Once a month, dozens of ‘eaters take to the streets with bundles of papers in their arms. Their sole objective? Compete with Hacky Sack Man, Harlan and a dozen student orgs for dominance over Speakers Circle — also known as distributing the monthly print edition of The Maneater!
Passserbys often gape at the j-school students waving around something resembling an ancient scroll. After they begrudgingly accept one, they are met with pages full of hieroglyphics even MU’s brightest can’t decipher— you get to decide who we mean by “MU’s brightest,” and no we’re definitely not talking about you, business majors. What we do have going for us that keeps our readers crawling back? The juicy inside scoops, pretty pictures and comic strips.
Although strange looks are a given on distribution day, each one has its unique set of experiences.
At the end of September’s distribution, ‘eaters were able to dole out every single copy of The Maneater for the first time in years! We won’t count how many of those ended up in the trash right after because, as they say, any publicity is good publicity. Plus, an anonymous tip to our editors claims a local raccoon really enjoyed that crossword… Thank you very much. Us ‘eaters remained eager for the next distribution day.
Now, October’s distribution day has come and gone. How does it stack up to last month’s? Let us set the scene: it was a crisp (slightly rainy) autumn Wednesday. The anticipation of a celebratory, post-distribution Thirsty Thursday hung in the air like a fog. After a three hour delay from the printers (we love being kept on our toes!), ‘eaters assumed position at every busy location on campus: the Quad, Speaker’s Circle and the Student Center to name a few.
On this day, Campus was unusually quiet. Our Data & Investigative team deduced that everyone went into hiding — but that didn’t stop us from putting a paper in the hand of every student. Well, every single student who didn’t respond with a no, no thanks, confused look or the occasional “isn’t that a radical feminist paper?” Alas, we succeeded in our goal: clearing a walkway in the newsroom. And reporting important news for the student body, of course.
What we love most about our paper is how multipurpose it is. From building materials for Homecoming parade floats to our managing editor, Piper Molins’ own personal placemat, The Maneater is so much more than just a way to get your news — and they say print is dead! We just say it’s ever-changing.
While distributing the October print edition, our Marketing and Strategy Director, Charlotte Raley was given advice on how we could improve as a newspaper.
“I tried to hand one to someone and they stood there, opened it up and starting telling me how we could improve our design,” she said.
To whomever that person was: we love the enthusiasm and encourage you to join our production team!
Raley also got a response from someone saying that they couldn’t read. Now we are a bit worried about this person’s academic performance.
‘Eaters get to interact with many different walks of life on Distribution Day — from the cryptic STEM majors to that one professor whose lecture you always skipped, we love getting to talk with our audience! Opinions writer Molly Gibbs was able to put some papers into the hands of a few Mormon missionaries. We hope you enjoy the content, guys!
Many of our staffers also received some words of encouragement from people as they took a paper. We absolutely love the wholesomeness.
“Someone told me ‘keep doing what you’re doing’,” News writer Laine Cibulskis said, “as a freshman journalism major, it was really nice to hear this kind of positive feedback from a stranger.”
Don’t fret, dear readers, we will absolutely keep bothering you all on Distribution Days.
In all seriousness, thank you to all who succumbed to peer pressure and took our glorious paper. The Maneater would be nothing but paper maché without you.