Felix Editor - Candidate Andy Sykes
Manifesto
Felix has been an incredibly important part of my life at College; I've been involved since a week after I joined, first as a reviewer, and as music editor for the last three years.
I've worked under four different editors and watched it eat countless hours of my free time. I understand the job, and I have the experience to carry on the great work of Will, Alex, Dave and Rupert.
The one weakness of Felix this year has been the reviews sections. I plan to re-establish our previously strong links with promotional companies to deliver high-quality sections to you.
Felix plays a vital role in investigative journalism regarding the College and the Union, and I plan to continue this while making the tone less tabloid.
The web site has lapsed into near disuse and is badly in need of redesign, which I will implement. It's a vital part of interacting with the paper, as are the crosswords, columns and comment sections.
Felix is great; it's a well-written, good-looking paper with diverse content. I want to keep it that way.
What do you think of Felix this year?
I think Rupert has done a good job, but he's standing on the shoulders of Dave Edwards [Previous Felix editor -Ed.] who brought us the newspaper format. After an initial drop of quality, he's done a good job. He's done more investigative journalism within the union and the college itself, which is vital. For a normal student, that's the only way they'll know what's going on in the union.
Would you change Felix back to a glossy magazine?
The magazine was the product of the time. I would keep it as a newspaper, as I personally like it that way. But I would move to a more professional looking layout. It is good, but something along the lines of the current Guardian or Times format. I think we can do that as we've already got the printing companies and the basic templates.
Can you elaborate on this?
There needs to be more consistency across sections; something that's been a bit lax this year as all the subeditors are new. We need a style guide, as we had in the past. It's the little things that make it professional; the attention to detail. A mistake can make it look crap.
You want to rejuvenate the review pages, but isn't that the job of the section editors?
To an extent. But that relies on experience. Everyone else is new, and the knowledge passed on between subeditors is done in an arcane way. I have 40 contacts, which I inherited from my previous subeditor, but other subeditors didn't train anyone else up. I have experience, so I can help people get the contact back. The more promo companies you have sending stuff to you, the better your section will be.
You also want to bring back non-College news; do you think students will be interested in it? Some students say that Felix should only cover College news.
Newspapers aren't free. I don't have much spare cash; Felix might be the only newspaper that students pick up. For a little effort we can have 4-6 extra pages of news which concerns us. We're all focused on science at Imperial; I think it's a good way for students to get world knowledge. And it won't cost anything.
You've been music editor for three years; do you think you have the experience to write about news?
I have a fair amount of knowledge as to how college and the union work. I've been involved in the union for a long time, especially when organising Kids Will Be Skeletons. I would say I do.
