Emma Kinery EIC 2017
"I’m not sure what attracted me to The Daily. I avidly consumed news growing up and enjoyed writing, but my high school didn’t have a school newspaper or any formal training. I saw The Daily on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” the summer before my freshman year and it seemed like the place to be — embarrassingly, I DM’d The Daily’s Twitter account, asking how to apply.
"Now as I’m ending my term as EIC and graduating with intentions to go into journalism, it’s difficult to put into words what this place has meant to me. Most succinctly, The Daily has provided me with opportunities for growth. It’s forced me into situations—good and bad—I never imagined. Covering Obama my freshman year for the first time was life changing. I spent the day before stressing over what to wear and prewriting; as a young girl in northern Michigan, I thought the idea of meeting a president was ridiculous; I couldn’t believe it. I went on to cover him twice more, to cover all the candidates in the 2016 election, a debate and countless other political rallies.
"It’s the absolute thrill of these nights that make you remember why you spend all your time and energy at 420 Maynard St. It’s the weekend I drove to the Iowa caucuses, leaving at 5 a.m. to cover rallies that day, spending a night and leaving at midnight after results came in, driving through a blizzard back. It’s the day before the election when I covered Obama speaking on campus in the morning, and that night with the final Trump rally three hours away, receiving press credentials at the last minute. If I left then by myself, I could cover it. So I did, and ran out of gas, called a tow truck, continued on, covered the rally and made it back to cover election day the next morning. It’s the weekend I took a bus with U-M protesters to cover the Women’s March in Washington. It’s the month I spent reporting on a story on mental health at the University that created a real impact on campus and in the lives of people I love - and earned a Stanford Lipsey Merit Award for me. I’ll remember these times as some of the most stressful of my life with some of the most idiotic decisions I’ve made, but they were also the most exhilarating. Journalists are supposed to be hungry, and with every opportunity The Daily fed me, I found myself hungrier. It provided me with a purpose and a community.
Becoming EIC changes your perspective. It’s no longer about me and the pursuit of a story and the thrill of personal opportunities, it becomes instead about maintaining The Daily overall, ensuring our legacy lives on, and I’m opening up as many opportunities for writers as I possibly can. This year we sent writers to Cannes Film Festival, covered every protest and game. We launched two podcasts — The Daily Weekly and The Sit Down, as well as a beta version of our app (which will officially launch soon), formed an analytics team, and began the redesign of our website. Other highlights included partnering with Axios to hold an event on the future of journalism, and an opportunity to reflect back on our decades of history with alumni during a successful Fall 2017 Reunion. I’m so excited to see where The Daily goes next! After graduation I will be working for Bloomberg News and I have my experiences at The Daily to thank for that."
