In the fall of 2021, still donning masks but at least attending school in person every day, students enrolled in Journalism and responsible for publishing Verbatim every month made a decision to transform the publication from its modest home on Google Sites (and before that, an even more modest printout of a Google Doc) to something more polished and professional. Opting to partner with Student Newspapers Online (SNO), which hosts hundreds of student publications around the country and uses WordPress to power each individual site, that group of students set out to create stories, mainly written word and photography, utilizing the wider range of options afforded by SNO.

The first such story was published on September 7, 2021 (you can read it here), and in the years since Verbatim has incorporated a much wider array of media and created content on virtually every topic imaginable, from happenings around campus to poetry reviews to unpacking subreddit threads (by far our most-read article!) to the post-covid chipping crisis to achieving financial success via crystal magic. 

Over the years we’ve tried to balance a recurring set of stories—including Senior Snapshots, Community Voices, profiles of faculty and staff, interviews with alumni, restaurant reviews, and updates on major events in the community—with one-off feature stories that dig into some larger issues taking place in the Omaha area, in the United States, or around the world. As a result, we’ve been fortunate to conduct numerous interviews with knowledgeable BT parents, local politicians, small business owners and entrepreneurs, experts in highly specialized fields, and even other journalists. As we look to future issues, incorporating more traditional “shoe leather” journalism definitely remains a top priority.

The most substantial change to Verbatim in recent years has been the addition of podcasts, which are published on Spotify and that have garnered thousands of streams since we published our first episodes over three years ago. According to Spotify’s recently released “Wrapped for Creators” analytics, 2025 has been the biggest year yet for Verbatim Podcasts:

As of this month, Verbatim has published over 120 podcasts (covering food and sports and politics and careers and food again and much more); we are excited to be expanding our offerings even further in the spring semester. We’ve even opened our doors to BT students who are not enrolled in the Journalism class, so if you have an idea for a story or podcast, just reach out to Dr. Low or someone in the class and we’ll find a way to make sure that your voice is heard!

Thanks for reading, listening, viewing all of the great content these past few years, and we look forward to even more great work in the next 500 stories.