No Place Like Home: Editor’s Letter

The concept of “home” floated around the newsroom and amongst editors as we brainstormed our last special issue of the semester. The topic struck us for a few reasons: the holidays are approaching, it would follow our previous “An After New School Special” seamlessly, and strong visuals for print came to mind. The New School Free Press has been strictly digital for the last year, but we had a strong vision of people on planes or trains leaving at the end of the semester, carrying a print edition from NSFP home with them.

And then the election happened.

The NSFP spent the rest of the week following the election talking about the results of the election––our feelings about President-elect Donald Trump: the shock, horror, outrage and hopelessness of it all. But most importantly, we addressed the duty and need for journalists to power through what is trying times for many.

What we recognized most was that the world doesn’t stop for anyone, especially for journalists, who in difficult times must persevere in order to provide a lense to help people make sense of things.  

But we also witnessed just how quickly the world does go on. In fact, it never stops. It was pertinent that we stopped to talk about the election and how our classmates were doing, but we were now a week behind on our special issue. How we were supposed to play catch-up only to halt again once we hit Thanksgiving? Would we be able to produce our first print issue in over a year and still feel like we dedicated enough time to it?

The editorial board, as well as our faculty advisors, discussed changing the theme to a post-election issue, which seemed to be the logical thing to do: it was timely, reporters were passionate about the election results and it would bookend our first pre-election special issue well.

But the concept of home kept creeping back to us, the theme we initially decided on. We realized that so much of politics starts in the home and impacts your upbringing and your outlook on the world. NSFP decided there was no reason we couldn’t combine the two ideas: home and politics in light of, and after the election.

So we had our stories, and with a little repurposing, came up with the title “No Place Like Home.” It tells the stories of the student body, our own reporters and you. Home doesn’t necessarily lie in your childhood house or in the arms of your parents. Sometimes it’s found within a space, a person, a feeling, or even yourself.  And despite it all, no one can ever forget where and what they’ve come from, because there really is no place quite like home.