IU Student Media selects spring editor-in-chief

Junior Jake Wright will be the Indiana Daily Student editor-in-chief for spring 2011.

The IU Student Media Board appointed Wright on Friday to succeed senior Sarah Brubeck, the fall 2010 editor-in-chief.

The board, which is made up of representatives from various areas of student media, interviews candidates each semester to select the next editor.

Wright — from Robinson, Ill. — has had several positions on the IDS staff, including managing editor this fall and art director last summer. Wright is also a contributor to the Arbutus yearbook.

During the summer, he also worked as a special projects intern for Indianapolis Monthly.

“There will be changes with the way things are run,” Wright said of next semester. “The big thing is that I want to build off this semester by developing the web and taking risks. Some of it will be the same, but in some cases more developed.”

The junior said his work this semester — helping to manage the paper on a day-to-day basis — will be the most beneficial to how he approaches the job come January.

During the spring, the newspaper will also go through a change in size in coordination with the printer’s standards, and Wright will help make the ultimate decision on the new layout.

“In the end, the final look is my call, but I’m not nervous because a lot of people are working on it — not just a management team,” he said. “There will be lots of opinions, and I think there will be enough discussion that it will be a well-represented look as to what our readers and staff want.”

As a double major in journalism and apparel merchandising, Wright said he focuses on magazine writing and reporting at IU. After graduation, he said he will pursue a job or internship with a large newspaper or magazine.

“If I could right out of graduation go to Chicago, that would be great, and build my way up to New York,” he said.

All Student Media publications — including Arbutus and Inside magazine — have editorial independence granted by the IU Board of Trustees. The student editors are in charge and take responsibility for the content.