Weiser Joins Tech Startup

Weiser back at his post.

Among the alumni who returned to campus for Fall Splash was former Sports Editor Andrew Weiser ’11, who has moved to New York and is already putting his many talents to use. He writes:

“In addition to deciphering the New York City subway system and dodging taxis, I’ve been spending my time interning for The Cools, a tech startup company, in Soho.

 “The Cools is a social online marketplace that is redefining the relationship between the buyer and seller, while tailoring every users’ experience to their different tastes.

 “At The Cools, I wear many hats, which is made harder by the fact that I sit on a fitness ball. I was hired as a Social Media Intern and began laying the ground work of our community outreach and user acquisition. Leveraging Twitter, Facebook and email, I helped spread the word about The Cools.

 “I’ve transitioned into a role where I work with our different environments, testing functionalities and making sure the user experience is the best it can be. With a background in Journalism, I also assist in the copy writing, which is different experience considering many of my coworkers are French.

“ It’s a combination of my passion for technology and writing, and I gladly shoulder the expenses to be able to say I get out of bed excited to go to work. C’est la vie.”

Fall Splash Brings Back Ithacan Alumni

From left: Rich Morris ’81, Jeff Selingo
 ’95, Mike Nagel ’04 and Alyssa Gardina ’08.

From left: Jill Kirtland Hughes ’03,
 Kelli Grant ’04 and Rob Engelsman ’10

Fall Splash brought quite a few Ithacan alumni back to campus to participate in activities and hang out with friends. Among the weekend’s events were two panel discussions sponsored by the Park School on Oct. 14. Former Ithacan Editor in Chief Jeff Selingo ’95, now vice president and editorial director of The Chronicle of Higher Education, and former News Editor Kelli Grant ’04, senior consumer reporter at SmartMoney.com, participated in “Using Social Media to Your Professional and Personal Advantage” at 2 p.m. Then former staff writer Cole Louison ’00, now at GQ magazine and the author of the recently published “The Impossible: Rodney Mullen, Ryan Sheckler, and the Fantastic History of Skateboarding,” currently the #1-selling book on skateboarding at Amazon.com, participated in “The Future of Communications: How Do We Reinvent Our Media Industries and Audiences” at 4 p.m. (Photos by Jacob Lifschultz)

A Facelift for The Ithacan

The redesigned Ithacan website is now live. Check it out. And take a look at this video of the editors discussing the changes.

Makes You Want to Move to the Berkshires

The Berkshire (Mass.) Eagle is reaching out to potential readers through a promotional campaign that includes our own former editor in chief Lindsey Hollenbaugh ’10.

Redesigned Website On the Way

Get ready for this to change.

The Ithacan has a major website overhaul in the works! Our new webmaster, Honest Charley Bodkin, is hard at work revamping the site to make it better looking, more user-friendly and better able to showcase our multimedia. What we've seen so far looks great. And the good news is, Charley's only a freshman, so we'll have him around for a while.

The redesigned site will launch on Thursday, Sept. 29. Mark your calendars.

Ithacan Named 2011 Pacemaker Finalist

The Ithacan has been named a Newspaper Pacemaker finalist for 2011 by the Associated Collegiate Press. The winners of the award — widely regarded as the “Pulitzer Prize of collegiate journalism” — will be announced at the ACP/CMA National College Media Convention in Orlando, Fla., on October 29.
The Ithacan won the Newspaper Pacemaker in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2008, and was a finalist in 2009 and 2010. The Ithacan Online won the Online Pacemaker in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2010, and was a finalist in 2009.
The Associated Collegiate Press is the oldest and largest national membership organization for college journalists in the country. This year's Newspaper Pacemaker competition was judged by professional journalists in the Washington, D.C., area.

Libby Sile at Esquire

Here’s the latest from last year’s editor in chief, Libby Sile ’11: “After moving down to New York in early June, I started working at a start-up politics website, but left to work for the summer at Inc. Magazine doing research for the print publication, and writing stories and slideshows for the web. I was applying for jobs in the meantime, but got offered an internship at Esquire that I couldn't refuse. I just started, but it looks like I’m going to be doing a lot of research, fact-checking and maybe even some writing.”

