KAYLIE SIROVY: Hello everybody. This is Kaylie Sirovy from the Minnesota Daily, and you’re listening to In the Know, a podcast dedicated to the University of Minnesota. Today in the studio I have with me our new editor in chief and managing editor, Alexis and Sam. Hello. Welcome. 

SAM HILL: Great to be here. 

SIROVY: Today we’re gonna talk about their process of how they became EIC and managing editor. We’re gonna talk about what they plan to do for this next year, we’re just gonna have a fun little conversation.

All right, so maybe we start with Sam. How long have you been at the Daily? Tell us how you became the managing editor. 

HILL: Absolutely. Well, I started as an investigative reporter, I think then my sophomore year. And, I got to work with some really cool people and I’ve been sort of floating in and out of the Daily with Army stuff. I think Alexis, Katrina and I chose to run for EIC in December and that process was pretty fun. And, like Alexis won, full sent it and now, I applied to be managing editor. Pretty excited to work with Alexis here for this next school year. 

SIROVY: Why’d you apply to be EIC in the first place? 

HILL: I really love what the paper does. We report on cool things and the EIC plays a big role in presenting stuff to reporters and guiding them and helping them through stuff. So I thought it would be really cool to, yeah. 

SIROVY: All right. Alexis, why did you wanna be EIC and how will you feel about that? 

ALEXIS LETANG: I applied because I love the Daily. I transferred here. This is the only thing I’ve really been a part of. I met all my friends here. This is my way of giving back to the Daily. How do I feel about it?

SIROVY: A little numb now? 

LETANG: Yeah. 

SIROVY: Hasn’t quite kicked in?

LETANG: I try not to have feelings about it.

SIROVY: Are you really nervous about it?

LETANG: Well, that’s the part that I’m ignoring. So I don’t know what they are. 

SIROVY: So you guys are gonna be a team for this next year. How are we feeling about that? Are we really excited? Are we really nervous? 

HILL: I’d say getting into the main Daily group and seeing the things everyone does. I’m really excited to hang out and vibe with reporters who know everything. Alexis has been locked in at the Daily for two years. Obviously there’s a lot of stuff for us to learn, but we can both bring that energy and vibe it out, so to speak, and yeah, not worried at all. 

SIROVY: What have your professors been, have they been congratulating you guys? 

LETANG: I got emails. They were like, “Oh. Good job.” And I was like, oh, like professors I didn’t think knew me. They were like, “Oh my god, yay.” And I was like, “Oh, cool. Thank you. Yeah.” 

SIROVY: What are you most excited about for this next year? 

HILL: I can’t wait to get started I think in investigative desk wise. I’m excited to do more data requests and work with the investigative reporters more closely, especially since the University, like, can I say that they don’t really like to give us data? ’cause it costs money.

SIROVY: You can. 

HILL: Okay. Well, they don’t really like to give us data, so we’re gonna, we’re gonna really hit it hard. Get some long-term projects in the air. 

LETANG: Sam just gave a warning. 

HILL: Beware. 

SIROVY: preemptive strike. Like, here, here you guys go. 

LETANG: This is what you’re dealing with. Yeah. I get to know different beats now, ’cause before I was just A&E, which is like second nature to me. I’m always up to date with that stuff. So I get to hone in on some different beats and skills and then also just probably like getting a different team since there’s so much turnover this year. So yeah, just trying to get everyone to vibe and gel. 

SIROVY: There are a lot of seniors graduating this year. So there’s gonna be a lot of open spots for people who are listening to this and are like, “Hmm, I wanna work here” ’cause it’s great to work here.

HILL: It’s a great place. 

SIROVY: What’s gonna be the first thing that you guys do? 

HILL: I’ll shoot that question over to you, Alexis. 

SIROVY: It could be like anything, like the first email you’re gonna send out in the summer. Have you thought about that? 

LETANG: Oh, in the summer? Yes. It’ll be that we’re starting publishing. Well, I’m doing stuff now. Like I’m interviewing desk editors and then I sent out emails for managing editors, so it’s like assembling a team. That’s my first job right now.

HILL: Like the Avengers? 

SIROVY: Yeah, I was gonna say that. Like the Avengers. That’s so fun. 

Well, yeah, less financial damage. Emotional damage. Well our job is to kind of annoy people, so you know, sometimes some people need them.

HILL: We’re like the Avengers, but with less government oversight. 

LETANG: We’re like the opposite of the Avengers. If anything, we’re like, actually, did you know the Avengers are backed by the military. 

HILL: We did a data request on Ironman.

LETANG: He’s using all this money for something completely useless. 

