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The history of the DP, in 15 minutes

A video first created in 2011, and updated several times since, offers a quick history of The Daily Pennsylvanian. Created for training new student leaders, after it was shown at the DP’s 135th Anniversary reunion, there were requested to be able to view it online. So now, you can.

The video was created by DP General Manager Eric Jacobs with help from Director of Sales & Marketing Katherine Ross. At the start of 2011, Executive Editor Lauren Plotnick said she wanted to start four days of training for new editors and managers with a session on the history of the DP — something that would make them better appreciate the magnitude of running the then 127 year-old organization.

Jacobs says the idea blossomed in his mind immediately: a video slideshow which would trace the paper’s long history, interspersed with alumni memories to inspire the staff. “Standing in front of the group to talk through the DP’s history would be dry, but I pictured a movie with historic photos, front pages, quotes from alumni which make you laugh and which make you cry, and dramatic music to heighten the emotional connection.”

Some of the content was pulled from research done to create a book about the DP’s history which was produced for the DP’s 125th anniversary in 2009. But there were only two hectic days to work on it, and the tools were a bit crude and labor-intensive, Jacobs recalls. It was well after midnight when the last slide was put in place — and there was no soundtrack.

“I picked out some bombastic action movie soundtracks I had on my computer, and figured we’d later go back and create some more contemporary soundtrack,” Jacobs says, “but the dramatic music proved timeless and added the drama I wanted, and so it stuck; I never went back and changed it.”

It took two hours for a computer to render the slideshow into a 15-minute movie, and Jacobs recalls driving home for a few hours of sleep with a laptop computer on his front seat doing the rendering for the first training session a few hours later.

Jacobs has updated the movie several times since its premiere to encompass the most recent moments of DP history, and he jokes that his last revision of the movie will likely come when he adds a slide about his own retirement in 2020.

Watch the DP history video by clicking above, or go to theDP.com/DPHistory
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DPAA News

DP begins search for new General Manager, Development Director

The DP Board of Directors has set in motion two job searches which will reshape the organization’s small professional staff.

As we announced this past summer, longtime General Manager Eric Jacobs will be retiring next summer after 40 years working for the DP (plus 4 years as student), so the search has begun to find and hire the paper’s second-ever General Manager.

The DP has also launched a search for a Director of Development, to shepherd and drive the organization’s expanded fundraising efforts. Following a decade-long decline in advertising revenue that mirrors the newspaper industry, the DP Board has positioned fundraising as a second pillar of revenue needed to support the DP’s operations in future decades. The decision to hire a full-time development professional was one of the key recommendations which emerged from a six-month study by a nationally renowned consulting firm earlier this year.

The DP Board earlier this fall created a search committee of alumni and students to draft job descriptions and conduct the job searches. The three alumni members of the search committee are Board Lead Alumni Director Chuck Cohen ’89, incoming DPAA President Amy Gardner ’90, and Peter Canellos ’84, as well as Jacobs. The remaining members of the committee are the DP’s top three student leaders: President Julia Schorr, Executive Editor Sarah Fortinsky and Business Manager Remi Golden.

Here’s where you come in. The search committee is asking the DP alumni community for help in finding candidates for these two positions. If you know anyone who might be interested (or you yourself might be interested) in either the development or General Manager role, please check out or pass on these links which describe the Director of Development position and the General Manager position. The job descriptions include instructions on how to apply.

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DPAA News

Alumni reunion in Philadelphia toasts 135 years of the DP

Nearly 250 DP alumni, students and guests gathered in Philadelphia last month to celebrate the DP’s rich history, re-live fond memories, honor fellow alumni, and look forward to a strong future for the organization. Ten years after the first alumni reunion, this year’s event was, by all accounts, a resounding success.  An informal Friday evening cocktail party opened the weekend, followed by a series of popular alumni panel discussions on Saturday. Mel Goldstein ’62 and Michael Brown ’62 began the day by regaling the crowd with stories about the University’s ill-fated shutdown of the DP in 1962.

The next session featured the five inaugural inductees into the new DP Alumni Hall of Fame — Bob Frost ’60, Michael Silver ’75, Lee Levine ’76, Eric Jacobs ’80 and Jean Chatzky ’86 — sharing their memories and discussing the DP’s impact on their lives.

A panel on the state of political journalism today featured an impressive roster of DP journalists: Peter Canellos ’84 (Politico), Matt Flegenheimer ’11 (New York Times), Rebecca Kaplan ’10 (CBS News), Catherine Lucey ’01 (The Wall Street Journal), Ashley Parker ’05 (Washington Post), and Dick Stevenson ’81 (New York Times).

The final panel featured a video on the history of the DP, Executive Editor Sarah Fortinsky ’20 and President Julia Schorr ’20 discussing student life at the DP today, General Manager Eric Jacobs ’80 discussing the changes in the DP’s business model and state of its finances, and DP Board Lead Alumni Director Chuck Cohen ’89 talking about the need for increased philanthropic giving to support the DP in the decades to come.

The closing dinner gala was emceed by outgoing DP Alumni Association President Marty Siegel ’77, who presented the first Young Alumni Award to Ashley Parker ’05 and then introduced each of the five Hall of Fame inductees. “The greatest thing I ever did in my career was work at the DP,” said Bob Frost ’60, a former New York Times reporter and investment manager. Philadelphia City Councilperson Helen Gym ’93 presented a resolution passed by City Council — and read aloud by student and alumni members of the DP Board of Directors — honoring the DP on its anniversary and Eric Jacobs ’80 on his impending retirement after 40 years of employment at the DP. (Read the full resolution here.)

If you joined us in Philadelphia, thank you for coming. If you weren’t able to come this time, we hope you’ll join us for the next such anniversary event. We don’t know how we’ll top this year’s event — but it’s only a question of “when,” not “if.”

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DPAA News

DP wins top college newspaper award for 3rd consecutive year

The DP was honored as one of the top college newspapers in the country when it received the Pacemaker Award from the Associated Collegiate Press. The award was presented at a national college media conference in Washington, DC on November 2, 2019.

The Pacemaker is often referred to as “the Pulitzer Prize of college journalism.” It is the third consecutive year the DP has received the award, and only the second time the DP has achieved that feat. (The DP won four consecutive Pacemaker awards from 2001-2004.)

Last year’s senior sports editor William Snow ’19 also won the Reporter of the Year award for multiple groundbreaking investigations into issues on several Penn sports teams.

You can read more about this year’s awards in a DP story here.