With the school year coming to a close, changes are starting to be put in place for next year; new leadership positions for extracurricular activities are opening up. The current Talisman editors, Kristen Smith and Noah Sparkman, are graduating and saying their goodbyes to the newspaper. With the end of the year closing in, the Talisman’s new editors have been announced.
For the 2022-2023 school year the new editors for the Talisman will be Kaitlyn Gorsuch as Editor-in-Chief and Olivia O’Rourke as Managing Editor.
“We feel like we could improve or make our process for editing better,” O’Rourke said. “Also, I want to be able to get to know the people that are going to be on staff since we are going to have a bigger staff next year.”
With O’Rourke becoming the new managing editor, her role will be to “…help bring somebody along so they don’t get behind,” Talisman adviser Julieanne McClain said.
If a student is struggling with their work for the paper, O’Rourke will then step in to help them try and catch up or help resolve the issue any way possible.
While Managing Editor is more of a ‘people person position,’ Editor-in-Chief is the individual who is “most equipped to make decisions that are sound and logical if not always popular,” McClain said.
The Editor-in-Chief is the main individual in charge of content that is posted on the website or in the printed newspaper.
“I like to say Editor-in-Chief is the one who’s legally responsible for what gets published,” McClain said. Since the Talisman is a student publication, the students get to decide what does and doesn’t get published. If the Editor-in-Chief decides that they don’t feel comfortable with an article being published, then it isn’t published.
“I’m really excited about getting an opportunity to be Editor-in-Chief,” Gorsuch said. “I want to work on the editing process and we were talking about how we can improve for next year’s staff and getting to know them.”
With these new responsibilities, Gorsuch and O’Rourke are planning on keeping the same overall traditions the Talisman has while also trying to improve the overall writing and bonds within the staff members.
“I want to make sure everyone has a bond like we all do on staff,” Gorsuch said. “I just want to make sure that bond continues within next year’s staff.”
With every new year comes new areas of focus as well. In the past, the Talisman has had 1 or 2 photographers to keep up with sports, but that will be changing for next year. “We’re going to have a whole team of new photographers next year so I feel we will be able to more closely follow sports and update the student body on the kinds of things that they really care about,” O’Rourke said.
With the majority of the Talisman’s writing being more focused on school events, the plan is for that to continue into next year as well.
“After all, this is a school publication so I think we are going to stay focused on what the students want and what is going on at the school,” O’Rourke said.
Now that the new staff members have been announced, the current Talisman staff has been making plans to meet them and unite the new group.
“If you’re deciding that you want to join, it’s the kind of thing that helps you get involved in your community,” O’Rourke said. “I’ve gotten to know a lot just from being on staff this year and I’ve gotten to meet a lot of fantastic people.”