The Daily publishes Sunday through Thursday and prints twice a week. But who's responsible for ensuring all the articles are placed correctly in the print newspaper? And what other mediums does the Daily publish? From the Daily, Northwestern, I'm Mika Allison.
This is the Weekly, a podcast that breaks down our top headlines each week. Creative Director in Middle Software, Wendy Du and Arts Entertainment Editor in Middle Software Ella Jeffries. Talk about the quarter so far, including the monthly and upcoming special issues. Thank you guys so much for being here.
Of course. Thanks for having us. Yeah. Wendy, can you introduce yourself and tell me what your role consists of at the Daily?
I'm Wendy. I'm the creative director at Daily and my job is to oversee the design, photo and illustration desk to make sure that the paper is cohesive visually. I think I do a lot more on print nights just because that's what we're putting together the paper, designing it. So just making sure that all those desks are running smoothly.
My past experiences have literally all been design. So I started out as an assistant design editor my freshman winter and then after that my freshman spring and then sophomore fall, I was design editor and I kind of took a step back and was assistant editor again sophomore year and then came back as creative director. And what did you do in the paper My freshman year? I was just kind of hopping around different publications, seeing what I liked, seeing what I didn't like.
I think I was mainly interested in magazine design at first just because there's like, there's more, you can do it, you have a lot more creative freedom. But then I joined the Daily and I think I really like the sense of community here. Like the people here is what really drew me to it because I had never really done newspaper design before. But I think it wasn't like super difficult for me to transition from magazine to newspaper design.
And so I liked the job, I liked the people I was working with. So I just decided to keep going at it. What about you, Ella? I'm the art entertainment editors.
So my job is to oversee all the arts and entertainment content that goes through. I kind of put together a 10 week budget of all the stories going through each night. And every Sunday I'm in charge of making sure we have like five stories to go in the print paper. My entire freshman year I just wrote for City Desk.
I really had like a position as a reporter. But then sophomore fall I was assistant copy editor. Winter, I was development recruitment editor. The Arts in a Paint desk covers arts in Evanston and on campus.
It includes everything from liner notes which are album reviews to open tabs, which are restaurant reviews and Real thoughts movie reviews. I asked Ella what her favorite parts of this quarter has been so far. Has been bringing the Monthly back. For some reason it took a two year hiatus and one of the projects I wanted to do coming in as editor was to bring it back.
So I was really proud with how the first monthly edition turnout. I'm excited to see how the second one shakes out. For the listeners that may not know. Can you tell us what the Monthly is?
Yeah. So the Monthly, it used to come out as a little mini magazine, but now we just launched it electrically online and it's a way to feature the arts entertainment that's a little bit more. So it includes like free features like longer form arts and entertainment stories and then just some fun other like mini either real vlogs or liners open tabs. I also asked Wendy what drew her to being a creative director and what makes the world fun.
I just like the vibes in the multimedia room. I think there's always something going on. Like sometimes we'll have a movie playing, we'll have a music playing. It's just chill here.
And I also think with being creative director, I've had more experience being the middleman sort of between the newsroom and the multimedia room, which kind of has given me a little more perspective on how both sides work. At the beginning of the print night, editors gather together for a budget meeting where they decide with the stories for the last couple of days will go in the paper throughout the evening as articles finished, getting edited, design edited, place each one into the paper. I feel like sometimes design is kind of overlooked. People don't really think about it as much when they're picking up a paper.
Obviously I think the content is super important as well. Like that's what people are reading. But I feel like a lot of times people think, oh, someone had to lay out the paper, like they just magically appear on the pages and like someone had to be intentional with where they were placing things. Moving on, what's something you learned at your position this quarter?
I did had to learn how to code a little bit because I had to put in like articles and text. I never like done any coding like that before. So that was a little learning curve. But it wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be.
So it was more so like doing that and then designing the layout. Like what stories I want to go where. Which I think being best of Evanston editor last quarter, that was the first Time, I got exposure to design, so I think that helped me able to visualize and know, like, okay, that's gonna work best there. When he says you have to adjust the quick design deadline, I think for me, the biggest thing is the time crunch, just because for regular issues, we do it all in one night, and that's a lot different from how magazines do it.
Like, they do it over the course of several weeks, but at the daily, it's literally just the night before it comes out, which is not really a lot of time. So I feel like it has allowed me to work better under pressure. Is there anything you are both looking forward to in the next couple of weeks? The second monthly edition coming out, it's definitely gonna be a grind, so I'm hoping that we can get it out.
But that's definitely something, like, looking forward to ending the year on a high note. Yeah. I'm excited for the special issues to come out, so I'm excited to see how it'll turn out. I do also think this is gonna be a bit of a grind.
I'm not scared. I'm not too worried, but I know that it's gonna take a lot of work, and hopefully it's not a super long night. But I think the designers are very capable this quarter, and I'm excited to see the work that they'll do. Okay, now for fun questions, what's your favorite newsroom snack?
I feel like I get mod a lot when I'm here just because it's convenient and we're here for a pretty long time. So if you want my mod order, I kind of changed it up. Like, sometimes I'll change up this sauce, but this is usually, what I guess, like, spicy red sauce. And then arugula or spinach, depending on what they have.
And then I'll get mozzarella and asiago, and then I usually get pepperoni, mushroom, onion, and banana pepper on top, which is a very interesting combination. I used to get a really pesto, like, with riccata and, like, pesto, and then I just got cause I ate it too much, so I had to take order over here. But then, like, in terms of the sauces, I used to get balsamic glaze on top, but then I got sick of it, so I don't eat it now. I get the srirancha, like the sriracha ranch combination and hot honey.
I loved the popcorners when they were here. I gave a box stash some. Open it yet? So I'm waiting, but we don't have that.
Definitely. I'd be snacking the dum dums consistently because I feel like I can make one last a solid 30 minutes so it makes the time go by. Jester, what do you do to create balance in your life as a student journalist? Going into this quarter, I purposely did not sign up for any early classes.
I don't have a class that starts before 11:30am for me, that's my biggest thing is sleep. I just need at least seven hours to like function and if I get that, I'll be totally fine. So that's just, that's what I needed to do. Yeah, I would say the same.
And also just not over committing yourself. I feel like a lot of people here at Northwestern, they feel like they need to do every single club and get involved in every single thing. It's great to have multiple interests and get involved in student works and stuff and have jobs and stuff, but I think just knowing how much you can handle is really good. What's one important advice you would give the next person in your position?
A piece of advice I would say is take advantage of the fact that you can get press passes to things. Like I have reported going to the Lizzo concert tonight. He was a Lizzo fan. So we are the only stuff like that happens.
I think honestly the best advice for anyone who's on edit board is just be friends with the people who are on your desk. I guess, like I don't really have a specific desk, but just building that relationship with your reporters or like with your staffers I think is good because I feel it's nice of you to be friends with them too and have a good time in the newsroom because you spend so much time together. From the Daily Northwestern, I'm Mika Allison. Thanks for listening to another episode of the Weekly.
This episode was reported and produced by me. The audio editor for Daniel Western is myself, the digital managing editor, Ava Mandela, Eric Schmidt, and the editor in chief is Alex Perry. Make sure to subscribe to the Danof Westerns podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts SoundCloud featuring next week's episode on Monday.