GRACE AIGNER: Hi, everyone. I’m Grace Aigner from the Minnesota Daily. Welcome back to another episode of In The Know, a podcast dedicated to the University of Minnesota. 

We’ve got a special episode today. I’m sitting here in the podcast studio with Tyler Church and Isabella Morden Wheeldon, the Daily’s incoming editor-in-chief and managing editor. Hey, guys.

TYLER CHURCH: What’s up? 

ISABELLA MORDEN WHEELDON: Hey. What’s up? 

AIGNER: How’s it going?

MORDEN WHEELDON: Just another day in paradise. 

CHURCH: It’s going. Yeah, it’s going.

AIGNER: It’s finals season, just about.

CHURCH: That’s true. 

MORDEN WHEELDON: Yeah.

AIGNER: Last day of Monday-Wednesday classes.

CHURCH: I had my last lab today. Let’s go.

AIGNER: Lab for what?

CHURCH: Human evolution. That class is actually pretty cool though. Yeah, no, I enjoyed it. We learned about monkeys.

AIGNER: Very nice. Okay. Well, let’s get into why you’re, I’ve brought you here today.

CHURCH: Oh, scary.

AIGNER: Congratulations, again. You are The Daily’s next newsroom leaders.

CHURCH: Me?

AIGNER: Yeah, you.

CHURCH: Oh, I, the first I’m hearing of it.

AIGNER: But before we talk about, like, what’s ahead for you guys, I did wanna kind of go back in time a little bit and ask you a bit about what your journey at The Daily has been like.

What kind of brought you to this moment where you’re sitting here about to take on a new role?

CHURCH: Yeah. Started off as a reporter, started off as a junior reporter, you know, focused mainly on politics and policy, you know. Then I got put in handcuffs, and that kind of made me a bit more focused on what I wanted to do.

So yeah, from there I focused pretty much entirely on university policy and politics, a little bit of crime thrown in there. And then, yeah, became The Daily’s campus editor, ran operations for campus through Operation Metro Surge. Not fun. Not a fun time. And now I’m here now. It was a pretty cool ride.

AIGNER: Isabella, how’d you find yourself here?

MORDEN WHEELDON: Yeah. So I’m sitting in this chair because I started less than a year ago, and so I still do feel like kind of a little kid in a big adult coat with this position, but I’m really excited. I started off on Tyler’s campus desk as a junior reporter. I got really interested in, like, administration and Board of Regents stuff.

I also dabbled in a little bit of crime to the best of my ability. Shout out UMPD. And then I became staff reporter, senior staff reporter, and now I’m taking on this role and I’m really excited.

AIGNER: So I’m gonna go even, a little bit even further back. But what drew you to journalism originally?

MORDEN WHEELDON: I feel like I have an immediate answer for this because it kind of started out as just one of those things that you knew you kinda wanna do, and I really liked writing. I always have. And it wasn’t until, like, my second or third year in college that I could actually use it to help people. Because one of my favorite things about writing the stuff that I write about is that you can call out people when they’re doing bad things when they’re in power, and more importantly, you can help those marginalized communities that’re affected by that kind of thing. 

So that’s, I don’t know, and that definitely I realized that even more during Operation Metro Surge.

AIGNER: What about you?

CHURCH: For me, it was something very similar. I mean, I’ve always grown up really good at writing and really good at English. I knew I wanted to help people when I was really young. Originally, I wanted to be a meteorologist.

AIGNER: Whoa.

MORDEN WHEELDON: Did not know that.

CHURCH: And, you know, I, as I was growing up, I saw a lot of disparity and, how would I say this? Just wrongdoing around me, I’d say. And, you know, this was an opportunity and a way for me to right those wrongs, hold people accountable, as Isabella mentioned, which is a really cool part of journalism.

I really like holding the people that are doing bad things accountable for their actions.

AIGNER: Sounds like you both really feel like journalism is an act of public service.

