Wright State University’s student-led newspaper, the Wright State Guardian, is an organization that offers students jobs, internships and other experiences in media and journalism. At the top of the organization, the Editor-in-Chief (EIC) manages everything within the Guardian. Having held the position since May, previous EIC Aaron Cline is now on his way out, and Kylee Lairmore is stepping into the role.
Cline’s closing message
Cline is a junior majoring in English at WSU, with a concentration in creative writing. He has worked with the Guardian since October 2023, holding the position of Managing Editor until he took over as EIC in May.
“Meeting the team is just a general thing,” Cline said. “We have almost 30 staff members this semester, which is insane. We have a lot of interns and contributing people, so wrangling and getting those ducks in a row is important.”
Cline expressed his difficulty with communicating with each member of this large team. As a result of his struggle, and mainly due to external factors, Cline has decided to step down from his role as EIC. He shared that he is going to miss the people, and that he has enjoyed his time and experiences.
While Cline shared that this was an area where he struggled as EIC, he has high hopes for Lairmore. He mentioned his belief that she is well-organized and has the requisite experience and knowledge of the Guardian’s operating systems.
“The team will do great. Very proud of everyone, and I'm excited to see how everyone develops,” Cline said.
Introducing Lairmore
Lairmore is a junior at WSU this year, and an English major with a concentration in creative writing. She has been involved with the Guardian since the spring, when she joined in the position of News Editor. Due to her experience at the Guardian, Lairmore was an ideal candidate for the position of EIC.
“Creative writing and news writing are very, very different. You always have to write to your audience and according to format. At The Guardian, we write in AP format, while creative writing is a little more free,” Lairmore said.
In addition to her new responsibilities as EIC, Lairmore reads for literary agents, which will help her in her future endeavors, as she plans to go into publishing. Some fun facts about her are that she has a cat and is a long-distance runner.
“I'm learning a lot, especially in this position, of how to, one, lead a team of writers, and then really have an editing eye. That will be really important when reading and editing manuscripts,” Lairmore said.
By working in both fields, Lairmore is gaining expertise in controlling the written word in many forms and across multiple mediums.
The future of the Guardian with Lairmore
A change in leadership often results in a shift of the projects that are prioritized within an organization, as both Cline and Lairmore touched on.
“I think she's going to be able to expand on those projects more, which is really good, because I really like for the people of the Guardian to have a broad list of opportunities that they can involve themselves in,” Cline said.
Lairmore expressed interest in getting the podcast up and running again, as well as taking on a wider range of other projects, such as adding polls into the website.
“I would love to get a wider variety of content through the Guardian,” Lairmore said. “Let the team have more creative freedom and expand on what we do, not just report on news and what's happening at [WSU], but be a big presence at [WSU] itself.”
Lairmore expressed her interest in building up the Guardian’s relationship with other organizations on campus by collaborating with intention. She wants to hold more events in the office and spread more awareness about the Guardian in general.
“I want to see all of the team pitch ideas for the stories they are writing that can go on our social media as well, because college kids care more about social media than they usually do the news. It's a good platform that I want to utilize more,” Lairmore said.
As Lairmore adjusts to her new role as EIC, there will be many changes coming to the Guardian. She voiced her excitement and hopes that others will share it with her, making it clear that the Guardian is in great hands.