Another Brew Fest Reunion

From left, Rachel Heiss, Max
Steinmetz, Andrew Lovell,
Erica Hendry and Whitney
Faber in the Ithacan office.

In what has become an annual tradition, Ithacan alumni returned to town in force for Ithaca Brew Fest September 3.
Max Steinmetz ’08, Erica Hendry ’09 and Andrew Lovell ’08 came by campus the day before and stopped in at the office, where they had the chance to meet current Sales Manager Rachel Heiss and Managing Editor Whitney Faber. Later on I had the opportunity to introduce Lovell, who as sports editor created the first Ithacan Sports Preview section back in Fall 2007, to Harlan Green-Taub, our current assistant sports editor, who had just finished working on this fall's preview section.
Then on Sunday, a bunch of us got together for brunch at Mahogany Grill. Sadly, the photos didn't turn out very well, but we  had Steinmetz, Hendry and Lovell,  Sara Bempkins ’09,  Erin Geismar ’09, Casey Musarra ’11 and her brother Blair, Tahleen Ovian ’09, Colleen Shea ’09 and Andy Swift ’09 around the table.

The Ellsworth-Connelly Wedding

Charlie Ellsworth ’04 and Caitlin Connelly ’05 returned to Ithaca to be married August 27, with a ceremony and reception at the Ithaca Farmers' Market. It was a perfect summer evening for it. The ceremony was held down by the water, with the reception following in the market space itself.

Caitlin had been managing editor and Charlie sports editor in 2003–04. Joe Geraghty ’04, who had been their editor in chief that year, came up from Brazil for the wedding. He checked into Casa Serino for the weekend, so we had plenty of time to catch up.

Joe Geraghty covers the wedding.

Former editor in chief Anne Walters Custer ’05 and husband Roger Custer ’04, and former managing editor Natalie Lyons Silver ’04 and husband Steve Silver ’04, were also in town for the ceremony. Charlie's boss, Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), was also in attendance.

Of the many weddings of alumni my wife Stephanie and I have attended, this was the third in which both the bride and groom were former Ithacan editors (the two previous ones being Rob and Melissa Bloomrose Bluey in 2003, and Michael and Melissa Thornley Bloomrose in 2004). Relationships that can survive a year of Wednesday nights at The Ithacan can probably survive anything.

Despite worries about Hurricane Irene, which passed up the East Coast that weekend, the couple took off for their two-week honeymoon in Spain. Stephanie planned the trip for them, so I trust all went well. Charlie and Caitlin are very special people to us. It was a joy to be there with them.

From left, Roger Custer, Anne Walters Custer, Nora Silver, Natalie Silver and Steve Silver at Purity Ice Cream

In a final treat that weekend, the next day I met up with Steve and Natalie Silver, along with Anne and Roger Custer, at Purity so I could meet Steve and Nat's daughter Nora, who spent the wedding night in the care of her grandparents. A beautiful and sweet-natured child, as one would expect coming from solid Ithaca College stock.

Catching Up With Alex Leary

One of the good things to come out of this summer's D.C. trip was reconnecting with Alex Leary ’97. Alex was one of the best journalists from the first group of students I worked with at The Ithacan, but we lost touch after he graduated. From time to time I'd hear about the good work he was doing at the St. Petersburg Times, and would check his stuff out, but our paths never crossed. Then this summer I heard he was now in Washington covering politics for the paper. I dropped him an email, and he stopped by our dinner at the Old Ebbitt.
It was great seeing him again and catching up. He spent time talking to the others at the dinner, sharing what he'd learned through the years. We won't lose touch again.
How satisfying to see one of our best writers land one of the best beats at one of the best papers on the country. You can check out his work here.

This Summer's D.C. Trip

Time to catch up with some long-overdue blog posts.
At the end of July, Stephanie and I made our annual trip to Washington, D.C., to visit the alumni. As usual for that time of year, it was miserably hot (one day it was 104, without the heat index). Nevertheless, we managed to get together with a number of people while we were there and had a great time.