CHURCH: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

MORDEN WHEELDON: I think if you’re not doing it for that reason, then you are definitely here for the wrong reason.

CHURCH: Well, I don’t know. There, there’s a gray area in that, but I’d say yeah.

AIGNER: You are, again, the new incoming leaders of The Daily’s newsroom. What made you want to pursue those roles? Was there a moment? Was there an influence on you that made you feel like you could do it?

MORDEN WHEELDON: I think we were, to an extent, we were both thrown into this a little bit, which is not to say that we were the only selections for the job. I don’t think that’s completely true. 

But I think we both have a lot of shared values and visions for what The Daily should look like, and that is with all due respect to the past leaders. I think they’ve done an excellent job, but we both have a lot of the same ideas, I think.

CHURCH: Yeah. When I was coming up as a reporter, I, you know, my editor and our editor-in-chief, Liv Hines and Spencer White at the time, were both really big influences for me on what a newsroom should look like and how it should operate, and the ability there was to teach and grow and learn.

And that was really foundational for me. I think it really set me in a tone where I’m like, “All right, you know, I’ve paid my dues. I’ve done my work as a reporter. Now I wanna bestow that onto the people who are also learning now.” 

There’s a really great opportunity for that in campus desk. You know, I got to meet a lot of new people, and a lot of people I was able to teach, and now I’m moving on to editor-in-chief, where I can do that with editors and the reporters below them as well. For me, it’s just like giving back what I got when I first started.

MORDEN WHEELDON: I second that as well, because I basically kind of joined The Daily as a whim after I was getting back on my feet from life events, and it’s been literally my entire life since then. And I feel comfortable stepping up to this position, and I want to help other people here as well.

AIGNER: A year from now, what are you hoping to say you helped add or change in this newsroom?

CHURCH: For me, I think it goes beyond the newsroom. Uh, I wanna be able to say I helped the people in the newsroom build their resumes and build their skills as a reporter to the point where they’re able to be employed professionally wherever they wanna go.

But at the same time, I also want to be able to say that I helped the University of Minnesota community. 

You know, there’s a lot of spots where that can happen, whether it be, like, student relations or, you know, university administration or sports, arts and entertainment, city. Those all have, like, a really valuable place in that, and I want to be able to use those desks and the stories that are told on those desks to help the people at the University of Minnesota in any way, shape, or form that we can.

MORDEN WHEELDON: I think something that we’ve been talking about a lot recently is recentering the focus on the student community. And while I think it’s pretty ambitious to say we’re gonna restore The Daily back to its glory days in, like, 2010. But I think that is something that we had back then. That’s one of our goals.

One of my goals is to get to know everybody. I don’t know everybody here yet, and I would like to know everybody on a name basis, you know? I wanna give every desk their time to shine. I think some desks more than others feel like they’re a little bit of an island, and I really want to be in tune with what their needs are because then I think we can improve as a whole paper. You know?

CHURCH: Yeah. Make something special.

AIGNER: In your guys’ wildest dreams, like, what does that kind of reintegration with the student community, what does that look like to you?

CHURCH: For me at least, I want that to mean that The Daily has a meaningful impact on the student experience. You look back at the old magazines, I’ve been looking through the archives from, like, all the way from the ’90s through, you know, 2019, just before the pandemic started and we moved online.

And, you know, a lot of our work was really deeply integrated with the community. Like, you look at our opinion section and you look at the work that our campus sections have done and, you know, there’s a really strong tie to students and the student experience that I want to be able to give back again. And have, you know, a role in student life that means something.

I think we play kind of a role now where students go to us when they know something is happening and they wanna learn more. 

AIGNER: Yeah. 

CHURCH: But I would like to be a place where students go when they want to know that there’s something happening.

AIGNER: When they wanna learn it?

CHURCH: Yeah, yeah And be a place where people can be informed and up to date.

