The Stony Brook Press and Think magazine, two campus publications, are coming together under the Press’s name, what editors say to be a consolidation of services to the campus.

“One of the main reasons why we feel this merger is going to be successful is we both do a lot of things similarly,” said Adam Peck, a senior journalism major and founder and former editor of Think. “It seems almost silly that we’re both trying to do very similar things when we could be doing things together.”

The two publications will remain separate entities for the rest of the semester for clerical purposes such as interns who are currently working under Think’s name for credit and because Think is registered as a club. Content created for Think will, however, slowly be integrated onto the Press’s website, and by next semester, the two editorial boards will come together as one.

In time, Think’s website, thinksb.com, will be forwarding its viewers to the Press’s website, sbpress.com. Articles chosen by the editors of Think will be provided for the print issues of the Press. Meanwhile, the Press’s editors will provide content for the newly consolidated website.

About 15 members of Think, including interns and editors, will be moving to the Press, according to Peck.

“The Press has always labeled themselves as the alternative campus publication and that’s where I still think we are,” said Nick Statt, a senior journalism major and the executive editor of the Press, adding that the paper pokes fun at itself and others. “Think previously identified themselves as progressive left-leaning.”

According to Statt, the Press does not have a declared left- or right-wing balance.

“The word alternative in what it means to our culture is that we try to do things in a unique way, not very straightforward,” Statt said. “In a way, A) have a sense of humor given the situation, B) that it mostly just tries to say something new about a situation, tries to shed a new light on it.”

The Press and Think, while different in respects such as these, will work to complement each other.

“They [Think] do run parallel in some respects,” Statt said. “We feel it will be pretty easy to find middle ground where everyone can express their own independent voice and culture.”

Although it’s being called a merger, the collaboration between the Press and Think seems to be like an acquisition.

“Right now we’re referring to it as a merger, but we’re keeping the Press name and they’re working for our website,” Statt said. “For all intents and purposes, it is an acquisition, but at this time, they’re operating as our website, and as the press release said, there will be slow integration.”

According to Peck, Think was moving in a direction of covering more campus news, such as a desire for more investigative news.

“It made a lot of sense for the Press and Think to collaborate,” said Trevor Christian, a sophomore journalism major and the managing editor of Think. “The areas where we’re strong, they’re weak or where they’re strong, we’re weak. If we mash them together, we could probably create a really good product.”

Christian said the magazine will be able to “take advantage of their name recognition.”

“But it’s certainly not like we’re treating each other as though we’re on unequal terms,” he said.

The idea of a merger between the Press and Think came through discussions of bringing all campus publications together, Peck and Statt both said.

“That whole idea ran through a number of complications,” Statt said.

When the editorial boards join together, Peck will not be a part of it as he expects to graduate in December. He does plan to continue writing while he is still at Think. This past week, Think learned that Peck had filled out the club registration incorrectly – including ID numbers, signatures and positions – and they were losing the NYPIRG office space they were using.

“I do think he had the best intentions, but it was getting to the point where we needed to take the reigns from him and he was not letting it go,” Christian said.

Peck agreed with Christian’s statement.

“I think it’s accurate to say that I was still hanging on to some of the responsibilities that traditionally fall to editor-in-chief, but I could have probably done a better job at relinquishing more control than I did,” Peck said.

In the future, the merging of these two publications will make for less of a sense of repetitiveness, Peck and Statt both said.

“At Stony Brook, you’ve got arguably four news organizations by and large that do the same things,” Peck said, referring to the Press, Think, the Independent and the Statesman. “[We] attend the same events, do the same stories. It was getting a little bit crowded. I don’t think there’s a need for four different stories of Stanley giving a speech.”

The Independent did not comment on the merger.

Christian said he is looking forward to the merger.

“These are two really good teams that are coming together,” he said.

Statt said the union of the two publications is one to look forward to.

“We have no idea how successful we will be or any competing organization will be in the future but all I can say it’s looking positive for us,” he said.