“Where tradition dictates . . . ” plenty of things . . . like what you’re reading right now.

Did you know that we’ve been publishing the ECHO in one form or another since 1938 (and before that under different names like the Courier or the Enlightener)?

But now it is 2018, and Beaver Area has made immense technological leaps thanks to senior Aaron Kovacs who created the BASD ECHO app. The ECHO now electronically publishes stories every Monday morning rather than printing issues every month or so.

For the ECHO staff, transitioning to the app has been awesome—but also grueling. Having to write, get pictures, and edit stories in one week is quite the opposite of having weeks to complete the work. Plus, we’re all learning how to navigate the app’s ‘behind-the-scenes’ components.

Contrarily, not having to go through the traditional computer-based layout process for each story saves some time and effort. In the app, ECHO staffers create ‘posts’, similar to a post on social media, for each story. Once headlines, sub-headlines, by-lines, pictures, and story content are added to the post, the post is reviewed and then ‘published’ into the upcoming week’s ECHO where it will be automatically pushed to app users 6 a.m. Monday morning.

Along with ease of access, the ECHO app also saves the school money in printing costs each year. We’ve already leased the iPads for all students and staff, the app was created by a student, and students do the work that goes into each post, so no additional money is spent to bring you the ECHO each Monday.

It is interesting now to look back at the old printed ECHOes from the 1940’s (we have some locked away for safekeeping) that have no pictures or if they do they are in fuzzy black and white—and then compare to now having the ECHO completely online bright, bold, and free to the community every Monday morning. It really makes you think.

Those old pages are dry, crumbling, and in some instances quite faded. They appear to have been simply typed on a manual typewriter—the best portable publishing technology the era had to offer. (They also ran stories on who asked whom out on dates and which couples had recently broken up. We won’t revive that tradition.)

For us personally, as editors, it has been an amazing opportunity to participate in reinventing the Bobcat’s ECHO, we sincerely hope you all enjoy it . . . and part of us wonders what the ECHO will look like in another 75 years . . .