MORDEN WHEELDON: I think a big part of that, too, is being interactive with our community. People only go to our site when they already know something’s happening. That’s why a lot of our breaking news stories have done really well ‘cause they’re breaking news. 

CHURCH: Yeah. 

MORDEN WHEELDON: But this is your guys’ paper. This is our university’s paper. This is for you.

AIGNER: Yeah. 

CHURCH: Yeah.

MORDEN WHEELDON: You should be interacting.

AIGNER: We’re your classmates. 

MORDEN WHEELDON: Yes. We live amongst you. Believe it or not, I’m in your walls. Anyways, but-

CHURCH: Sorry, I was-

MORDEN WHEELDON: There’s a few things in the works that we’re thinking about, how to make this paper more interactive with students, so, you know-

CHURCH: Yeah.

MORDEN WHEELDON: Stay tuned. Get pumped.

CHURCH: Get excited. Get on your feet. 

AIGNER: We’re gonna come out of the walls. 

CHURCH: Get, get on your feet, get out of your chairs. 

MORDEN WHEELDON: I’m gonna break through your ceiling.

AIGNER: What’s interesting about what the conversations we have now and what you guys are saying is that, like, now that we don’t have that, now that we don’t have that literal, physical piece of paper that you can find on campus, what does that look like then, to have this, a similar impact?

CHURCH: Yeah. I think it’s so hard. The role that newspaper played to be on campus was any building you went into, whether it be the sciences, the arts, even administrative halls, there was a physical piece of The Daily there, that we were on campus.

And having that now, there’s definitely a loss in recognition and a loss of involvement within the campus community that we’ve been trying to brainstorm on how to rebuild that. And I think our answer for at least right now is there’s a lot of ways that we have to rebuild that. I think first and foremost, we have to meet students where they are.

The reality of the situation is people are moving online, people are moving to social media, and us being online is cool, but that’s not where people are anymore. They are online, but they’re not in the same space that we are. They’re on social media, they’re on platforms where they can interact with other people, and we have to meet them there.

And I mean, we’ve had a social team and we’re building it out right now, and I have some plans for the future as to what that might look like to get people involved a little more, but I think that’s a great start, and I think giving students a reason to come to The Daily website more than just, like, a story I think is something that we could definitely build on as well.

MORDEN WHEELDON It’s also kind of, I wanna note that it’s important to note credit where credit is due. With our weaknesses, we, and I’m sure this is probably one of something you’re gonna touch on, but we really excelled in Operation Metro Surge coverage.

CHURCH: 100%.

AIGNER: Yeah, yeah.

MORDEN WHEELDON: I could get really tangential, but, like, Tyler and I were like we were the people that were out there. I wanna say that outright.

CHURCH: That, during that time, it was for me, it was such a foundational learning experience. You know, I came up doing protest work, and I came up doing work surrounding civil issues.

So being on the front lines of stuff that is not just happening at the university, but happening in Minneapolis and, to an extent, nationwide, was a very heavy experience. But it was very telling as to how strong the Minneapolis community is and how much other people around here are willing to fight for people they’ve never even met before. I think that’s really powerful.

MORDEN WHEELDON: And it’s not like we really had a choice.

CHURCH: Yeah.

MORDEN WHEELDON: We live here and this is our job. 

AIGNER: Yeah. 

CHURCH: Yeah. 

MORDEN WHEELDON: So we had to. It was one of the more deeply upsetting and humbling and informing parts of my life, and I will go so far as to say that we had some of the best coverage in the Twin Cities because we were living it.

CHURCH: There are also a lot of, you know, media organizations and individuals both Minneapolis and nationwide who’ve done great work on revealing the community’s hurt and the long-term effects of it all. I think we did a great job when we were on the ground. 

I think looking at it now from a long-term lens, it’s definitely a point I wanna look back to at some point and be like, and examine the work that we did from a, a much broader perspective. But for now, it was-

MORDEN WHEELDON: Kind of just in recovery mode.

CHURCH: For lack of a better term.

