Things have changed since you last picked up a Gair Rhydd newspaper. We have many new faces on our team across all sections however, also a new Editor-in-Chief. I feel as if I should introduce myself properly, my name is Annabelle Lee and for the 2024/2025 academic year, I will be the Editor-in-Chief of Gair Rhydd.
I am a third year Journalism, Media and English Literature student.
If this is your first time picking up a Gair Rhydd newspaper, welcome. Welocme back to anyone who is returning to our newspaper, also. We are so excited to have you giving our paper a read! Even if you just do the crossword bored in the back of a lecture theatre, we are so grateful that you’ve picked up our paper. We hope you had a good summer and are ready for the year of academics that lies ahead of you.
After a summer full of travel and relaxation, I am lauched back into a world of newspapers. I am curretly writing this at the new Gair Rhydd desk in our Media Office after a rather tiring day of Indesign and emails. A considerable shift from sitting in the Maltese heat as I was doing all summer. Surpirsingly, however, I love it. I would rather be sat here, hosting meetings and designing pages on Canva and Indesign than anywhere else right now. Sounds strange, I know.
Taking over from Edward Sutton felt like a major responsibilty given his success of last year. I feel a certain amount of pressure to take Gair Rhydd beyond where it has been before. I admit, I am worried about not being able to emulate the success of last year. One major shift Gair Rhydd has implented this year is a focus on you, the students and a focus on the wonderful city we live in. In this issue, you will find student news, Cardiff sporting fixtures and so much more to highlight the best of student life around Cardiff.
Within this issue, there are a myriad of exciting stories and features that will hopefully enage you. We have a double page feature on the Iris Prize, Cardiff’s queer film festival, Cardiff half marathon stories and so much more. There will definitely be something for you in one of our nine sections! From Politics to Sport, there is something for you in every issue of Gair Rhydd.
Gair Rhydd has already had major sucess this year. We currently have over 250 contributors, a working website after it being down for a year and successful socials. Our time at the Freshers Fair was also a major sucess and honestly, something I was looking forward to all summer. I hope to maintain this energy throughout the whole time I will be Editor-in-Chief. I want to win regionally and nationally this year and I believe we are already starting out in a great way to achieve all we want to achieve this year.
So whether you’re a fresher or a University veteran, we truly hope you will pick up a copy when we publish twice a month. Make sure you also keep updated with our new and lovely website to find a range of stories that are not in our print issues.
My editorial team have been tireless in creating a publication they are proud and one that they can call they own. I hope you enjoy reading our first issue as much as I have enjoyed being at the helm of it for the first time. Feel free to drop me an email if you have any ides of our upcoming issues.
Happy reading!