Henry and Melissa Bloomrose

On Thursday the 28th, we had dinner with Erica Hendry ’09 and Max Steinmetz ’08 at Das Ethiopian Cuisine (formerly Zed's — same restaurant, with a confusingly German-sounding new name), one of our favorite Ethiopian restaurants in the city.
The next day we drove down to Woodbridge, Va., to have lunch with Michael and Melissa Thornley Bloomrose (both ’02) — and their son, Henry, whom we were meeting for the first time. And what an adorable little guy he is.
Then that night we had dinner with the Ithaca D.C. alumni group at our regular venue, the Old Ebbitt Grille.

In attendance were Anne Walters Custer ’05, Charlie Ellsworth ’04, Erica Hendry ’09, Alex Leary ’97 (more on him later), Archana Menon ’10, Jackie Palochko ’11, Beth Quill ’06, Max Steinmetz ’08, and Nate Weixel ’08. Sophomore Megan Devlin (currently the Ithacan's opinion editor) who was in Washington this summer interning at the The American Prospect and the Institute for Policy Studies, was able to join us as well.
That day also happened to be my birthday. I can't imagine better people to spend it with

Buy This Book! Cole Louison Chronicles the History and Culture of Skateboarding

Cole Louison ’00 has just published a new book. The Impossible: Rodney Mullen, Ryan Sheckler, and the Fantastic History of Skateboarding, was released today by Lyons Press. You can read an excerpt from it in GQ.
Here’s what he had to say about the concept behind the book:
“The original idea was to write two long stories and put them together a la Franny and Zooey [by JD Salinger], where readers follow two people whose stories eventually overlap. Ryan Sheckler was the young wild prodigy, and Rodney was the older wise mentor. But Rodney Mullen is about Tony Hawk's age, and like Tony he's been around for so long, and his influence is so great, that his story really is the story of skateboarding. Rodney was born in 1966, the year skateboarding first officially "died" That's how the Fantastic History of Skateboarding came into play.”
Cole’s work has appeared in McSweeney’s, The New York Times, The New Yorker book blog and GQ, where he is on staff. He is also the author of the U.S. Army Zombie Combat Skills field manual.

Tabloid Time

Aaron Munzer ’08, who is, among other things, a correspondent for the Ithaca Jourrnal, picked up a byline in the New York Post today with his story on the Ithaca couple who jumped off the Tappan Zee Bridge yesterday. Check out “Naked Death Plunge” (ah, the Post, a classy headline as always).

Great Moments in Ithacan History #1

The Ithacan went online in April 1996, when it hired its first online editor, Tim Lynch.

Yes, There Are Jobs Out There

Margaret Moran ’10 has accepted a position as a staff reporter at the Lake Placid (N.Y.) News. Her new job begins June 13. A job as a journalist in a beautiful environment — what more could you ask for?

Connecting Across a Decade

Last night Stephanie and I spent a pleasant evening at Madeline’s with former Ithacan editor in chief Rob Bluey ’01, who was in town for an Alumni Board of Directors meeting. We were later joined by our current editor in chief, senior Libby Sile. It was fun getting these two together — both strong editors, and exactly a decade apart. Rob is still with The Heritage Foundation, the D.C.-based conservative think tank.

Sorry, We Can't Talk About It

A partial reunion of the legendary 2008–09 Ithacan Fight Club took place Saturday night at Cafe Mogador on St. Mark’s Place in the East Village. Stephanie and I met up with Edon Ophir (in for a two-week visit from Israel), Erin Geismar and Andy Swift for an evening of great food and conversation. Byard Duncan, Erica Hendry and Jen Nevins were absent, and very much missed.

More Awards for The Ithacan

The Ithacan was awarded the Second Place Mark of Excellence Award for Best All-Around Non-Daily Newspaper by the Society of Professional Journalists, Northeast Region, at the SPJ Region 1 Convention on April 9 in Providence, R.I.

In addition, junior Whitney Faber received a Second Place Mark of Excellence Award for feature writing at the convention for her story “Behind the Lens,” which appeared in the Sept. 2, 2010, issue of The Ithacan.