MORDEN WHEELDON: It really boils down to, like, who actually gives a shit in this job. Excuse me.

CHURCH: Yeah.

MORDEN WHEELDON: I don’t know. And something else that I thought of was I was at the Whipple Detention Center, like, every day for almost two weeks, maybe three, I can’t remember, but I don’t, like, I don’t know anybody else who was doing that. 

And I went there because I think I showed up by myself not working one day because I wanted to check it out because I felt some sort of moral responsibility to be there. And I got home that day, and it was, like, 8 or 9 p.m., I think, and I was like, “I need to be out there,” you know?

“I don’t know who else is gonna be doing this.” So that’s kind of when I started my stint there.

AIGNER: Taking all of that into account, how do you feel right now, literally right this moment or today or this week, about what’s next for you here at The Daily and here in your journalism career? Correct me if I’m wrong, but in just about a week or so is the official transfer of power.

CHURCH: Yep.

AIGNER: How do you feel right now?

CHURCH: I’m so excited. You know, part of that is, like, overzealousness, like, getting ahead of myself a little bit, but I am very excited. For me, like, this is an opportunity to make something that people have worked so hard on for so long even better. 

And ultimately, this is, this entire organization is a testament to the work of students for over 100 years. And I think being able to be someone who can say I had not only a role, but a foundational role in that is something that’s really cool to me. And having the opportunity to, you know, make those changes for the better I think is something that I don’t take for granted.

MORDEN WHEELDON: The first thing that comes to mind is the amount of work that we’re gonna have to do. But there’s a quote that I think of from this one poem about trying to guide students away from using AI, and it’s I don’t know, it’s a little bit stupid and it seems cyclical, but it’s, “Love is for the ones who love the work.”

And I feel like what I said earlier, you-

CHURCH: You’ve gotta love it.

MORDEN WHEELDON: You have to love it.

CHURCH: You have to love every part of it. 

MORDEN WHEELDON: It boils down to the people who give a shit. And it takes a real love for people and getting to know people, and I love people. I love talking to people. There’s nothing I’d rather be doing on this earth, you know?

AIGNER: We have to ask it, favorite office memories, Daily stories?

MORDEN WHEELDON: Something interesting happened yesterday.

AIGNER: And what was that?

CHURCH: I know exactly what this is.

MORDEN WHEELDON: There was some chasing that went on in the Mo costume specifically.

AIGNER: Oh, God.

MORDEN WHEELDON: Yeah, I’ll leave it at that.

AIGNER: That Mo costume, man. For those of you who don’t know, listeners, our Mo costume is a large, vaguely Minnesota state shaped red…

CHURCH: It’s a folded newspaper.

AIGNER: And it’s also supposed to look like Minnesota. Yeah. It’s also not the colors we use anymore, so that’s exciting.

MORDEN WHEELDON: Interesting. 

CHURCH: Hashtag spray paint Mo blue. 

AIGNER: And he has eyes, and you can put it on over your head.

MORDEN WHEELDON: I think we need to burn it. 

CHURCH: Hashtag spray paint Mo blue.

AIGNER: Who was wearing the costume? 

MORDEN WHEELDON: That was Tyler and he was going around chasing his subordinates. 

AIGNER: Tyler, do you have any, you’ve been here about as long as me. We’re in the same year.

CHURCH: Yeah. I think when we were all in D.C. for the editors trip this year, and our lovely arts and entertainment editor, Sophia, put a dart in my hand.

MORDEN WHEELDON: Oh my gosh.

AIGNER: Barely. 

CHURCH: What do you mean barely? It was, like, actually in my hands. I have the picture of the mark that it left in my hand. It was, like, that big. It was half my hand.

MORDEN WHEELDON: Nobody’s gonna believe you. 

AIGNER: He’s not lying. 

CHURCH: I’m not lying. I don’t know if any of my other stories are ones to be shared aloud.

AIGNER: What are you most nervous about for your new roles?