HILL: Students for a Democratic society is staging a protest against Ironman.

SIROVY: I’m losing it right now. 

HILL: They should. Let’s be real. 

LETANG: Okay. So you’re not an Ironman fan? 

HILL: I am. 

LETANG: He’s a billionaire.

SIROVY: But at the end of the day, he’s still a billionaire. 

LETANG: My first Marvel movie was Infinity War. 

HILL: That’s good. 

SIROVY: Did you say that’s good? 

LETANG: Thank you Sam.

HILL: For an A&E reporter absolutely. 

LETANG: I knew I was an important movie. Mm-hmm. And I was excited to see it for that reason. Sam’s very supportive. 

HILL: Managing editor. 

LETANG: So Sam’s supportive and I’m excited for that as well. 

SIROVY: What is your work ethic? Do you balance each other out? Are you complete opposites? 

HILL: I mean, I’m a slogger. 

LETANG: What does that mean?

HILL: Guess in the Army, what got me through was just doing stuff until I’m exhausted. So I sort of just do things. I feel like I’m not a procrastinator. 

LETANG: I get my stuff done. I also enjoy the Daily more than schoolwork, so it’s kind of different. I’ll do Daily work doing an assignment. My work ethic depends on the day. I think we balance each other out. Sam talks more. 

HILL: I can yap. 

LETANG: Yeah. Sam’s a yapper and I’m less of that.

SIROVY: Yeah. 

LETANG: Still figuring that out. Gonna be real, Sam, and I don’t know each other that well. So we’re gonna figure that out as we go on. 

SIROVY: Did you guys talked about like the, ’cause I remember sitting for both of your EIC presentations and you touched on similar things. You both talked about video. Alexis, you talked about expanding the style guide. Are you still thinking about those like video and style guides? And I know Sam, you talked about helping with burnout. 

LETANG: I’m still thinking about style guides. For now it’s mostly just getting something in the style guide about pronouns because that is what we come across a lot, and then video ’cause we have the equipment for it, so we might as well use it. But then there’s other stuff that goes into all of that. I’m thinking about it. Yes. And there will be movements towards boosting our video. 

HILL: True. 

SIROVY: I’m excited to see it.

HILL: Be cool. 

SIROVY: I hope so. 

LETANG: You better be excited to see it. 

SIROVY: Okay. You guys have been here for a while now. What have been some of your favorite pieces, some of your favorite reporting, some of your favorite moments from the office?

HILL: Okay. I think there are a few ways this office tends to shine. I like the random pieces that get a lot of views. Sophie did a piece on (crocheting) that got 27,000 views. Hannah and Tyler’s recent reporting on academic freedom, ’cause they have like these big issues that they follow very closely, talk to everyone involved and they write follow up piece after follow up piece. I love the way reporters can get engaged with that. 

SIROVY: Something you’ve done, something your desk has done. 

LETANG: I went from reporter to editor real quick, so I haven’t gotten a lot of big stories but stories that I’ve edited. Gabriel Brito did a story one of our first stories last semester was furry convention.

SIROVY: Oh, that one was a good one. 

LETANG: And it was a good story. 

SIROVY: I loved hearing his reporting on it.

LETANG: It was so funny. It was just fun. And yeah, so that’s one of my favorites probably from the year, just ’cause it’s so out there.

I like the weirder stories. I like the stories that when you pitch it, you’re just like, “Oh dear, I have to pitch this.” For example, I think it was Varsity Theater. They had a show and it was called Piss Fest. 

HILL: Piss Fest. 

LETANG: Yes. you’re gonna make me say this. Like what? So I like those and then there’s, city does a few. There’s so many names in the city ones that I’m just like, “Oh, this is cool.” But I don’t edit them. So it’s kind of hard for me to be like this specific one ’cause I’m just like, “Oh, that’s a good story.”

SIROVY: What have been some of your favorite moments from the office? 

LETANG: That we can share? 

SIROVY: We did for Spencer and Amelia. But yeah, something about the… 

LETANG: Can’t mention the jar. 

SIROVY: No, we cannot.

 LETANG: Sam’s idea then? So, favorite memory? I don’t know. We’re in the office a lot, so it’s kind of hard. Everything kind of blends together. I just kind of like when in the middle of editing, everyone’s just kind of bouncing off of each other, like riffing and a bit keeps going for a while. I remember most recently it was like Spencer was doing a voice impression of the newsletters and it was really funny. 

SIROVY: I remember this one. 

LETANG: Yeah, that was something I liked.

SIROVY: “Hey, freakazoids.” 

