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DP Board selects Deb Howlett to succeed Eric Jacobs as General Manager

The Daily Pennsylvanian Board of Directors is thrilled to announce the hiring of Deborah Howlett as the organization’s next General Manager. She will succeed the irreplaceable Eric Jacobs, who is retiring after an astonishing 40 years working for the DP.

Howlett worked for 25 years as a journalist, including 18 years at USA Today. She has been teaching journalism for the past 10 years, the last three also serving as the faculty adviser to the student newspaper at the University of Delaware.

Although her hiring amounts to a bittersweet moment when the DP will be saying goodbye to Jacobs, it also represents an exciting opportunity to tackle the challenges of running a modern news organization in fresh and creative ways.

“I am beyond excited to join The Daily Pennsylvanian and work with some of the most dedicated and talented student journalists in the country,” Howlett said after accepting the job. “This role at the DP offers a singular opportunity to combine my passion for journalism and teaching with my experience in nonprofit management in ways that will sustain the organization and continue its historic legacy.”

“These are challenging and exciting times for news outlets, especially print publications, as journalism evolves and we find new ways of reaching audiences and shaping our democracy,” Howlett said. “There is no better laboratory than the student press and The Daily Pennsylvanian is uniquely positioned to take advantage of the times and lift up the next generation of journalists.”

Howlett will work closely with Jacobs in the coming months to ensure a smooth transition.

“I am delighted to hand over management and oversight of the DP to Deb,” Jacobs said. “She won everyone over with her warmth and everything she has accomplished in her career so far.” Jacobs will remain at the DP over the next few months doing training and transferring his knowledge to bring Howlett up to speed, and will then continue in a limited part-time role as an adviser through next summer.

The search for a new General Manager began last year with the formation of a search committee consisting of students and alumni. It was delayed for nearly three months by coronavirus shutdowns. The search committee finally completed its interviews and unanimously selected Howlett as its first choice. The Board of Directors made the selection official a short time later.

DP Alumni Association President Amy Gardner, who served on the search committee, said Howlett seemed like just the right person to lead the DP through the next wave of change facing the journalism world.

“The Daily Pennsylvanian faces the same complex challenges of many 21st century news organizations: how to deliver relevant news on digital platforms in creative and compelling ways; how to retain readers and advertisers; and perhaps most importantly of all, how to accurately reflect the complexity, diversity and humanity of the world — in our case, the Penn community — in our daily report,” Gardner said. “We are thrilled that Deb has agreed to join the DP to help navigate our student-run organization through these challenges. Deb is a seasoned journalist, an experienced manager and a warm and empathetic teacher. Her passion for student journalism will be obvious to all who meet her, and will quickly leave a mark on our beloved DP.”

“Over the past few years, Eric has been working closely with the Board of Directors to ensure a smooth transition to life ‘post-EJ,’” said Chuck Cohen, lead alumni director on the DP Board and another member of the search committee. “Eric was 100% focused on ensuring that we selected the right professional to succeed him, and he was selfless in putting his own retirement on hold until we completed the process.  We’re all excited that we can now execute a smooth transition, and Eric can continue to serve the DP on a part-time basis for the next year.” Regarding Howlett, Cohen said, “The entire committee was very impressed with Deb’s journalism credentials and her dedication to student media. We believe she’s got the right combination of experience and vision to lead the organization into the choppy waters ahead.”

Isaballa Simonetti, the student President of the DP and another member of the search committee, echoed the praise for both Jacobs and Howlett: “Eric’s more than 40-year legacy at The Daily Pennsylvanian leaves impossibly big shoes to fill. That said, I am confident that Deb will do an excellent job. Her extensive journalism experience paired with her enthusiasm and passion for educating the next generation of journalists make Deb a great selection for the DP’s new General Manager. I am very excited to have the opportunity to work with her.”

