Throwback Thursday: Fall 2003

#tbt “Proof of our political diversity in top editors." News editor Anne K. Walters ’04 and Managing Editor Caitlin Connelly ’05, Fall 2003.

Jack Curran Named 2014–15 Editor-in-Chief

The Ithaca College Board of Student Publications has appointed junior Jack Curran as editor-in-chief of The Ithacan for 2014-15. 
Curran, from Ballston Spa, N.Y., is currently the paper’s online news editor. He is a double major in journalism and economics. 
In addition to his work as an editor and staff writer at The Ithacan, he has served as an editorial intern at the investigative news website “City Limits” in New York City and as an assistant producer at ICTV’s Newswatch 16.
His term as editor-in-chief will begin at the end of the current academic year in May.

Graham Hebel Comes Back for a Visit

A lot of photo talent in one room: From left, “Year in Review”
Photo Editor Durst Breneiser, Assistant Photo Editor Amanda den Hartog,
Graham Hebel ’13,Staff Photographer Jennifer Williams and Photo Editor Tucker
Mitchell.

Former Ithacan photo editor Graham Hebel ’13 returned to campus for a visit this afternoon. It was his first look at the new Ithacan office, which he found quite impressive. Everybody loves those windows!
Graham is currently working as a desktop publishing assistant for Newman Architects in their New Haven, Conn., office, employing his wide range of photo and design skills in support of the firm's marketing initiatives. 
He managed to catch up with former Ithacan colleagues Taylor Palmer and Durst Breneiser, who were in the office working on “Year in Review,”  and Editor-in-Chief Megan Devlin; he met several new editorial board members as well.

Throwback Thursday: April 7, 1999

At front of room, from left: Board of Publications members Suzie O’Rourke ’09, Gretta Nemcek ’09, Dean Thomas W. Bohn, yours truly, Professor Mead Loop, Ithaca Journal managing editor Bruce Estes, SGA president Mark Naparstek ’09 and EIC candidate Rob Bluey ’01.

#tbt Fifteen years ago (!) this April 7, the Ithaca College Board of Student Publications interviewed Rob Bluey ’01 for the position of editor-in-chief of The Ithacan. He got the job and went on to lead the paper to its first national title as Best Non-Daily College Newspaper from the Society of Professional Journalists. Rob is now director of digital media and editor in chief of The Foundry blog at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. He’s married to his Ithacan managing editor, Melissa Bloomrose Bluey ’00; they have two sons, Ben and Luke.
The board will be convening again next Tuesday to select a new EIC for 2014–15.

Great Dinner with the New York Ithacan Alums

Counterclockwise from left: Stacey Coburn Williams, Nic Barajas, Emily
Paulsen, Jen Hodess Gonzalez, Liz Crowley Pontillo, Gustavo Rivas-Solis,
 Kelli B. Grant, Jim Hawver and Matt Quintanilla.

The Heartland Brewery on W. 43rd St. in Manhattan was once again the venue for our annual dinner with New York City Ithacan alumni, held in conjunction with the spring National College Media Convention. There was great food and great service, as always.

Twenty alumni turned out out to see old friends and meet new ones, as they interacted with one another and with seven current Ithacan staff members fresh off a victory in the Columbia Scholastic Press Association Crown Award competition at the convention.  

Counterclockwise from left, Steven Pirani, Evan Falk, Michelle Boule, Tucker
Mitchell, Shawn Steiner, Molly Apfelroth, Jared Dionne, Rachel Orlow
and Patrick Doyle.

Alumni in attendance were, in alphabetical order: Molly Apfelroth ’13, Nic Barajas ’08, Michelle Boule ’13, Jared Dionne ’13, Patrick Doyle, Aaron Edwards ’12, Evan Falk ’09, Jennifer Hodess Gonzalez ’02, Kelli B. Grant ’04, Jim Hawver ’07, Rachel Orlow ’13, Jackie Palochko ’11, Emily Paulsen ’05, Kaydi Poirier ’11, Elizabeth Crowley Pontillo ’04, Matt Quintanilla ’07, Gustavo Rivas-Solis 01, Libby Sile ’11, Shawn Steiner ’13  and Stacey Coburn Williams ’07.

The current students who met them at the dinner were Online News Editor Jack Curran ’15, Photo Editor Tucker Mitchell ’16, Assistant Accent Editor Steven Pirani ’16, Assistant Sports Editor Miles Surrey ’15, Assistant News Editor Kayla Dwyer ’17, Multimedia Editor Deanna Romanoff ’14 and Chief Proofreader Vicky Wolak ’14.

It was great to see everyone again, as always, and for those of you who couldn’t make it, you were missed. But there’s always next year.

Counterclockwise from left: Vicky Wolak, Aaron Edwards, Miles Surrey, Deanna
 Romanoff, Kaydi Poirier, Jack Curran, Kayla Dwyer, Jackie Palochko and Libby Sile.

More Awards from New York

The Ithacan wrapped up the spring National College Media Convention in New York today by topping off its Gold Crown Award with winning Second Place for Best Newspaper and Third Place for Best Facebook Page in the Apple Awards Best of Show Competition.

Ithacan Wins CSPA Gold Crown

From left, Assistant Sports Editor Miles Surrey, Assistant Accent Editor
Steven Pirani, CSPA Director Edward Sullivan, Online Editor Jack Curran
and Assistant Photo Editor Tucker Mitchell at the award presentation
ceremony at the conference.

The Ithacan has been a been presented with a Gold Crown award by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association at the spring National College Media Convention in New York City. The Gold Crown awards are the highest honors presented by CSPA.

