Edwards Awarded New York Times Internship

At least one current senior won’t be spending the spring semester worrying about what’s going to happen to him after graduation. Ithacan Editor in Chief Aaron Edwards will be heading to the Metro desk at the New York Times on a James Reston Reporting Fellowship, covering stories for print and the Web. He’ll also have a chance to branch out to other departments at the Times, including some work in social media and video. 
“I feel humbled and blessed to have been chosen for the Times’ reporting fellowship,” Aaron said. “It’s an incredible time to be a journalist, and I’m thrilled for the chance to learn from some of the best in the industry. There’s so much exciting encouragement to end the year on a high note.”
He’ll be in good company, with IC alumni Jill Agostino ’86, Nic Barajas ’08, Nick Corasaniti ’08 and Adam Ellick ’99 already on the Times staff.

Esquire Internship Turns Into Job for Libby Sile

Here's more evidence that if you have talent and work hard, it pays off. After graduating last May, Libby Sile ”11 went to New York to pursue her dream of working in the magazine industry. Here’s the latest news:

“After bouncing from internship to freelance gig since moving to New York in June, someone finally hired me! I began interning for Esquire in September and at the end of my internship, I was hired full time as an editorial assistant. I'll be the assistant to the magazine's executive editor and deputy editor and will help some of my favorite writers with research and interviews. As the presidential election gains momentum over the next year, I’ll be working with our politics blogger as well. I couldn’t be more excited to be starting my first job at my favorite magazine and look forward to seeing where it takes me.”


 Congratulations Libby!

Ithacan Named Crown Finalist

The Columbia Scholastic Press Association has named The Ithacan a finalist for the newspaper Crown Award for both semesters of the 2010–11 academic year. The Crown Awards are the CSPA’s top honors, presented each year at the spring National College Media Convention in New York City. This year’s convention is March 18–20.

Casey Lands at philly.com

Casey Musarra writes:

“You can take the girl out of Jersey, but you can't take the Jersey out of the girl. I think this just about every day as I travel over the Benjamin Franklin Bridge into Philadelphia. I'm currently commuting about an hour and a half from North Jersey to the City of Brotherly Love where I'm working as a sports content producer for philly.com, an aggregate site of The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News, which oddly enough are housed in the same building and owned by the same company. I work on the back end of the site posting stories, writing headlines and captions, cutting photos, etc. I've only been there for four days, but I'm loving the excitement of a fast-paced newsroom that for me is all sports all the time. It's a dream come true to be in a position where working on Sunday doesn't take away from watching football on Sunday.

“I'm hoping to move down to the Philadelphia area to nom on boatloads of Philly cheesesteaks in the next month or so, but for now I'm enjoying my long car rides to have solo karaoke sessions and get my fill of Mike and Mike in the Morning.”

A Record Day for the Ithacan Website

Last Thursday, The Ithacan’s website experienced 3,793 visits — a single-day record — as the result of The Huffington Post tweeting and linking on its Facebook page to Taylor Long’s story on the college’s Health Promotion Center program director’s email to faculty suggesting they assign additional work to students over Cortaca weekend in an attempt to curtail excessive drinking. A Chronicle of Higher of Education blog also picked up on the story, adding to our web traffic.

Aaron Edwards is Everywhere

Ithacan Editor in Chief Aaron Edwards has been popping up all over the place as a featured student in the college’s new “Ready” marketing campaign. Advertising featuring him has turned up in The New York Times, on Pandora and in a wide range of other media, including PIX’s website in New York. (Screenshot courtesy of Liz Crowley Pontillo ’04)

The Ithacan Wins Best of Show

From left: Assistant News Editor Erica Palumbo, Assistant
Photo Editor Rachel Orlow, Chief Copy Editor and Sales
Manager Marissa Smith and Managing Editor Whitney
Faber in Orlando

The Ithacan print edition was awarded first place, and the Ithacan website was awarded second place, in their categories in the Best of Show competition at the National College Media Convention in Orlando, Fla., October 27–30.
The paper was also presented with a Newspaper Pacemaker Finalist Award at the convention. The Pacemakers, presented each year by the Associated Collegiate Press, are widely regarded as “the Pulitzer Prize of collegiate journalism” and are among the most prestigious student journalism awards in the country.
The paper has been a finalist eight times in the past 10 years, and won the award in 2005, 2006 and 2008. The website has won the Online Pacemaker Award four times in the past six years.