The DP Board wants to thank the student and alumni members of the search committee, who worked tirelessly shaping a job description, reading resumes, and conducting phone and online interviews. In addition to Cohen, Gardner, Simonetti and Jacobs, the committee included alum Peter Canellos, student Board member Alec Druggan, and Sarah Fortinsky, who started on the committee as a student representative but had graduated and become an alumna by the time the committee finished its work.

Howlett got her start in journalism serving as the editor-in-chief of her college newspaper, the Oregon Daily Emerald at the University of Oregon. The Emerald, like the DP, is an independent corporation, and the two organizations are quite similar in size and operation.

After college, she landed a summer internship at the Salem, Oregon Statesman-Journal, which turned into a full-time position as a sports reporter, education writer, and politics and government reporter.

She spent the next 18 years working for USA Today covering national and international news. She became the Chicago Bureau Chief and covered two Super Bowls, eight political conventions, four hurricanes, two earthquakes, the O.J. Simpson murder trial, the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building and the aftermath of the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. Her international assignments included covering conflicts in Afghanistan, Haiti, Iraq, Kosovo, Rwanda and Zaire.

She moved to New Jersey, where she still resides, to cover state government and politics for the Newark Star-Ledger for five years. She decided to take a break from journalism and spent a few years as a communications director for the governor’s office, but decided working in the world of politics wasn’t for her. “After working in newsrooms for more than 20 years, the pace of government seemed incredibly slow,” she said.

For the next several years, she served as executive director of NJ Policy Perspective, the leading tax, budget and social welfare policy think tank in the state. She managed a small staff and was responsible for fundraising and overseeing editorial production.

During that time, she became a part-time lecturer at the Rutgers University School of Communication and Information, teaching digital media and political and government reporting. She formed her own consulting company focused on building multi-media and social media capacity to small non-profits in the state.

Three years ago, she took a full-time position at the University of Delaware as an instructor in the English department teaching journalism. She taught courses that ranged from introductory news writing and editing to sports writing, social journalism, and the role of journalism in a free society. Part of her job was advising The Review, the editorially-independent student newspaper.

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DPAA News

Report from the General Manager:
The DP in the coronavirus crisis

One month.

It’s hard to believe it’s only been one month since the world suddenly changed. I started to write this report from the Home Office (see what I did there?) to the DP alumni community almost as soon as Penn shut down, but we were all being inundated with emails from CEOs of every company we’ve ever done business with and adjusting to life unlike anything we’ve ever experienced, so I figured you didn’t need to hear from me right away.

But a month into our collective isolation seemed like a good time to reach out, to say hello, to extend my best wishes that you and your family are doing well, and to give you a brief update on how your favorite college newspaper is faring during this crisis.

What the DP has been doing.

When Penn announced on March 11 it was sending students home and requiring all-but-essential staff to work from home, it was immediately apparent that the DP was also in for radical change. The DP’s Board of Directors, in a conference call that night, affirmed the obvious: there would be no purpose in continuing to produce and deliver a printed edition of the DP to a locked-down and mostly empty campus.

But before stilling the presses, we decided to produce a final print edition — only the third (non-Homecoming) Saturday edition of the DP in the past 50+ years — as students and some faculty and staff visited campus to retreive their possessions for the work-at-home period to follow. Being an observer on the sidelines as that historic issue came into being was exciting and exhilarating, and I think would have brought a smile to the face of every DP alum. There was only one student in the DP office; everyone else was scattered around the country. Design editors built pages on their computers while about 30 editors, associate editors and reporters communicated via Slack on everything from story ideas to headline writing to fact checking to copy editing to reviewing page proofs in a race to meet an early press deadline. In the best of DP traditions, we missed the deadline… but only by a little bit, and the “Last DP” hit campus early that Saturday morning. 

With DP print editions gone, no one took their foot off the gas. Over the past four weeks, the DP has continued publishing content on its website every day. The news department has been busy covering multiple changes to grading for online courses, cancellation of on-campus summer courses, students losing summer internships and research positions, ups and downs of online courses, Penn’s role in COVID-19 treatment and drug research, payment for Penn and sub-contracted employees, and myriad other aspects of the impact of coronavirus crisis on the Penn community. The DP’s free “Dear Penn” email newsletter has continued to publish to 10,000 subscribers every weekday morning, along with the paid parent- and alumni-focused Weekly Roundup newsletter every Sunday. 