On the same day, in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., The Ithacan staff was honored with half a dozen awards in the New York Press Association’s annual Better College Newspaper Competition.
Senior Allison Usavage (shown above) won first place for photography for her photograph “Standing Strong,” which appeared in the March 4, 2010, Ithacan.
Senior Michelle Skowronek won third place for feature writing for “Gay Enough?” which appeared in the paper’s April 15, 2010, issue.
In addition, the paper won second place for design, second place for sports coverage, third place for editorial and third place for general excellence.

Vadim!

Our good friend Vadim Isakov, late of the Ithaca College journalism department and now working for the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland (not Geneva, N.Y., as you might expect), was recently quoted in a piece on “Attacks on the Press” on the Committee to Protect Journalists website.

Edwards Named 2011-12 Ithacan Editor in Chief

The Ithacan has a new editor in chief! Tonight the Board of Student Publications selected junior Aaron Edwards to serve as the paper's top editor for the 2011–12 academic year. For those of you who don't know him, Aaron is a journalism major/theater minor with three semesters experience on the editorial board as assistant Accent editor, assistant news editor and news editor. In addition, his internships include some of the most prestigious news organizations in the business: CBS News in New York, the Associated Press in London, and — this coming summer — the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Last summer he attended the New York Times Student Journalism Institute as well. This semester he is studying in London.

Margaret Moran Now at Twist Magazine

From the class of 2010: Former Chief Copy Editor Margaret Moran writes “I recently started interning for Twist Magazine, a teen publication, and it has given me the chance to write some blog posts and do some research. I've also been freelance reporting for the past nine months for a paper in my area called The Advertiser-News. Until recently, I was covering town meetings for the paper, which gave me the chance to cover a variety of topics."

De los Rios Launches New Orleans Film Project

Alex de los Rios ’07, our former sports editor and columnist, is part of an ambitious project in New Orleans: “to chronicle the history, people and culture surrounding contemporary New Orleans brass band music.” The documentary, to be called “Brass Roots, ” is an outgrowth of a series of interviews of local brass bands. You can find out more at the Brass Roots blog.
Alex writes:
“I moved to New Orleans in 2007 the fall after graduation. It was a complete shot in the dark — I had no job, no money and knew just three people in the city — but thankfully it worked out. Really, I have The Ithacan to thank for it. It was through my work at IC that I got an internship at ESPN the Magazine, when I moved to New Orleans I used that as an in to work for the local alt-weekly Gambit (www.bestofneworleans.com) covering the Hornets and Saints. That wasn't enough to be fully employed, though. We started the brass band documentary because a friend — who photographs sports — and I decided we were sick of not having anything to do in the summer. The rest was just putting in work getting to know the bands and honing the techniques we learned doing short videos for Gambit and adapting them to a documentary format. More than two years later and we're raising money to finish the film and have real dreams to premiere at film festivals. Not bad for a guy who once counted this as his greatest journalistic achievement: Bombs Away.”
The project is now in the kickoff stage, and it needs your support. Go to the Brass Roots Kickstarter Page and pledge your support.

An Update from Liz Crowley Pontillo

When we saw her in New York last month, I asked Liz Crowley Pontillo ’04 for a life-update. Here it is:
“I’m about to enter my fifth year at Facts on File, working as a copywriter and proofreader in the publicity department. It’s an academic and school library reference publisher, but with the push for eBooks, the company is slowly moving into doing more Web-based products. With that, I’m about to start classes in HTML and design, so I can be ready when ‘print’ refers only to the computer function.
“I just got married five months ago to a wonderful guy. We live in Oyster Bay on Long Island, the post-presidential town of Theodore Roosevelt, and after several years of living in New York City, I’m still adjusting to life with a yard, cars and no building superintendent.”

Flinn Publishes Third Novel

Kevin Flinn ’01 has just published his third novel, “Ghosts,” which resets Henrik Ibsen's classic moral drama in northwest Pennsylvania in 1910. It is available in paperback or as a file download here. Kevin's first two novels, “Because” (2007) and “Through Night and Wind” (2009) are still available through Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and other outlets.