LETANG: It was that one and it was just really funny when everyone’s bouncing off of each other and when there’s a bit of chaos with the editing, you know? Because what is the newsroom without chaos? 

SIROVY: What is a newsroom without chaos? Not a true newsroom, that’s for sure. Maybe you wanna talk a bit about yourself, Alexis, to get our readership to know who you are as a person ’cause they’re gonna be hearing from you a lot in those newsletters.

LETANG: What should I say? What do you want to know about?

SIROVY: Why you got into journalism. 

LETANG: I started an interest in journalism in middle school. Surprise, surprise was around 2016 election. And so that was just, it was also the time, social media activism was going up. So it was just like, I was like, “Oh, these two things.” And somehow I was like, I like writing. I like telling stories. Ended up there and then high school, I tried to start a newspaper at my high school. That didn’t go too well. Mostly ’cause of Covid, but also because we would’ve had to start a class.

So it was just, it was kind of there like, I don’t know, I was gonna be writing regardless. It was just a matter of picking fiction or like going out there. And I also like learning, so I was like, “Ah, journalism, I can just know everything. A little bit about everything.” 

SIROVY: Kind of a jack of all trades. Master of none.

LETANG: So then pull out different things for trivia if I need to as well.

SIROVY: Why’d you get into journalism, Sam? 

HILL: The Army was paying for my school, so I figured I’d get as much schooling as I could. I was like, I’ll get a second major and boost my communication skills. I’ll learn how to talk to people. I chose to do journalism ’cause my dad’s a professor of journalism. I think I fell in love with the process and knowing things is really fun.

So yeah, definitely, my favorite part of school so far. 

SIROVY: And do you guys wanna be like more, you’re more interested about like, hard news or like multimedia or, like video work. What’s another one? Like newspaper writing, radio, tv. Which ones? 

LETANG: For me it’s writing like print, digital, online newspapers, things like that. Paper’s dying. 

HILL: True. 

LETANG: When I say newspaper, I usually just mean online newspapers and then that may or may not put out a physical copy. Right now that’s what I’ve been focusing on within the J school, just writing, figuring out different ways to write, taking my news reporting, just trying to get all the writing under my belt and then hope someone hires me. 

SIROVY: What about you Sam? 

HILL: I definitely have the most experience with writing, but any communication style that lets us reach people I’m interested in. I really like podcasts ’cause it’s a great way of just, you know, people’s ears. 

SIROVY: Heck yeah! Why do you think I love it? 

LETANG: Because you’re a yapper. 

SIROVY: I can be a yapper. She raised her eyebrows. 

LETANG: Kaylie’s a yapper. 

SIROVY: Why do you think I love doing this so much? Are you guys gonna continue the quote book?

HILL: Absolutely. 

SIROVY: Who’s gonna, is that Sam’s job or Alexis’s job? 

LETANG: That’s a great question. I’m pretty good at keeping quotes, like I have, I’ve been keeping track of my friends’ quotes for a while. So I’m pretty good at it, but Amelia’s been doing it so I feel like it.

SIROVY: She’s so sneaky.

LETANG: I guess Sam would have to do it ’cause he is managing editor. I think if we just work together and each take our own and then compile them. 

HILL: Yeah, absolutely. 

LETANG: We don’t miss anything. Like if I’m not listening and Sam hears something or Sam says something, someone’s gonna write it down. So you just cover your bases. Teamwork. 

SIROVY: Teamwork. Teamwork makes the dream work. 

HILL: Is there a group consensus that we come to before writing on a quote, or is it just okay.

SIROVY: Literally anything that is like out of pocket, funny or even like a little scary sometimes. 

HILL: We’ll vibe it out. 

SIROVY: Yeah, and you don’t have to tell people that you’re writing their quotes down either.

Are you nervous about being the boss for everybody? 

LETANG: My biggest fear of the job is messing up and doing irreparable damage, but I also catastrophize. There’s a reason I keep my feelings out of this so it’s nerve wracking, but I try to just be like, you got a job to do.

SIROVY: Did you want? 

HILL: Yeah, in the Army, in leadership positions, they teach us you’re never gonna be perfect. If it doesn’t go right it’s still gonna have to buff out. Like you’re still gonna buff it out regardless. So it’s just a matter of trusting yourself to make those calls. And if you don’t make the call, you’ll make the call next time. 

SIROVY: That was something that Spencer and Amelia talked about when I talked with them. They were like, “You’re gonna make mistakes. It’s gonna happen.” 

LETANG: Sam’s more chill than me. I’m pretty sure you are more levelheaded or less catastrophizing.

