The Minnesota Daily is preparing for a transition in leadership at the start of the summer, with Maia Irvin stepping into the editor-in-chief position and Bella Carpentier filling the managing editor role.
The Daily’s Board of Directors selected Irvin as editor-in-chief on April 2. In this position, Irvin will be responsible for overseeing and organizing all staff in the newsroom and ensuring proper training and quality of news.
“Maia emerged as a really strong candidate, what we look for in an editor is good journalistic skills and instincts,” Board Secretary and Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication faculty member Gayle Golden said. “She just understands what a story is and what news values are, so she’ll be positioned to help the Daily continue to grow, which is really important.”
The managing editor is responsible for supervising and managing operations of the newsroom.
This position also works with the editor-in-chief to manage staffing, hiring and scheduling and to develop training programs and serve as a motivator to staff.
Irvin and Carpentier will start in these roles at the end of May and occupy these positions until the end of the 2022-23 academic year.
The Board of Directors is also working to fill the Business Operations Officer position over the summer, according to Board Chair Drew Geraets in an emailed statement.
Editor-in-chief
Maia Irvin is a third-year student at the University of Minnesota studying both journalism and anthropology. Irvin began working at the Minnesota Daily as a reporter in May 2021.
“When I was a freshman, I remember going to the activities fair and … going to the Daily booth, I liked the vibes when I met them,” Irvin said. “Just seeing that it’s an actual publication that students put together I’m like, ‘Okay, this seems like a legit thing that would be good for me to try.’”
As a reporter, Irvin wrote about staff and faculty at the University of Minnesota and the Board of Regents. Outside of these areas, Irvin said she enjoys writing obituaries and stories on scientific research.
Irvin said working for the Minnesota Daily taught her foundational journalism skills. Irvin has also published work with the Star Tribune and Castilla-La Mancha Media, and edited work for the College of Liberal Arts Office of Institutional Advancement.
As editor-in-chief, Irvin said she wants to emphasize the Minnesota Daily’s role as a learning institution for student journalists and to ensure reporters have necessary resources needed to be successful.
“If you do want to be a journalist, working at the Daily is a really good step to learn a lot of skills and to be able to graduate and say, ‘oh, I can do this job and I can do it well.’” Irvin said.
Irvin said she hopes to provide more specific training to staff in the newsroom in specific areas, like data journalism.
“[Acquiring various skills] gives you a leg up in trying to find a job in the industry,” Irvin said. “That’s what we’re here for is to help students get experiences that will get them a job hopefully after graduation.”
Managing editor
Third-year student Bella Carpentier will be working alongside Irvin as managing editor for the upcoming year.
Carpentier is currently studying journalism at the University and started working for the Daily in August 2021 as a reporter covering student issues and student activism on campus.
Carpentier said she will bring open collaboration and communication to the table as managing editor. She said she hopes to see “more bonds and relationships between people and their work” form at the Minnesota Daily by meeting in-person.
Carpentier said she wants to increase outreach to the student body to learn more about the kind of stories they would like to see published by the Minnesota Daily.
Carpentier also said her experiences as a reporter will inform her role as managing editor.
“I just would like to add how excited I am to work with Maia, because my first ever article that I wrote for the Daily I wrote with her,” Carpentier said. “She kind of took me under her wing and showed me what to do as a reporter.”
