the paper will cover include stories on new music, entertainment, interesting teachers that students do not know about and controversial subjects. He said writers will definitely write a story on Martha Palmer, the CHANCE counselor whose firing has caused a controversy on campus. “It’s a serious alternative newspaper,” Szczypka said.

The paper currently has five staff members, although they expect to acquire a few more “regular” members as well as accepting contributions from other people.

Unlike MUSH!, which had no set editorial staff, The Public Address System will have an editorial board to make decisions about the paper and its contents. Long said they will most likely have a rotating coordinator to settle arguments, rather than just one editor.

“We’re going to shoot for 5,000 copies and we want to eventually have the paper published biweekly,” Long said. At first, it probably will be published monthly, with the first issue out possibly by the beginning of October. “We got a lot of experience doing MUSH!, so we should be better at it (making a paper) this time,” he said.

The paper will be financed both through advertisements and fundraisers, although the group hopes to raise money eventually solely though ads. To raise money for MUSH! last year, the organizers held a coffeehouse fundraiser at the Wesley Foundation, 633 W. Locust St.