August is always a time of change, an annual period of transition, but this year seems special. There are so many  pieces missing. Gay Field seemed somehow lacking last week as the football team practiced without former coach Sam Horrell, and the journalism office feels perpetually empty without adviser Nancy Freeman. The familiar face of campus supervisor Linda Kelly is absent from the halls, and the speech and debate team is without their longtime coach, Brenda Bollinger.

At the same time, so much is new. The addition and renovations have rendered much of the school’s interior and exterior unrecognizable, and new teachers, from culinary arts and journalism to math and English, have changed the face of the staff.

For better or for worse, this year’s Clayton doesn’t feel quite the same.

Maybe part of the reason I have this sense of profound change is that we here at the Globe have been working for much of the summer on a transition of our own. As you have likely noticed by now, the Globe Newspaper is no longer. Its replacement, the result of several years of contemplation and evolution, is the Globe Newsmagazine.

It was not an easy decision to give up our beloved broadsheet publication, nor was it a decision that we took lightly. In the end, we felt that the newspaper format was becoming too cookie-cutter, too boring, and too standard. We needed a change, and you hold the result in your hands. Though this issue is only 24 pages, all others will be 48 pages.

We have high hopes for the Globe Newsmagazine. In terms of content, we will still deliver the same quality reporting on local issues, and we will continue to provide information, insight, and opinions to the Clayton community. More of our breaking news coverage will move to our website, chsglobe.com, and the print publication will emphasize in-depth feature stories.

The design of the Globe Newsmagazine is where we will showcase our editorial staff’s creativity and talent. We hope that our new format will be more appealing to you, our readers, and we expect it to be a little more fun for us, too.

Above all else, we urge you to pay attention to the Globe. We have a strong commitment to providing you with the best that student journalism can offer – if not more. The Globe has long been an integral part of the Clayton community, and we intend to continue that legacy of comprehensive reporting all the more vigorously this year. You may be surprised by what you can find within these pages. Enjoy.