Welcome to another year of reading The Post (or, welcome to your very first time picking up this newspaper of ours — I don’t judge.) Our staffers are excited to be back in Baker 325, and I’m certainly excited that you are reading our first weekly tabloid.
This is new for us, if you didn’t already know. We were a daily broadsheet newspaper last year. We had a different logo. We had a different website. Our newsroom has essentially changed course, and is now hoping to be more digitally-forward and student-minded, while maintaining our steady devotion to in-depth reporting and visual content. One of the things that didn’t change, though, was my seat in the newsroom I so gladly occupy.
Yep, I’m still here (but finishing up my last year as a Bobcat.) It’s worth re-introducing myself, though, and you can find introductions for the other executive editors of The Post — Liz Backo, Seth Archer and Hayley Harding — on page four. They’re some pretty swell people, I think.
As far as my background goes, I hail from Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan. That’s a small suburb outside of Detroit, but it’s where I grew up doing all sorts of oddities, such as playing bass guitar, petting my dog and watching horror movies. We all have our hobbies, and those are some of mine — but I’m devoted to journalism first.
I didn’t always want to be a journalist, exactly, but I’ve always wanted to tell stories and talk to interesting strangers. I’ve written for The Detroit Free Press, The Metro Times, The Columbus Dispatch, and, most recently, TIME. Of course, I’ve also written for The Post, reporting on Athens City Council and the Athens Police Department during my first two years at Ohio University.
Last year was my first year as editor-in-chief, and I hope the fortunate experiences I’ve had as an editor show when you read our content both online and in print this academic year.
Of course, those changes aren’t without a few bumps in the road. Our newsroom is still learning the proper, most efficient and enjoyable way to deliver our readers content, which means I’d love to hear your feedback. As always, send questions to editor@thepostathens.com and letters and contibuting opinion pieces to letters@thepostathens.com, and please be patient with our staffers as we make updates to our website, publish stories and produce the print news product each week. I’m vying to get it right, but also hoping to stay on my toes — the right way to think is to never believe we’re quite as quick as you are, but getting closer every day. That keeps perfectionists such as myself searching for our readers’ feedback, and excited to train our freshmen staffers.
It is going to be a great year for The Post. Stick with us, and watch out for our daily news on thepostathens.com and our newspaper each Thursday.
Emma Ockerman is a senior studying journalism and editor-in-chief of The Post. Want to talk to her? Tweet her at @eockerman or email her at eo300813@ohio.edu
