I always had a feeling I would end up in journalism. Growing up, newspapers were always strangely a part of my life even though I didn’t personally know any journalists.
My home is near where famous journalist Edward R. Murrow was born — a fact almost any of my friends know because I mention it a lot. I remember watching the movie “Good Night, and Good Luck” about Murrow and thinking it was so cool that we came from the same rural area.
My grandfather delivered newspapers toward the end of his life for The Independent Tribune. At my grandparents’ house there were always papers lying around or extra coupons. My mom read The Greensboro News & Record every day.
The news was always there, but it wasn’t until I first saw my byline in this paper that I thought this might be something I could do for a living. Now, three years later, I am gearing up to run this paper as editor-in-chief. I know already that I am going to be leading over a year of great change for this paper — which can be pretty scary to think about.
But I think back to writing my first article. I didn’t know what I was doing. If left alone, my first story would have been incomprehensible and probably riddled with errors. The thing is, I wasn’t alone. The wonderful University Desk editors were there to help me. The staff of this paper inspired me to keep trying at journalism, and now as I am an incoming editor-in-chief, they continue to do so.
A lot of issues are facing The Daily Tar Heel. I am going to be honest — just like all newspapers, we have financial difficulties as we transition to reaching most of our readers online. Sometimes, I feel like we are at the bottom of a mountain that will be near impossible to climb. Papers much bigger and more well-known than us have already gone under or sold out due to financial constraints. Even major national news outlets cannot figure out a sustainable model for online advertising.
However, The Daily Tar Heel isn’t one of those papers. What we have in this office is special, and it is worth fighting for. As I am sitting in the DTH office writing this, I can hear the hum of dozens of dedicated staffers and editors willing to do whatever it takes to make this paper last forever.
The national championship edition of this paper was a huge money maker, but it wouldn’t have been if we didn’t have people working around the clock — often doing non-journalism, manual labor to make sure the paper made it to as many UNC fans as possible.
That is just one example of how great the people who work here are, and it shows how much spirit and drive this paper has.
