As the fall semester comes to a close and The Tiger wraps up Volume 119, I thought it would only be appropriate to reflect on everything that South Carolina’s oldest collegiate newspaper has achieved in 2025.
This issue marks The Tiger’s 16th print edition this year.
The year started off with a bang in January, when The Tiger was the first publication to report on Clemson University limiting expenditures to only those that are “mission critical.”
In March, we produced our annual Best of Clemson special edition, followed by our satire issue — The Kitten — published on April Fools’ Day. Over the summer, our Orientation edition was distributed to incoming freshmen at both sessions of Ready, Set, Roar!
All of The Tiger’s departments continue to impress with their outstanding work, specifically with the production of two online rivalry editions in honor of two sports rivalries. The first was a first-ever collaboration between The Tiger and The Reveille, LSU’s student newspaper, in honor of the Clemson vs. LSU football game in August. The second was the second-annual collaboration between The Tiger and The Daily Gamecock, which went live just last week.
Both online rivalry editions featured a diverse range of creative content, including insightful articles, graphics, comics, illustrations and videos.
Additionally, The Tiger continues to provide reporters with travel opportunities. In October, two members from our sports team traveled to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, to cover Clemson’s victory against UNC.
The Tiger’s communications team has been as active as ever, with significant growth in social media — particularly on Instagram — in terms of followers and engagement. The Tiger’s page has increased from around 6,000 followers this time last year to over 9,300 currently.
As for our website, we reached a record-breaking number of page views just last week, with 28,281 on Nov. 23. Over the past year, we’ve seen 81,323 unique users and more than 414,500 total visitors.
The Tiger earned multiple awards this year at both the state and national levels. Staffers won 16 total awards in various categories in the South Carolina Press Association’s Collegiate Contest. Nationally, The Tiger placed second in the Associated Collegiate Press Spring Clips & Clicks contest for “The Tiger’s top moments of 2024” newspaper spread.
The Tiger staff continues to amaze me day in and day out, and it has truly been my greatest joy to lead this incredible organization over just the past couple of months. Each and every individual’s creativity, thoughtfulness, determination and hard work is incredibly inspiring, and I look forward to seeing everything we accomplish together in the new year.
Kat Pugh is a junior English major from Clayton, California. Kat can be reached at [email protected].
