On Monday night, Student Publications Inc. selected Managing Editor Caleb McCullough to be the next executive editor of The Daily Iowan for the 2021-2022 school year.

McCullough, a journalism and political science double-major minoring in philosophy, said he chose to attend the University of Iowa because he wanted to work at the DI. While attending Hudson High School in Hudson, Iowa, he worked on his student publication, The Pirate Press, and toured the DI’s newsroom during a high school journalism conference.

“I heard all their great accolades, so I wanted to join and learn from The Daily Iowan,” he said.

He began working on the news staff and as a designer his freshman year. In the run-up to the Iowa caucuses, McCullough reported on politics in the fall of his sophomore year, and then was promoted to assistant politics editor for the spring semester. He was co-editor last summer. McCullough spent the first semester of his junior year as co-politics editor and is currently a managing editor.

“One of the things that the board really was impressed by was the fact that Caleb really had his hands in his time at the DI in a lot of different sections,” said Nichole Shaw, the chairperson of the 10-member Student Publications Inc. Board. “He especially took on the role of mentor really well and a lot of the relationships that he’s fostered with his co-workers in the newsroom have led to great stories.”

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Current Executive Editor Sarah Watson said she’s been impressed with how McCullough has considered stakeholders and thoughtfully navigated decisions.

“I have seen Caleb step into every role and exceed all of my expectations for the role and what we needed,” Watson said. “He really understood and knew what the DI needed and what the audience needed and what reporters needed.”

McCullough said as the newspaper continues to be published twice a week, one of his goals is to evaluate how the paper is viewed and prioritized.

“When we did a daily paper, most of the energy was put into, ‘How do we have enough stories to fill this paper?’ That was kind of the main question every day,” he said. “And with less frequent publishing we can really take more time and develop stories and packages that have a lot more staying power and a lot more interesting and engaging information that people can look forward to every week.”

Additionally, McCullough wants to continue developing the DI website as a central resource for news and to create engaging online content.

“I’m really excited to work with Caleb next year because I think he’s very thoughtful, and he has some great ideas on how to continue to advance the DI,” Publisher Jason Brummond said. “… He really understands how The Daily Iowan works and understands what’s important to readers and to our community and I’m excited to see what he is able to do next year.”

Shaw, Watson, and Brummond said advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion is another priority for the paper they trusted McCullough to continue. Shaw said she was excited to hear him frame the Amplify section of the paper as a pipeline through which to further diversity in the newsroom. Watson said she was confident McCullough will help make the DI newsroom a welcoming and valuable professional opportunity for journalists of color and underrepresented groups.

McCullough will begin his role as executive editor in the fall of 2021, following a summer internship with the Cedar Rapids Gazette. He hopes staffers will be able to be in the newsroom more in the fall and that COVID-19 vaccinations could lead to some of the “hustle and bustle of newsroom culture” returning after the staff has largely been operating remotely for a year.

“I’m very excited to keep up the work of all the editors before me and make sure we keep advancing the mission of The Daily Iowan and keep its recognition as an outstanding and award-winning newspaper,” he said.