On Tuesday, Tyler Ball was elected Journal editor in chief for 2010-11.
Ball, the only candidate, received 28 votes of confidence and one vote against.
Twenty-nine of 44 eligible voters cast ballots.
Ball said his first priority is hiring a managing editor. Applications for the position are due today and interviews will be scheduled for tomorrow.
Candidates normally run in pairs—either as two editors in chief or as editor in chief and managing editor—for the two highest editorial positions at the newspaper.
“I didn’t run with someone because I couldn’t find someone right away,” Ball said. “This year, the nature of the editorial board staff is there’s a lot of people moving on to new things next year. … I think it will still work out fine.”
Ball is this year’s photography editor. He said he thinks he brings a new perspective to the Journal.
“I have a lot of valuable skills I can bring to the Journal … that are a bit non-traditional for an editor in chief,” he said. “I have more of a creative, technology-based background.”
He wants to cut the Journal’s print circulation next year he said, adding that he plans to revamp the website and increase online readership.
“My biggest plan is to cut costs and on the other side of that is to expand the website,” he said. “I just want to change the layout to make it more easily accommodate advertising as well as make it more easy to navigate and to add more for things like related links, sharing on Twitter, adding videos, that kind of thing.”
Ball said he’s going to reduce the number of editorial board positions. Instead of two features editors, he will hire one. He will also hire two copy editors instead of three.
The money the Journal saves will be used to hire an additional web manager, he said. The existing position of web manager will be revamped into a web and blogs editor and the second web manager will take care of the technical aspects of the website.
“I’m most excited about seeing where the Journal can go in the next year and seeing if we can try to really expand our reach on campus.”
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