The award recognizes overall excellence in publications that work “to combine their digital and print publications as one.” This award was for work produced during the 2012–13 academic year (Kelsey O’Connor, editor in chief). It was presented in a ceremony on March 14 at the Sheraton Times Square Hotel.

‘Loose Canons’ Wins PEGASYS Award

Congratulations to former Ithacan sports editors Matt Kelly ’13 and Taylor Palmer ’14 for winning Best in Show in this year's Tompkins County PEGASYS Awards for their ICTV police comedy, “Loose Canons.”  The show follows the adventures of “two endearing, goofball cops” who “solve crimes nobody else can.” 
The show will now be sent on by Time Warner to the Hometown Awards, a national competition for access programs held by the Alliance for Community Media.

Student Media Convergence Begins!

When we began planning the new Ithacan newsroom last spring, the idea was that it would not only serve as an ideal workspace for the Ithacan staff and provide a showcase for the paper’s daily print and multimedia operations, but that it would also serve as a converged workspace that would incorporate aspects of ICTV, the campus television station; and WICB, the radio station; as well.
That goal took a large step toward realization Thursday night when Newswatch broadcast it’s first brief segment from the newsroom. When we renovated the space, the west end of the room was fitted with appropriate lighting for a television shoot. Now we have a camera in place, as well as fixed communication between the newsroom and the studio. Additional broadcasts, content sharing between the student media and an aggregated website are among the projects in the works.
Dean Diane Gayeski set the whole thing in motion last year, and the hard work of the Park School's Technical Operations team helped make it a reality.
Here’s Newswatch’s Jesse Feldman ’15 from the newsroom:

And here's a piece our multimedia team put together to document the event.

Chili Fest Brings Alumni to Town

From left, former editor-in-chief Erin Geismar ’09, former
multimedia editor Kaydi Poirier ’11, former managing editor
Casey Musarra ’11, and former design editor Michelle Barrie ’10

Erin in the big chair.

This year's Great Downtown Ithaca Chili Cook Off — better known as Chili Fest — brought crowds of people from near and far to The Commons, including Ithacan alumni. Erin Geismar ’09, Casey Musarra ’11 and Kaydi Poirier ’11 — “Team Newsday,” as we affectionately think of them, since all three of them are working there — made their annual pilgrimage on Feb. 15 to sample the city’s best chili. Former design editor Michelle Barrie ’10 came to town that night as well to join them for drinks and dinner. 

Assistant multimedia editor Stephen
Adams ’16 discusses digital media trends
with Kaydi and Casey.

The next day, Erin, Casey and Kaydi stopped by the Ithacan office to check out our new digs and say hello to current students. Erin even got to sit at the new editor-in-chief’s desk, a far cry from the desk crammed into the corner of the small office off 269 that she ran the paper from back in 2008–09.

Ithacan Named CSPA Crown Finalst

The Ithacan has been named one of 15 national finalists for the Columbia Scholastic Press Association’s 2014 Crown Award in the competition’s “hybrid” category. The hybrid category is defined as “print publications that provide live coverage via website between print editions.”

The list of finalists in this category includes publications from Ball State University, Indiana University, the University of Pennsylvania, Iowa State University and the University of Oklahoma, among others. The winners, who will receive either a Gold or Silver Crown, will be announced at the Spring National College Media Convention in New York City, March 12–15.

The Ithacan was awarded Gold Crowns in 2013 and 2012, and a Silver Crown in 2011.

Founded in 1925, the CSPA is owned by Columbia University and operated as a program affiliated with its Graduate School of Journalism. The Crown Awards, first presented in 1982, are the organization’s highest recognition of overall excellence.

Work of Five Ithacan Students Honored

From left: Sabrina Knight ’16, Emily Fuller ’15, Erica
Pirolli ’13, Rachel Woolf ’15 and Steven Pirani ’16

The work of five staff members of The Ithacan has been honored with Gold Circle Awards by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association in its 30th annual Gold Circle competition. The awards are for work produced during the 2012–13 academic year.

The following work from The Ithacan was honored with awards:

Emily Fuller ’15 and Erica Pirolli ’13, First Place for Overall Tabloid Design

Sabrina Knight ’16, Second Place for Sports Photography, for "When Push Comes to Shove" (October 12, 2012, p. 28)

Rachel Woolf ’15, Third Place for Photo Illustration, for “Breaking the Bank” (April 11, 2013, p. 1)

Steven Pirani ’16, Certificate of Merit for General Feature Story, for “Local Indulgence: Guests Explore Origins of Food and Wine on New Tour” (April 4, 2013, p. 13)

Since 1984, the CSPA has recognized outstanding achievement in both verbal and visual categories for newspapers, magazine and yearbooks. Digital media categories were added in 2009. This year's competition attracted 12,847 entries produced by students at colleges, universities and secondary schools throughout the country. (Secondary schools are judged in a separate category from colleges and universities.)

‘Royals’ for Journalists

Although I didn't post anything about it at the time, I think there should be some record here of the hilarious version of Lorde's “Royals” that former EIC Aaron Edwards’12 recorded back in mid-November. The lyrics are by Washington-based journalist Adrienne LaFrance. It’s “Royals” for journalists, an entertaining take on breaking news in the digital age, and it got quite a bit of attention around the Web.
Aaron is currently associate editor at NBC News Digital’s Breaking News in New York. 

Here's the chorus:

And we’ll go viral (viral)
It don’t run in our blood
That kind of distro ain’t for us
We crave a different kind of buzz
Let me be your paper (paper)
You can fold and carry me
And baby I’ll rule, I’ll rule, I’ll rule
Let me live that fantasy

Check out the recording, along with the full lyrics.