The Minnesota Daily’s Board of Directors has announced the Office of the Publisher’s new staff for the upcoming academic year.

Effective later this month, Andreas Quinn, Cody Nelson and Megan Hernick will take the reins of the Daily’s three divisions as president, editor-in-chief and business operations officer, respectively.

“We’ve been very lucky the last couple of years and had a really strong leadership team,” said Jeanne Shedivy, Daily board member and director of sales productivity for the Star Tribune. “We’re all looking forward to getting to know [the new OP staff] better.”

In the hiring process, the board looked for creativity, commitment and imagination that will help grow new revenue sources and expand readership, Shedivy said. Most importantly, she said, the board looked for people who understand that the paper is meant to serve the varied interests and populations of the University community.

Charlie Hoag, Daily board member and former director of sales at the Star Tribune’s advertising department, said the board looks in particular for candidates with energy — something he thinks the new staff has.

“You’ve got to have a lot of energy these days to take on [running the Daily],” he said, “especially when you’re carrying a class load.”

Shedivy said it’s important for the new OP staff to have good chemistry so they can run the paper effectively.

President

Marketing senior Andreas Quinn applied to the Daily four times before he was finally hired as a brand ambassador, working in street outreach and promotions.

“It took me like six months to get a job [at the Daily],” he said. “But I finally got in.”

Within four months, Quinn moved up to University account executive, where he handled on-campus advertising clients. In that position, he said, he learned the importance of getting personal with clients and maintaining good relationships.

But he wanted to push himself, he said, so when the current president of the Daily suggested he apply, he felt it was the “logical next step.”

Moving forward, Quinn said he hopes to create a mobile app for the Daily that meets the standards demanded of newspapers today. Expanding the paper’s online presence would improve editorial content, he said, and would also bring the Daily more revenue in an industry that’s starting to prefer online.

“In that aspect, that’s where the Daily’s kind of lagging,” he said. “We definitely need to increase online.”

Editor-in-chief

Journalism junior Cody Nelson wanted to work for the Daily since his freshman year.

Now, less than two years after he first joined as a reporter intern, he’ll be in charge of the Daily’s editorial department.

There, he’ll oversee the newsroom, sports, arts and entertainment, opinions, multimedia, web and editorial production.

Working for the Daily “was a lot more intense” than he anticipated, he said. But within a month of starting, Nelson was writing as a staff reporter, and a year later became the associate editor for the campus desk.

Nelson said he expects the Daily to expand in great ways, especially since it has established a web team.

He said he wants to see the Daily do more in-depth reporting because those are the stories he sees making “real changes.”

“Having the resources to do that in-depth type work is really how we can really foster positive change through our journalism,” he said. “It’s more powerful work if we’re putting our resources into these long-form projects.”

Business operations officer

Strategic communications junior Megan Hernick picked up a copy of the Daily every day of her freshman year from the rack at the entrance to her apartment building. One day, she got the idea to apply for a job.

As business operations officer, Hernick will run the Daily’s sales and creative departments, where she previously worked in advertising for a year as a classified account executive.

She came to the University to get into the advertising industry, Hernick said, but didn’t realize at the time that the Daily would be the “vehicle” for her to explore it.

“Working at the college newspaper was never something I foresaw,” she said. “I’m really glad I do — I love it. It’s by far the best part of my college
experience.”

Hernick said she learned mostly about the business side of the paper but always admired the editorial department and wanted a way to get more involved with the Daily’s other branches.

“I wanted to pursue a higher-level position because I wanted to see the Daily at a higher level and interact with the different pieces and parts,” she said.

Hernick said she looks forward to working with Quinn and Nelson to improve the paper that she considers a major part of her life.

“The bulk of my time is spent here [at the Daily] or spent talking about here,” she said.