MORDEN WHEELDON: There’s a lot of things that come right to my head, and I’m actually not nervous about them, like the amount of flak that we get on a monthly or weekly basis, I’m not nervous about.

AIGNER: What does make you nervous?

MORDEN WHEELDON: I think just in general the workload that I’m gonna have next year. We’re both gonna be, it’s gonna be our last year.

AIGNER: Yeah.

MORDEN WHEELDON: So that comes with-

CHURCH: God willing …

MORDEN WHEELDON: God willing.

AIGNER: Are you nervous about anything, Tyler Church?

CHURCH: I would say this is a really big company with a lot of people, and that’s a little scary, knowing that I’m the person who manages all those people. 

AIGNER: Yeah. 

CHURCH: Or not all of them, but all the people in the newsroom. That’s really scary.

MORDEN WHEELDON: That’s why I’m here.

AIGNER: What are you most looking forward to about the next year of your life?

CHURCH: That’s a toughie. I think one of the things that I hope to enjoy most is just, like, the time. It’s my last year, hopefully, at the university, so being able to enjoy that time and enjoy the experience is something I really wanna do.

It’s something that I’ve told reporters is, like, man, I miss reporting. Like, enjoy that experience while you can. And I know once I get out of here, I’m gonna go, well, I miss everything about it. So just taking that time to, like, soak it in and enjoy the moment. I’ve had issues with being able to stop and smell the roses, so really keeping in mind that, like, this is the last hurrah, and it’s okay.

MORDEN WHEELDON: I also wanna enjoy the last few minutes of my time here, it’ll feel like probably. Something that we’ve been talking a lot about is placing emphasis on the little, and not so little, evergreen stories that people actually do really wanna read, and they really are important. And I have a tendency to step away from that, and I always wanna do the big, groundbreaking stories.

And I am gonna say I’m really excited to do more of those. You know, and I’ll try to balance it out, but, like, with being managing editor, I get to lead the investigative desk, and that’s something that I’m really excited to put my heart into, and we have some big stories. It’s a long time coming, and I’m excited to see where those go.

And again, I’m also excited to get to know everybody more individually.

AIGNER: I’m excited to get to know you both as fearless leaders, champions of The Daily. That was the last question I prepared for you guys.

CHURCH: Okay.

AIGNER: Do you have anything else you wanna share with the people? With me? With each other?

MORDEN WHEELDON: Get ready to be informed in a way that you’ve never experienced before.

CHURCH: Yeah, get your informing pants on.

MORDEN WHEELDON: Get your pants on. Get on your laptop.

CHURCH: Put your shirt on, hopefully.

MORDEN WHEELDON: Put your shoe on. Walk out the door. 

CHURCH: Put your other shoe on.

MORDEN WHEELDON: And start learning.

AIGNER: Open your email inboxes. Go look at that Minnesota Daily newsletter. Go to the Instagram. Read the Minnesota Daily news.

MORDEN WHEELDON: We might just have something that you want to read.

AIGNER: And these two sitting with me right now, Tyler and Isabella, will be running the messages you get in that inbox. So get excited.

MORDEN WHEELDON: Buckle up.

CHURCH: If you, if you guys ever dislike the newsletter, that’s Isabella, and if it’s ever really funny, that’s me.

AIGNER: That’s all I have for you today, folks. Thank you to special guests Tyler Church and Isabella Morden Wheeldon. 

CHURCH: Let’s go.

AIGNER: I’m excited to see what you guys do with The Daily. This episode was hosted by Grace Aigner and produced by Grace Aigner. Thanks for listening, and if you have any questions, comments or concerns, don’t be afraid to send us an email at [email protected]. I’d love to hear from you. 

My name is Grace Aigner, and you are?

CHURCH: Tyler Church.

AIGNER: And you are?

MORDEN WHEELDON: Isabella Morden Wheeldon.

AIGNER: Be safe, be well, and I’ll talk to you next time on In The Know.