The Chronicle staff elected sophomore Carleigh Stiehm to serve as editor-in-chief of its 110th volume.
In a staff-wide election Friday evening, Stiehm, currently a University news editor, was appointed editor of The Chronicle and president of the Duke Student Publishing Company, Inc., which publishes the independent student-run daily newspaper. She will succeed junior Danielle Muoio for a one-year term beginning in May.
As editor, Stiehm will be responsible for determining the content of the newspaper and will serve as the public face of The Chronicle. She will lead a staff of approximately 200 student reporters, editors, photographers, layout designers, web developers and additional contributors.
In her platform, Stiehm emphasized the need to steer the paper towards a digital-first online model in order to stay relevant to the Duke community. She hopes to assemble the infrastructure and talent needed to create a dedicated team that will not only provide interesting and diverse coverage but also bring content to readers more effectively via multimedia.
“I could not be more excited for all that’s in store for next year,” Stiehm said. “It’s a changing time for journalism and I’m really honored to have been selected to lead The Chronicle through this moment of innovation.”
Stiehm, a computer science major from Nokesville, Va., held managing positions for two newspapers in high school. She began her career at The Chronicle in the design team at the beginning of her freshman year, but eventually focused her work on writing for the University department. She became a staff writer for the section that November and was promoted by Muoio to co-head of the department last March.
“Carleigh was one of the hardest working editors on staff this year… and she’s grown so much,” Muoio said. “She is dependable, strong willed, handles things with dignity and poise and will be a great steward of The Chronicle Volume 110.”
David Graham, Trinity ’09, a former editor of the paper and current vice chair of the Duke Student Publishing Company board of directors, said the board was very impressed with Stiehm, especially with regards to her experience with programming.
“It’s very exciting to have someone with a grounding in computer science,” Graham said. “It’ll be interesting to see how she’ll use that unique skill set to drive us into being digital-first.”
Members of The Chronicle’s news department also expressed support for Stiehm.
Junior Raisa Chowdhury, current news editor, had high hopes for where Stiehm will lead the paper next year.
“She really understands the big picture of where The Chronicle and media is headed,” Chowdhury said. “She’s done an amazing job as University department head and I’m really excited to see what she does.”
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