IU Student Media names next IDS, Arbutus editors-in-chief

Editors-in-chief have been confirmed for IU Student Media following Friday’s spring publications board meeting. Junior Brooke Lillard will serve as the summer Indiana Daily Student editor-in-chief, junior MaryJane Slaby will serve as the fall IDS editor-in-chief and junior Kayleen Cohen will serve as the editor-in-chief of the 2012 Arbutus Yearbook.

The board, which is made up of representatives from various areas of student media and organizations and professional members in the community, interviews candidates each semester to select the next editor.

Lillard, from Memphis, Tenn., will succeed junior Jake Wright, the spring editor-in-chief. Her previous positions on staff include region editor, copy editor and page designer. Summer will be the first full term with the IDS redesign and smaller paper, and Lillard said she wants to focus on online content.

“I plan to emphasize the web a lot,” Lillard said. “I want to make content available to readers.”

Slaby, from New Carlisle, Ind., has served as managing editor, campus editor and arts editor, among other positions, and she is the current IU Police Department beat reporter. Slaby said she wanted to focus on breaking news, alternative story forms and thinking for the website, not just the newspaper.

“Every semester at the IDS you learn something different,” Slaby said. “I think being management last fall was helpful in seeing what a day in the life was like for (then-Editor-in-Chief) Sarah Brubeck.”

Cohen, a Bloomington native, has served as an IDS arts editor and Arbutus managing editor, among other positions. In her application for the position, Cohen said she wants to create more visual diversity from page to page.

All Student Media publications — including Arbutus and Inside magazine — have editorial independence granted by the IU Board of Trustees. The student editors are in charge and take responsibility for the content.