An Update from Emily Paulsen

I've now been at the College Board almost five years. I just moved into a new role as the product manager for ReadiStep, an 8th grade assessment program that launched about a year ago. Previously, I had been managing publications and other communications projects for the PSAT/NMSQT program. And though it seems that much of my life is spent at the College Board, I'm also working on an MBA at Fordham and training for my future career as a professional runner (ok, not exactly, but I am preparing to run my first half marathon in a couple weeks and, assuming I survive, I'll also be running the NYC marathon this fall).

Kelli Grant: "Life is Good"

I've asked our alumni to provides updates on their recent activities. Here's the latest from former News Editor and Special Projects Manager Kelli Grant ’04:

"I'm still the senior consumer reporter at SmartMoney — June marks my third year in that position, my sixth at the site, and my seventh with Dow Jones. My crazy list of weekly duties includes writing my Deal of the Day column (2-4x), a column for The Wall Street Journal Saturday, a spot with The Wall Street Journal Radio Network, a SmartMoney segment on CBS, a video for the site and, now, a handful of posts for our new blog Paydirt. The site pitches me out as a personal finance expert, so in any given week I'm on Fox, CBS, ABC or other networks talking about my stories and other finance news. On top of all that, I still freelance — Real Simple, Good Housekeeping and Family Circle are the big three. And every once in a while, I get to sleep in. Still living out in Park Slope, dating a wonderful guy — life is good."

The Art of the Revku

Former Accent editor and Buzzsaw Haircut co-founder James Sigman ’98 just returned from L.A., where he was attending a “Freaks and Geeks/Undeclared” reunion at the Paley Center for Media's 28th Annual PaleyFest at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills, and visiting Sarah Wright-Killinger ’00.

He is currently a copy editor at John Wiley and Sons in Hoboken, home of the Cake Boss. His latest project is is a series of “revku” —  haiku about books — which can be found on his blog, Tinsel and Rot. He is eagerly anticipating the 15 –year anniversary of Buzzsaw (Haircut) in 2014.

Alumni March Madness

Our annual alumni dinner at Heartland Brewery on 43rd St. in conjunction with the spring National Student Media Convention drew a great crowd this year. Twenty alums showed up to see old friends and meet the eight current students attending the conference.
Alumni in attendance were Nic Barajas ’08, Michelle Barrie ’10, Stephanie Belsky ’06, Lisa Boyars ’01, Mike Cagnazzi ’98, Stacey Coburn ’06, Paul Colombo ’00, Jennifer (Quinzi) D'Agnes ’00, Bill Earl ’09, Erin Geismar ’09, Kelli B. Grant ’04, Vanessa Leong ’00, Cole Louison ’00, Emily Paulsen ’05, LIz (Crowley) Pontillo ’04 along with new husband David, Matt Quintanilla ’07, Deepa Shah ’06, James Sigman ’98, Andy Swift ’09 and Kiersten Timpe ’10.

Bill Earl with current students Molly Apfelroth, Megan Devlin and Michelle Boulé

Paul Colombo, Lisa Boyars, Jen Quinzi D'Agnes and Vanessa Leong

Andy Swift, Matt Quintanilla and Stacey Coburn

Kiersten Timpe, Deepa Shah, Michelle Barrie and Erin Geismar

Another Apple for the Orchard

At the closing ceremony of the spring National College Media Convention in New York, The Ithacan Online walked away with the Apple Award for first place in the Best of Show competition and the print edition with second place.
Back row, left to right: freshman Assistant Photo Editor James Earl, sophomore Assistant Design Editor Molly Apfelroth and sophomore Photo Editor Graham Hebel; front row: sophomore Photo Editor Michelle Boulé, freshman Assistant Accent Editor Megan Devlin, sophomore News Editor Alexandra Evans and junior Assistant Sports Editor Kevin McCall.

Word is Out

Overheard at a Tuesday morning conference session:
Male Student: Are you going to the Apple Awards later?
Female Student: No, are you?
Male Student: Yeah, we're nominated for best print weekly, but The Ithacan is nominated too. It's probably worth going anyway, though.

