Medill junior Michele Corriston will serve as The Daily’s next editor in chief, the newspaper’s publisher, Students Publishing Co., Inc, announced Tuesday.
Corriston will begin as the top editor as of Spring Quarter and continue through the end of Fall Quarter 2013. She will succeed current editor in chief Kaitlyn Jakola, a Medill senior.
The two applicants vying for the position individually interviewed with the SPC board Tuesday afternoon before the announcement.
SPC board chairman Charles Yarnoff said both candidates were very strong but Corriston had three factors that set her apart.
“Michele showed a lot of passion for The Daily,” Yarnoff said. “She showed commitment, she brings with her practical, concrete ideas for things she wants to do and she has diverse experience with The Daily.”
He added some of her ideas include increased use of social media, better communication with the paper’s audience and a focus on recruitment and retention.
Corriston said she was “so excited to be working with such an incredibly talented staff” and wanted to make sure to recruit more people to it.
“I’m really thrilled to be continuing on what past EICs have been doing and also taking The Daily in a new direction,” she said. “We’re going to be doing a lot more with media engagement. And I really want to change people’s perception of The Daily as distant and aloof. I want to show campus and Evanston that we care about what they think and our job is to provide news for them in the best and most efficient way. And social media is a great tool to do that.”
Jakola said she believes Corriston will continue recent improvements in organization and efficiency.
“If anyone’s prepared to keep that going and keep us improving,” she said, “it’s Michele.”
Yarnoff said he was looking forward to how Corriston will implement her ideas for the paper and said it will be “an exciting time for The Daily.”
Corriston has worked for The Daily since her freshman year and has served as campus editor, development editor, managing editor and is currently the in focus editor.
Jakola, who was selected as editor in chief in June, said it’s “exciting to see how far she’s come” since Corriston was her assistant campus editor last Fall.
“Michele is very driven and loves The Daily more than just about anyone else I know,” she said.
She added Corriston’s “really good news sense” about happenings on campus and in Evanston will play an important role in her new position.
“I can trust her to keep tabs on important things, with finding the most important things to write about and making sure we cover them appropriately,” she said.
Corriston said she has enjoyed everything she’s done for The Daily and is excited to continue next quarter. This quarter, she is working as an editorial intern for Time Out Chicago.
“There’s a lot we do well and a lot we need to do better and I’m excited to take us in that direction,” she said. “I couldn’t imagine spending a quarter not in the newsroom — it just wouldn’t seem right.”
— Paulina Firozi
