Official newspaper of The University of Texas at Austin

The Daily Texan

Official newspaper of The University of Texas at Austin

The Daily Texan

Official newspaper of The University of Texas at Austin

The Daily Texan

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October 4, 2022
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Broadcaster finds love in print

2016-05-06_CASSANDRA_30_Portrait_Rachel
Rachel Zein

Editor’s note: A 30 column is a chance for departing permanent staff to say farewell and reflect on their time spent in The Daily Texan’s basement office. The term comes from the old typesetting mark (-30-) to denote the end of a line. 

I had been with Texas Student Television for more than three years when I met The Daily Texan.

I wasn’t unhappy with my relationship with TSTV, but I also was getting curious about what other opportunities were available at Texas Student Media. After working at the Austin American-Statesman and The Wall Street Journal, I wanted to write for my University’s campus newspaper, but I didn’t want to cheat on TSTV. TSTV had been so faithful to me, but one day I just decided to sneak away from the fourth floor of the HSM and wander into the basement of The Daily Texan.


And I don’t regret my straying one bit.

During my brief stint at the Texan, I honed in my passion for reporting like never before. When my editor gave me the campus beat, I didn’t realize I would stay so busy. There’s so much that has happened on this campus in the last semester. Some of it happy, some of it painfully sad, but it was a privilege and a responsibility of mine to report the news to the student community.

Previously, I was allotted minutes or seconds to a story at TSTV. In broadcast, it’s hard to go very in-depth into
reporting without getting more time budgeted. Through print reporting, though, the written words and 18-inch stories carried weight that was hard to carry in a 90-second video story. My sources would add texture to stories in written form that I could only show with images in broadcast. Which is more powerful? I’m not sure, but luckily I love both.

You’d think being on TV would give a journalist instant gratification for their work, but there’s nothing that made me more proud than when I would walk by an orange Daily Texan newsstand and see my byline from a few feet away.

I am thankful for the talented journalists I met while at The Daily Texan. Without my editors pushing me to dig deeper into stories, I’m not sure if they would have made enough impact. Some stories make a lot of noise, but as a journalist you want stories to make a difference.

The role of being a student journalist is a thankless job. Some people don’t take you seriously because you’re still a “kid in college,” but I encourage all future Texas Student Media members to be relentless in their reporting. We have a responsibility to inform our student community and hold administrators accountable.

I’m not sure if you’ll find me on print, television or wherever. But one thing is true though: News will
always be the love that’s never failed me.

-30-

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Broadcaster finds love in print