Congratulations Team Newsday!

Newsday was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist in the Public Service category this year “for its use of in-depth reporting and digital tools to expose shootings, beatings and other concealed misconduct by some Long Island police officers, leading to the formation of a grand jury and an official review of police accountability.” Congratulations to our Ithacan alumni at Newsday — Erin Geismar ’09, Kaydi Poirier ’11 and Casey Musarra ’11! The Ithacan’s current multimedia editor, Deanna Romanoff ’14, will be joining the Newsday team as an intern this summer as well.

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.

Chili Fest, Team Newsday and Others

Team Newsday, from left: Casey
Musarra, Kaydi Poirier and Erin Geismar

Chili Fest last Saturday brought students flocking to The Commons — and alumni returning to town. Among those who came in for the event were our three alumni at newsday.com: former Ithacan Editor in Chief Erin Geismar ’09, now newsday.com's online community news editor; former Multimedia Editor Kaydi Poirier ’11, now newsday.com's assistant entertainment news editor; and former Managing Editor Casey Musarra ’11, now a newsday.com sports web producer. They drove up from the city with former Multimedia Editor Andy Swift ’09, now senior entertainment editor at hollywoodlife.com.

From left: Kaydi Poirier, Andy Swift,
 current Editor in Chief Kelsey O’Connor,
Aaron Edwards and Erin Geismar.

We made the rounds of chili stands (VIP tickets are the only way to go) and later ran into Aaron Munzer ’08 and   Kara Cusolito ’08. Last year’s editor in chief, Aaron Edwards ’12, was here for the weekend as well. He’s currently a news producer at Digital First Media in New York. In addition to attending Chili Fest, he spoke to a group of our feature writers on Sunday, spent some time in the Ithacan office and gave us all his cold. Thanks, Aaron.

Aaron Munzer and Kara
Cusolito

Kerry Tkacik ’12, who’s living in Queens and freelancing in Manhattan after interning at Rolling Stone last fall and graduating in December, stopped in on Friday on her way to visit her family. And former Managing Editor Deepa Shah ’06 was in town this weekend as well, although we missed each other.
One highlight of Chili Fest was watching our current sports editor, junior Taylor Palmer, compete in the  hot pepper–eating contest. He’d won the competition the past two years, but finished second this year. You can read his first-person account of the experience in this Thursday’s Ithacan.
Seeing these former students was a pleasant preview of next month’s annual dinner with the New York alumni in conjunction with the spring National College Media Convention at the Sheraton Hotel and Towers in Manhattan. Eight students and I will be attending.

Taylor Palmer competing in the hot pepper–eating contest.