On the business side, the combination of no print editions, all University events being cancelled, and many local businesses being closed or struggling, has led to a sharp dropoff in revenue. Digital ads on the website, in the email newsletters, and in social media channels keeps some money coming in, but the loss of revenue from March through May, typically our strongest advertising months, will likely hit $100,000.

How you can help.

I can’t deny it’s been a challenge setting up a virtual newsroom in bedrooms and dens across the country. But the DP is strong, and we’ll get through this — with your help.

While we’re not currently paying for pizza in the newsroom every night, we have significant fixed expenses including rent, payroll, insurance, website and other digital services, and student scholarships, and I am reaching out to ask DP alumni to help us weather this storm by making a contribution to the DP.  

Through our 135 years, we’ve managed to deliver the news; through the intolerable and impossible, adjusting our operations when needed, but never compromising our commitment to serve the Penn community. Today’s uncertain world is no different and neither are we. The role that we play as a news organization is even more crucial than ever, as is our mission to successfully prepare and provide for the students who are the future of journalism, media and business. The need to support our organization is great, because the need for our organization has never been greater.

Can I count on your contribution today? Click here to make a donation to support the DP.

Thank you, and be well. 

Eric Jacobs ’80
DP General Manager

P.S. To those of you wondering, “haven’t you retired?”, as you can see, I’m still here! Like everything else in our lives, finding my replacement has been put on hold during this crisis. (We were just a few days away from interviews of our finalist candidates when our part of the world locked down.) As the restrictions on what we can do start to ease in the months ahead, we’ll get back to the task of selecting a new General Manager and beginning a transition process which will span many months. So you’ll still be hearing from me for a while longer!

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DPAA News

Greetings from new DPAA President Amy Gardner

Dear DPAA Family,

It’s hard to believe that it was 33 years ago when I first walked through the doors at 4015 Walnut St. to start my journalism career at The DP. Today, I am a political reporter at The Washington Post, and I’m proud to serve as the new president of the DPAA — a role that has allowed me to reconnect with old friends, recall fond memories, mentor a new generation of young journalists and do my part to protect and preserve an institution that must continue to shine a light on the Penn community.

We have entered a time of transition and innovation at the DP and DPAA. The student staff is working hard to keep pace with a rapidly changing industry while also paying close attention to the fundamentals of journalism. We hired Steven Molberger as our new development director, with a focus on helping secure the DP’s financial future. And of course we are preparing for departure later this year of our beloved general manager, Eric Jacobs.

With all this change comes opportunity. Our organization has arrived at a crucial moment that requires leadership, strategic thinking and a willingness to lay the foundation for a more prosperous future. It also requires more engagement from our alumni community.

Over the course of the next year you will begin to see changes and adjustments to how we position our organization. One of our goals is to create a more meaningful alumni experience. Another is to secure the DP’s future.

I’ve been excited discussing future plans with Steven, and I hope many of you will get to know him in the coming months and years. Steven has been on board for only a few weeks, but he has already developed a framework to strengthen our purpose and understanding of what the DP can do for us and what we can do for the DP, called the 4 C’s of DPAA Participation:

Connection
Stay in touch and informed about all things related to the DP and DPAA

Commitment
Provide resources and time to ensure the best student experience possible

Celebration
Share your achievements and help to recognize others 

Career Support
Receive mentorship and guidance from our esteemed network of DP Alumni

Our goal is ambitious: to position the DP with the necessary resources and alumni engagement to be the best college newspaper in the country. I know we can do this. In my three years on the DPAA Board, I’ve connected with enough of you to know what we all share: a deep and abiding fondness for The Daily Pennsylvanian. 

Please stay tuned for more news on how you can be a part of this exciting period of change.

Warmly,

Amy Gardner ’90
DPAA President