Bwog

Bwog's logo up to 2009.

Bwog, originally called The Bwog, started its existence as the blog of The Blue and White magazine, but has since then developed a life of its own separate from the magazine. Centered on campus news and gossip, it was launched on January 30th, 2006, by founding editor Taylor Walsh. The site was inspired by gossip blogs that began to be popular in New York in the mid-00s, especially Gawker. Some consider it to be snotty and elitist. Others consider it witty and entertaining. Most people read it regardless. It's generally understood that Bwog was great last year but now it sucks, regardless of the current year.

History

Bwog's 2012 redesign

Although it had already been active for months, Bwog went mainstream in October 2006 with its nearly real-time coverage of the Minuteman stage-rush incident, which did for it what the Gulf War did for CNN - made students realize that the blog medium, and Bwog in particular, was their most up to date source of campus news. A popular sister blog launched in 2008 to cover the exploits of Hawkmadinejad. The site has undergone three serious redesigns since inception, notably on January 1, 2009 and September 22, 2012. Both designs were met with immediate backlash from readers, but just like Facebook, eventually people stop complaining and continue using the site.

In 2010, the site celebrated its 100,000th entry comment. That same year, the site moved from Bwog.net to Bwog.com, for unclear reasons.

Common Features

• Breaking news
• Bwoglines
• Coverage of protests / major campus events
• LectureHops / RoomHops / OfficeHops / PeopleHops
• Things overheard on campus
• Student council meetings coverage that maybe 3 people read
• Event listings
• Rodent coverage
• Free food announcements, far too close to the event time to be of any use
• Internet culture features
• BwogSex
• On-campus theater reviews
• Comments, with a reputation for being caustic and asinine
• Senior Wisdom
• Actual Wisdom
• BwogWeather

Unlike Spec, Bwog stays active and running during finals. They immediately regretted that decision but such is life.

Publication

Despite what Columbia might insinuate, Bwog is not officially affiliated with the school--the organization does not get support or funding in any form from the university. It is an independent blog that the administration (often begrudgingly) acknowledges. It is completely student-run and managed, supported financially by ad sales.

Current Management

• Editor in Chief: Youngweon Lee
• Managing Editor: Betsy Ladyzhets
• Internal Editor: Sarah Kinney
• Publisher: James Fast
• Associate Publisher: Nikolas Huth
• Director of Communications: Katiana Klain
• Tech: Kevin Chen, Fernando Pascual, Jack Damon
• Social Media Editor: Zack Abrams
• Deputy Editors:Jenny Zhu, TBD
• Events Editor: TBD
• Arts Editor: Riva Weinstein
• Sports Editor: Abby Rubel
• Science Editor: Alex Tang
• Senior Staff Writers: Sarah Dahl, Gabrielle Kloppers, Angelica Lagasca, Thomas Saenz, Sarah Harty, Isabel Sepúlveda, Zoe Sottile, Ramisa Murshed, Levi Cohen, Lucy Danger, Timmy Wu
• Daily Editors: TBD
• Staff Writers: Danielle Mikaelian, Mary Welsh, Cara Hudson-Erdman, Jake Tibbetts, Olga Ivleva, Iga Szlendak, Riya Mirchandaney, Michael Wang, Zoe Ewing
• Satow Room Bureau Chief (CCSC): Nadra Rahman
• Diana Center Bureau Chief (SGA): Dassi Karp
• ESC Bureau Chief: Andrew Klauber
• GSSC Bureau Chief: Zoe Sottile
• Editores Emeriti: Rachel Deal, Amara Banks, Andrew Klauber, Victoria Arancio

See Also

• Bwog-Spectrum Relationship
• Bwog Uncensored

External links

• Bwog
• Bwog's first incarnation
• Bwog's stats at one year old
• a Spec editor writing about how to write about Bwog
• That same Spec editor writing about Bwog's first birthday