Ithacan Website Wins Online Crown Award

The Ithacan Online, the Ithacan's website, was presented with a Silver Online Crown for overall excellence by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association this afternoon at the National College Media Convention in New York City. The Ithacan was the only weekly publication to win a Crown Award in any category.
At the awards ceremony, left to right: freshman Assistant Photo Editor James Earl, junior Assistant Sports Editor Kevin McCall, sophomore Photo Editor Michelle Boulé, sophomore News Editor Taylor Long, freshman Assistant Accent Editor Megan Devlin, sophomore Assistant Design Editor Molly Apfelroth, sophomore News Editor Alexandra Evans and sophomore Photo Editor Graham Hebel.

The Legendary Sami Khan

In New York for the National College Media Convention, we had Sunday brunch with Sami Khan ’02, who’s living in Brooklyn and “still causing trouble.” After two years with the Toronto Film Festival, he moved to New York to earn a master’s in film at Columbia, and now works as a producer for the StyleCaster Media Group, producing fashion editorials and video content. 

The Ithacan Named SPJ Region 1 Finalist

The Society of Professional Journalists has named The Ithacan a finalist for the Mark of Excellence Award for Best Non-Daily Newspaper in the Northeast region. The paper is consistently ranked among the top three papers in the Northeast, and three years ago was ranked number two in the country by SPJ.

In addition, junior Whitney Faber's story "Behind the Lens," which appeared in the September 2, 2010 issue of The Ithacan, was named a finalist in the competition's feature writing category.

The winners will be announced at the SPJ Region 1 Spring Conference in Providence, R.I., April 8–9. First-place winners from SPJ's 12 regions go on to compete for the national Mark of Excellence Award in their categories. 

Bouncing Back

The Ithacan has just posted the third in a series of four in-depth multimedia packages. Check out “Bouncing Back: Local Dairy Farmers Recover After Milk Prices Plummet”  by Raechel Kenealy and Laura Gallup. The first two were “Big Red Greek Policy: Cornell Makes Changes to Greek System” by Sarah McCarthy and Tori McClurg, and “Step Up Your Game: Improvements and Deficiencies in IC Athletic Facilities” by Nate March and Zachary Tomanelli.

Aaron King!

Former Opinion Editor Aaron King ’09, now a grad student at Villanova, returned to the Opinion pages of The Ithacan this week with a commentary on the longterm implications of the political  antics in Wisconsin.

Aaron Edwards Reports from London

Alumni aren't the only ones getting stories out there. Last semester's news editor, junior Aaron Edwards, is interning at the Associated Press in London this spring, and has seen his work picked up by the Washington Post, Forbes,  the Boston Globe, the Huffington Post and MSNBC, among others.

Fennessey's Freelancing, Coast to Coast

Sean Fennessey ’03’s freelance work has been popping up in some impressive publications recently. This week alone,  “The ‘Bold, Crazy’ World of Adult Swim” was published in the Los Angeles Times, his review of Gil Scot-Heron and Jamie Smith's “We’re Still Here” ran on Pitchfork and “Adele Goes Deep” appeared in the Village Voice. Sean is director of merchandising at eMusic.

Hendry's Back in the Smithsonian Magazine

Erica R. Hendry ’09's story about a small African-American community's preservation of African traditions  on Georgia's tiny Salepo Island has just been published in the Smithsonian Magazine. Erica runs the Patch.com site in Vienna, Va.

Anna Uhls Heads to Law School

After four years as a multimedia journalist at The Washington Post, Anna Uhls ’07 is moving on to go to law school.
“The decision took a lot of thought, but I think it's right for me,” she writes. “Law has always been a favorite beat for me, my greatest interest in a post-grad degree and where most of my community service hours have fallen.”
During her time at the Post she produced “Divine Impulses” with Sally Quinn, covered the 2008 presidential election, Obama's inauguration, the Metro Crash, Holocaust Museum shootings, last year's “Snowpocalypse” and — a personal favorite of mine — the National Zoo’s celebrity panda, Tai Shan.
Her last day at the Post will be March 2.

