Nicole Comparato: Leadership in a time of change

Nicole Comparato is running for Editor-in-chief of The Daily Tar Heel for the 2013-14 school year.

Read Nicole’s profile.

Next year will be one of the most comprehensive transition periods the University has seen in decades. A new chancellor, provost and other top administrators will arrive, with possible tuition increases on the horizon and ongoing investigations into broad-ranging policies. While this will not be the only news we’ll cover, during this time the paper needs a leader with a strong presence on campus to keep not only the student body’s trust for detailed and accurate information, but also the trust of the surrounding community and the state of North Carolina. There are several ways I plan to implement my ideas to continue The Daily Tar Heel’s brand of excellence.

Leading among publications

As editor, my mission will be to make the newspaper not only the place for people to go to get the news, but also the place to break news. We have a duty to create source relationships that will keep a healthy information flow that builds confidence in our publication and puts accuracy and fairness as a priority. Too many times people have felt the need to go to professional publications with news that directly affects our readership and community. That should be fixed.

Emphasizing our online content

To remain competitive, we need to increase our blog and online presence. Having desk editors oversee blogs means tacking on posting at the end of a long list of duties. To fix this, I plan to hire a Blog Editor. This editor will be in charge of recruiting and hiring staffers like any other desk, and will manage the University, City, State & National, and Arts blogs. One assistant from each desk will be a Blog Coordinator, who will meet collectively once a week with the Blog Editor to discuss ideas and points of interests.

Enhancing multimedia

Our Multimedia Desk can be better. The Multimedia Desk should not only make videos to accompany other desks’ stories, but should generate more of its own content each week. The editor should be pitching his or her own ideas at enterprise. Multiple weekly features, stories and video production will increase visits to our website and our outreach.

Collaborating with Opinion Desk

The Opinion Desk and editorial board are a valuable part of our paper. In order to help them achieve their goal of providing accurate information to form comprehensive opinions on an issue, I will foster collaboration between the board and the writer who covered the subject of the opinion. Writers often have information that was not put in the story that can be further explored or useful to the editorial board.

Recruiting the best available

I will work with the summer editor to increase presence and promote the DTH at new student orientation sessions, as well as with the Residence Hall Association, the professional schools and other campus organizations, to recruit untapped and talented writers. We need more graduate student writers, which will be one of my priorities.

Being an accessible editor

In the day-to-day hustle of producing this newspaper, it is essential to make sure everyone understands his or her defined roles and performs them. But I want my staff to know that I am always available at any time to talk about how things are going, any stress they are under and how to fix it. I will hold a brief one-on-one monthly meeting with the editor of each desk to address concerns, and a group meeting with assistant editors each month as well.