When Journal writers and contributors voted earlier this week to put Brendan Kennedy and Matthew Trevisan, both ArtSci ’07, at the helm of the 134th volume of the Journal, they also entrusted them with an important task.
Kennedy and Trevisan will face the challenge this summer of moving the newspaper operation out of the Journal House at 272 Earl St., which will be demolished to make way for the Queen’s Centre. While the Journal’s final home will be in the new student centre’s Media Centre, the newspaper will move into 190 University Ave. in the 10 or more years interim.
The team of Kennedy and Trevisan, who were elected with 87 per cent of the vote, said they are both excited and terrified at the same time to run the Journal.
“It’s 133 years of history, with big shoes to fill,” Trevisan said.
Kennedy said that they’re ready for it.
“As scared as I am, it feels really natural for [Trevisan] and I to do this,” he said, adding that the two have had “mirroring careers” during their time at the Journal.
Both were Journal staff writers in their first year.
Kennedy currently holds the position of Journal production manager. Last year, he was A&E editor.
Trevisan currently holds the position of Journal Features co-editor. Last year, he was an assistant news editor.
Aside from moving house, Trevisan and Kennedy plan to start running regular section editor meetings and incorporating the Features section into the News section. They’re also going to unveil some special investigative projects throughout the year.
“Without sounding too ambitious, there’s a really long tradition at the Journal of putting out a paper with a lot of integrity,” Kennedy said. “We want to add to that legacy, the same way I’ve seen the last three editors in chief [teams] add to it.”
Trevisan added he’s looking forward to assembling a strong masthead for next year.
“I think the Journal is in a position to reach students the way the AMS could never do—that puts us in a position to affect the operation of the University,” he said.
Emily Sangster and Jennifer MacMillan, the outgoing co-editors in chief, congratulated all the candidates who ran in the election.
“I was really impressed with the ideas that came out during the campaign and the way they were expressed,” Sangster said. “It was really about what was best for the Journal.”
MacMillan said all the candidates had great depth of experience and commitment to student journalism, including Les Bennett and Jon Thompson, the current Golden Words editors, who took a tongue-in-cheek stab at the position. Opinions Editor Cara Smusiak also vied for the position.
“It was a good campaign,” Macmillan said. “Smusiak has made great contributions to the Journal.”
MacMillan added that the team will also face some less obvious challenges in their new roles, besides moving house.
“There’s always an inherent conflict of interest with the AMS playing a part in the finances of the Journal,” she said. “Hopefully next year’s AMS executive will have the foresight to know the best volumes of the Journal are produced when the editors don’t have to spend a lot of their time defending the Journal’s editorial autonomy.”
Hiring for next year’s editorial board begins today. Applications are at 272 Earl St. and due by March 17.
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