Ithacan Named Online Crown Finalist

The Ithacan Online has been named one of seven finalists for the Columbia Scholastic Press Association's 2011 Online Crown Award. 

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 honor. The Online Crown recognizes overall excellence in newspaper websites. The Ithacan Online was awarded the CSPA Gold Crown in 2009 and 2010.

Winners will be announced at the Spring National College Media Convention in New York City, March 13–15. 

Once again we’re in elite company. The other finalists in the national competition are the websites from:
·      The Indiana Daily Student (Indiana University)
·      The Iowa State Daily (Iowa State University)
·      The OU Daily (University of Oklahoma)
·      The Miami Hurricane (University of Miami)
·      The Daily Pennsylvanian (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia)
·      The Shorthorn (University of Texas at Arlington)

A Visit from Beth Quill

Beth Quill ’06 (EIC 2005–06) was home in Auburn, N.Y., for the holidays and was nice enough to drive down to Ithaca and to have lunch last Thursday. It was great to see her, as always. We discussed her trips to Turkey and Iceland, as well as her work at Science News in Washington, where she is now Deputy Managing Editor for Features. You can find her stories and reviews for the magazine here.

More Thanksgiving Weekend Fun

Our Thanksgiving weekend in New York continued with brunch with Edon Ophir and Erin Geismar, both ’09, at the Cookshop in Chelsea (which I highly recommend, by the way).

Edon was town in for a brief visit from Tel Aviv, where he is living and working as the broadcasting and new media coordinator at fashiontv, an international television channel devoted to fashion and modelling. Erin is now settled into her new job as a multimedia journalist at Newsday on Long Island.
That evening we had a chance to catch up with Nic Barajas ’08, who continues his work in print and web design at a little place he likes to call The New York Times, and also had the pleasure of meeting Meghan Peters, a community assistant at Mashable.
A pleasant trip all around.
In photo, Edon Ophir and Erin Geismar.

Black Friday with Alumni

Stephanie and I had dinner last night near Union Square in New York with Matt Quintanilla ’07, Vanessa Schneider ’07 and Wes Siler.
Matt recently relocated from Minneapolis to New York, where he's working at Disrupto, an interactive design and development studio that counts Mike Potter and Jason Roos, both class of 2007, among its cofounders. Vanessa recently accepted a position as community manager with Google (about which, more later); she's based in New York as well. Wes is founder and editor of the online motorcycle magazine Hell for Leather.
It was great seeing Matt again, and it's always a pleasure to see Vanessa and Wes. With the job market being what it is, it's great to see these three doing so well. Altough given who they are, it shouldn't be that surprising.

Liz Ties the Knot

Former Ithacan managing editor Elizabeth Crowley ’04 married David Pontillo on October 30 in Oyster Bay, Long Island. Best friend Kelli Grant ’04 served as maid of honor. Among other Ithacan-related people in attendance were Anne Walters Custer ’05 and husband Roger Custer ’04, and Wendi Dowst ’04.

Nadolny in the News

Tricia Nadolny ’09, who has been interning at the Chicago Tribune, was interviewed on Chicago's CLTV concerning her coverage of a city alderman's withdrawal from the Chicago mayoral race for health reasons.  You can watch the interview here.

Still Setting the Pace

The Ithacan was presented with the 2010 Online Pacemaker Award for overall excellence in online journalism on Oct. 30 at the fall National College Media Convention in Louisville, Ky. This is the fourth time in the past five years The Ithacan's website has won the national award.
The Ithacan's print edition was also presented with a Newspaper Pacemaker Finalist Award at the event.
The Pacemakers, presented each year by the Associated College Press, are the widely regarded as "the Pulitzer Prize of collegiate journalism," and are among the most prestigious student journalism awards in the country.
In addition, the paper won second place in the newspaper category in the convention's Best of Show awards; The Ithacan's website received third place in the Web category.
Shown above, left to right: Assistant photo editor Kelsey O'Connor, assistant news editor Taylor Long, editor in chief Libby Sile and assistant news editor Alexandra Evans with the awards at the convention.

