Behind the scenes of The Daily Tar Heel
By Veronica Ogbe
The Daily Tar Heel, one of the oldest university newspapers in the country, began its journey on Feb. 23, 1893. The paper, which serves the community surrounding UNC-Chapel Hill, was founded by the Athletic Association and began as a weekly four-page newspaper financed by ad sales and subscriptions. Later in 1923, the DTH transferred to the Student Publications Union and currently has made a permanent move off campus, which took place in 2010.
“It’s nice and big, and gives us plenty of room to grow in the future,” newsroom advisor Erica Perel said.
The DTH is an independent newspaper. Because it gets no funding from UNC, the DTH must rely on profits generated from ad sales.
“We have a student ad department that sells the ads by going out to local businesses and university departments,” Perel said.
In addition to having an ad department to keep the money and amount of ads sold organized, there are other departments that help make the papers operation a smoother process.
The paper’s newsroom is divided into different desk that all have their own respective beat.
“We have editors for every desk and some assistant editors. They are in charge of coming up with assignments, giving them to staffers and keeping track of it,” Perel said.
Although the editor position is a large responsibility, the DTH editors enjoy their work.
“I grew up in Chapel Hill, so [the best part about the DTH is] getting to know the way my town works, the way my neighbors live their lives and learning all the little secrets in the place I grew up in that I never knew before,” Cammie Bellamy said. Bellamy is editor of the city desk, which focuses on news in the community.
“It made me feel like a better citizen — a better Chapel Hillian,” Bellamy added and laughed.
Jordan Bailey, editor of the university desk, said she loves writing and getting to know UNC faculty members.
“I’m a lot more in tune with UNC and what goes on here, along with the people that work here and students,” she said.
Megan Cassella, the summer editor-in-chief, said the DTH plays an important role for the UNC student body and community.
“It’s our job to be the watchdog and make sure we understand everything that’s going on, and then filtering it through. We figure out what’s most important and deliver the truth,” Cassella said.
Bailey and Cassella said having a paper that is completely student operated is a great way to get the concept of real world journalism.
“Before I started working here, I had no idea that it was totally student run. I didn’t realize that every single aspect of the paper is written by students — it’s cool that we are independent from the university,” Bailey said.
Bellamy added that the DTH’s influence has even extended beyond the community.
“We’re not just a news source for UNC, the town, or the state,” she said. “We had The New York Times cite a lot of our articles covering the sexual assault on campus, which gave me a much wider influence then I was aware of when I first started working here.”
With everything that The Daily Tar Heel has to offer, it shows how much of an honor it would be to work with a wonderful group of people with great ideas everyday.
“A lot of people working here are journalism majors, but I don’t think anyone should be intimidated by that aspect, reputation or anything like that — it’s just an open environment that everyone should really get involved with if they want to get to know the university and learn all the ins and outs of it,” Cassella said.
Although students run the paper, Perel is there to help if needed.
“I remember thinking, even as a student, how much I loved the paper and I would love to give back to the future generation of students,” Perel said. “It was really more of a calling to be back here — I love it, it’s a great place.”