Erica Perel has succeeded Betsy O’Donovan as general manager of The Daily Tar Heel. Perel, who took over the position at the end of the fall 2017 semester, served as the DTH’s editor-in-chief in the 1997-98 school year and has been the paper’s newsroom adviser since 2008.
“This new role is going to be a lot more administrative in nature, a lot more on the business side,” said Perel. “But at its core, my job is still going to be to provide student journalists with the resources and the support they need to make a great product.”
O’Donovan, who joined the DTH in fall 2016, helped to reduce losses from $300,000 in 2015-16 to less than $30,000 in 2016-17. As newsroom adviser, Perel helped to establish the DTH alumni association and 1893 Brand Studio.
“The only person who could possibly lead The Daily Tar Heel through a serious time like it is now is someone who has truly, actually experienced The Daily Tar Heel,” said Paige Ladisic, the 2015-16 editor-in-chief of The Daily Tar Heel. “I knew it needed to be someone who had the connections and knew the people and could talk to our alumni from the place of an alumni.”
While Perel has not previously worked for the business side of a newspaper, she has plans to boost and diversify income for the DTH.
"We're always going to try to increase our print revenue," said Perel. "But at the same time, I think obviously we need to plan for a future in which print isn't carrying the full weight. I think the most important way we need to change how we think is we need to think about talking to our business and community partners that have traditionally been print advertisers. We want to think about ourselves as being problem-solvers for them."
Jessica Swanson, the current managing editor of the DTH, said that she's going into the spring semester with more hope and confidence under Perel.
"I always think of her as the source of our institutional knowledge, and I'm really glad that all of her skills and talents are being put in a good position," said Swanson.