Patrick Doyle Moves Up at Rolling Stone

Patrick Doyle, who was Ithacan assistant Accent editor before transferring to New York University in 2008, has since graduated and gone to work for Rolling Stone in New York, first as a reporter and now as an assistant editor. He’ll be writing stories for the Rock and Roll section in the front of the magazine and helping with headlines, reporting on other stories and editing. He writes, “I’ve gotten to go to a lot of great festivals like Bonnaroo, Newport Folk Festival, Eric Clapton’s Crossroads festival and gotten to interview my heroes, including Leonard Cohen, Kris Kristofferson, Pete Seeger, Willie Nelson and others. It’s been a lot of fun.”

“This wouldn’t be possible without The Ithacan,” he said. “It gave me my first real taste of being in a newsroom.”

You can find an archive of his stories here.

<http://www.rollingstone.com/home/search?cat=All&searchText=patrick+doyle&x=0&y=0>

Above: Patrick interviews Conan O’Brien backstage at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in June.

Erica's Patch Site Is Live

Erica Hendry's Vienna, Va. Patch.com site is up and running. Go there now!

Ithacan Named Gold Medalist

The Ithacan has been named a Gold Medalist for both the Fall 2009 and Spring 2010 semesters in the Columbia Scholastic Press Association’s annual college newspaper critique.

Each year the CSPA evaluates member papers on overall content, news, depth reporting, features, opinion/editorial, sports, arts/entertainment, editing/headline writing, and design/graphics based on more than 150 specific criteria. This year the paper’s scores on the critique’s 1,000-point scale were 981 for fall and 985 for spring. The CSPA consistently ranks the Ithacan as a Gold Medalist, it’s highest category.

Among the judge’s comments, “Everything about this paper is well done. I can’t say enough about your strong ‘watchdog’ role, your outstanding coverage and your excellent design.”

More Alumni Updates

ERIN GEISMAR ’09
After more than a year at the East Hampton Press, Erin Geismar ’09 has reached one of her career goals by moving to Newsday, the 11th-largest-circulation newspaper in the country. She writes, “As a community journalist at Newsday, I'll be covering community events and telling local people stories across media platforms. I'll be working from my car equipped with a laptop, video camera, smart phone, etc (thank you Digital Journalism Workshop) to file multiple stories, photos and video each day. It's a brand new venture for Newsday as they try and amp up their ‘hyperlocal’ presence around Long Island. As a born and raised Long Islander, I'm really excited to be part of that effort.”

ERICA R. HENDRY ’09

After a six-month internship at Smithsonian Magazine, Erica R. Hendry ’09 (editor in chief 2007–08) has joined the team at Patch.com, a startup network of local news sites backed by AOL. As editor of the Patch site for Vienna, Va. (a suburb just 15 miles outside of Washington, D.C.), she says she’s “like the EIC of The Ithacan again … but this time for the town of Vienna.” She’s in charge of finding, editing and scheduling stories; writing them; hiring training and managing a team of freelance writers, photographers and videographers; editing and producing videos; managing the site’s social media networks; building the site’s community directory (“like Yelp, but better”); and “trying to keep the adventure under budget.” The site goes live October 11 at Vienna.Patch.com. She continues to freelance for Smithsonian Magazine.

ANDREW LOVELL ’08

Andrew Lovell ’08 has been hired as an associate news editor for ESPN.com. As night-time editor on the ESPN.com news desk in Bristol, Conn., he’ll handle everything from editing staff and AP stories to writing headlines, checking facts and posting articles. ESPN.com is one of the premier sports websites in the country, drawing roughly 20 million unique visitors per month. The job comes after a two-year stint with the New Britain Herald in New Britain, Conn., as a local sports writer/copy editor.

Laluk Works Across Platforms in Rochester

Kathy Laluk ’10 is working as an associate producer at 13WHAM-TV News, the ABC affiliate in her hometown of Rochester, N.Y. She’s working the night shift, helping put together the 11 p.m. broadcast and keeping the website up to date. She’s doing a lot of writing and has helped out on video on occasion. As if that weren’t enough, she’s also a part-time writer and photographer for the City Newspaper, Rochester’s alternative weekly.