HILL: 90% of the time. 

LETANG: I’m an anxious person and Sam seems less anxious. I said, seems. 

HILL: Hey, that’s all that matters. 

SIROVY: Oh, have you started training with Spencer or Amelia, yet? 

LETANG: Started training with Spencer. Because like, okay, the thing with EIC is, you have to just start doing it. I know how to publish stories I have access to Flow docs and stuff like that. Honestly, I’m not worried about the editing part. That’s the least of my worries. I know how to do Beehiv ’cause I run the Scene right now so I know how to do newsletters. Part of it is just there’s stuff that can’t be taught and then there’s some stuff that Charlie has to teach ’cause he has more expertise about it.

I’ve been having conversations with Spencer, ’cause we are friends. I’ve been like, “Hey, what’s some other parts of this that aren’t technical or just hands on.” We’ve just been chatting about it. 

HILL: Yeah, for the managing editor side, it’s very much like when you’re a kid and you first get hired at Subway and you go around watching the people make sandwiches because I can’t edit for Amelia and I can’t go to the meetings. 

LETANG: You’re going to one tonight.

HILL: So it’s a lot of watching on my part and, I don’t know how to do the newsletter, so I’m gonna have to talk to Amelia about that. 

SIROVY: You’re gonna have to learn how to publish the podcast. 

HILL: Awesome. Very excited for that. 

SIROVY: You’re gonna be the podcast desk editor. 

HILL: I cannot wait. 

SIROVY:  Yeah, so don’t expect it to be perfect, like right away either because I’m graduating so someone else will be taking over the position.

LETANG: They aren’t gonna be perfect 

SIROVY: Yeah, I had a problem with that too. When I first started being editor, I was like, “It needs to be perfect. I have this vision in my mind and it needs to be like that,” but it wasn’t, and I’m totally okay with it now. I’m like, yeah, just do whatever you want, but still get stuff in. 

LETANG: Yeah. I was told to chill out actually. Spencer told me to chill out. I’m working on it. Geez. 

SIROVY: She’s gonna be so great. 

LETANG: I’m so chill, bro.

SIROVY: So chill. 

LETANG: Yeah. Just whatever happens, happens. 

SIROVY: You’re probably gonna see some mean comments that you’re gonna have to approve. 

LETANG: Oh, I kind of like those. 

SIROVY: Those are funny to read. 

LETANG: Crazy. 

SIROVY: Some of them are. 

LETANG: A&E only really gets comments when it’s like someone does a review or like says something they don’t like. That’s the only time we get comments. Most of the time comments are like, “This person’s wrong,” and I’m like, I’m sorry dude. Like it was the Eminem album.

HILL: How dare you think Eminem thought this? We should have a quote page on the Daily.

SIROVY: For all the comments that haven’t been approved.

HILL: Well, even just, make it publicly available on the websites. Like, look at this. 

LETANG: Not the purpose.

SIROVY: Of not being malicious. 

LETANG: Not publishing it. 

SIROVY: Malicious as blackmail. 

HILL: Ooh. I know who you are. 

LETANG: We are nice, normal people. We are nice people that want to do good in the world.

SIROVY: I know that, but you’re like my best friend. That was a cute face. 

LETANG: No.

SIROVY: No more affection? 

LETANG: No. 

SIROVY: Well, I’ve talked to Sam, like I haven’t talked to him as much as I’ve talked to you. 

LETANG: I know, but no, I was just saying in that moment, Sam was just third wheeling. That’s okay. 

HILL: That’s fine. 

LETANG: That’s okay.

SIROVY: Well, everyone’s gonna be graduating. How do we feel about that? 

LETANG: No. 

SIROVY: Okay. I didn’t think you wanted to talk about it. 

LETANG: I don’t wanna talk about it.

HILL: Everyone who’s listening should apply to the Daily. 

LETANG: We need people actually. 

SIROVY: Ever the professional. Yeah. There’s gonna be a lot of job openings. Not my problem.

LETANG: Okay, so the chaos won’t be leaving the newsroom. 

SIROVY: It’ll get better. 

LETANG: It’ll…

SIROVY: Okay. Well, you guys have anything you wanna talk about? 

LETANG: Yeah. What Sam said. 

SIROVY: It’s been a pleasure to have you guys here. Thank you so much for joining me today. Sam and Alexis, I am excited to see you in your new positions.

 HILL: Thank you so much. It was so fun being here. 

SIROVY: Alright, I’m Kaylie. 

LETANG: I’m Alexis. 

HILL: I am Sam. 

SIROVY: And this has been In the Know.