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The Daily Tar Heel

Farewell Column: A kingdom of our own

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DTH Digital Managing Editor Emily Gessner sits on the steps of the DTH office on Monday, April 21, 2025.

My mom thinks it’s so cool that I am an editor at The Daily Tar Heel. She always says that when she was in school, she thought of The DTH staff as royalty. It was as if this unknown entity of students knew everything and put it together for everyone else to know too. 

I’m not sure that’s what anyone thinks of us anymore. (If you do, thank you so much, loyal subject.) But to me, looking at this newsroom that I’ve worked in for the last two years, these people are my royal court. 

I remember the first night I ever walked into The DTH office for a shift on the Copy Desk. I was so nervous to enter this new kingdom. It felt daunting knowing the history of this paper, and everyone seemed to know everything about journalism. 

But then, a lady of the court, the print managing editor and my now-good-friend Sarah Monoson sat me down and showed me how to edit a story and check CQs. And just like that, I was a courtier. What a joy it has been to exist in this kingdom at the same time as Sarah; she made this place better and I have looked to her for advice or answers more times than I can count. 

I was a courtier for just a semester before I rose to a ladyship of my own as assistant copy editor and then copy chief where I had the pleasure of leading my municipality with Lady Maggie McNinch, the kindest editor in all the land. She has been a bright light, a copy goddess and a queen in her own regard for the last year, and I will always be grateful that she is my friend. 

My copy assistants last semester, Avery Thatcher and Emma Unger, are some of my favorite ladies, and they have made this newsroom more fun during every shift.

See, when you spend around 20 hours a week in a dingy office with the best courtiers, nobles and advisors this campus has to offer, you’re bound to grow close.

And with all the classes we take together stuck in Carroll Hall, 20 hours quickly turns into many more. I can’t walk around campus without seeing multiple DTH court members. 

When it comes down to it, this place and these people fill the stories that make up my first few years at UNC. The DTH is a place that you cannot even begin to understand unless you are part of it. Because it is infinitely challenging and frustrating and beautiful that every week we start over again writing and editing and publishing stories for an audience that doesn’t even know who we are. 

This kingdom is a hidden gem on Franklin Street full of backlog papers, questionable desktop computers and the best journalists UNC has to offer. I’ve heard people complain about The DTH, and sometimes that stops others from applying, but that’s the thing — it’s ours to complain about and ours to love. And I will defend this newsroom until the day I die. 

Don’t give up on The DTH, give this kingdom a shot. 

And you, too, may eventually become an advisor in the form of the digital managing editor to the greatest pink-loving queen Editor-in-Chief Laney Crawley. 

When this position opened up at the beginning of this spring semester, I jumped at the opportunity to be part of management. And I’m so glad I did. Because now I get to say I have had the chance to truly enjoy Laney’s laughter and jokes and random screams. I got to witness Aisha Baiocchi's incredible outfits every day, her DJing abilities and the way she cares about journalism so deeply. 

How can you even describe this moment in time, this staff, this court, as the most perfect newsroom to ever exist to someone who has never worked on a victory paper until 4 a.m. or felt the need to break a laptop after an InDesign page got corrupted on print night?

Honestly, you can’t. But I can say thank you to the people who have made this kingdom a second home for me. 

To me, you will always be royalty. 

@dailytarheel | opinion@dailytarheel

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Emily Gessner

Emily Gessner is the spring 2025 digital managing editor. She previously served as the copy chief and an assistant copy editor.