News

After 29 Issues, CXXXIX Bids Farewell to the Newsroom

Members of the CXXXIX Board pose as they depart the newsroom. Thank you, CXXXIX, for everything.

This week signals the last paper for the 139th board and the beginning of The Phillipian vol. CXL, a board featuring a seven-person Upper Management covering editorial, digital, and business affairs.

Under CXXXIX, The Phillipian innovated the layout, established the Oxford comma, and hosted the interscholastic conference “Blue Print.”

Juju Lane ’17, former President and Editor in Chief, will always remember the time she spent with fellow editors during her tenure at The Phillipian as one of the most significant experiences of her life.

Lane said “I’d say this year has probably been the most defining year of my life. It really shaped who I am now and what I want to do going forward, and it really helped me to understand the kinds of people I want to surround myself with. It’s just so great to be in the newsroom every night, and I’m really going to miss being with all these people who love what they do so much, and we just have such a great time together.”

Rudd Fawcett ’18, former Executive Digital Editor, will assume the role of President of The Phillipian. Fawcett looks forward to continuing his previous experience working as part of the CXXXIX Upper Management.

“I’ve been very fortunate to have been able to work with CXXXIX, the last board, and I’m really humbled and lucky to be working with the new board, CXL. It’s been really special to have had the opportunity to work with such an amazing group of people this last year,” said Fawcett.

“Coming in as a Lower, I was nervous at first, and it was hard to be in a room full of seemingly much older, much wiser people, but I ended up feeling really welcomed by everyone in The Phillipian, and especially taken care of and supported by CXXIX… It’s going to be sad to see them go, but I’m also really looking forward to what the new board brings. I think it’s going to be great as well,” said Fawcett.

Lane also expressed her high hopes and expectations for the great visions that Fawcett will bring to the CXL Board.

“Rudd is now President, and that’s a role that’s just perfect for his skillset. I think he really has the organizational skills and the broad vision for the paper to take it in such tremendous directions. He’s just so creative and so determined and just truly passionate about the paper, and I could never ask anything more from someone in charge,” she said.

Cecelia Vieira ’18, former Associate News Editor, will replace Alexa Tsay ’17 as Executive Editor. Lane said, “Cece is just the most incredible writer… she just works so hard and put so much into the paper already, and she has really an incredible journalistic sense, just knowing what to do in so many scenarios. I think that when we have to make hard calls Rudd and Cece are going to work really well together.”

Tsay viewed her time on the Upper Management as both pleasant and challenging. “Being on Upper Management this year has really been an incredible experience for me, especially with the other six people that were on UM with me. They really pushed me and challenged me to think in new ways, and that was just a really great experience and I’m really grateful for the year I’ve had,” she said.

Chaya Holch ’17 and Jack Twomey ’17, former Managing Editors, will also step down in place of Ananda Kao ’18, former Associate Sports Editor, Serena Ren ’18, former Associate Arts Editor, and Nicholas Toldalagi ’18, former Associate News Editor.

Twomey said that he will recall his experience managing and working in the newsroom as the best 30 weeks of his life.

“I’ve enjoyed nearly every minute of it, I’ve met the best people, I’ve been able to be exposed to just some amazing things, and I feel like I really found my home in the newsroom,” said Twomey.

Holch had confidence in the success of the CXL board and described each member as capable and determined to lead, support, and innovate The Phillipian.

“I have lots of faith in Serena… Ananda, Nick, in all of [the Upper Management Board], and I really believe that, as a group, they’re going to find a balance that works for them the way our board did, and the way we’ve loved each other I hope that they can love each other the same way and in the ways that they need to be loved and supported by each other, and I think they’ll do that,” she said.

JB Lim ’18 and Juan Pablo Ramos Barroso ’18, Former Associate News Editors, will be in charge of the News section in place of Candy Chan ’17, Annie Lee ’17 and Susan Yun ’17.

“Working with Susan and Annie has been absolutely amazing. In my unbiased opinion, I think we’ve been the best News editors so far, in the whole 239 years of Phillipian. But, really, we’ve gotten really close because normally there are like five or four News editors, and it’s only the three of us, so doing all that work together I feel like has really strengthened our friendship,” said Chan.

Lee said, “Getting involved with The Phillipian was really one of the best decisions I made at Andover. Whether it was coming down on Thursday mornings to edit articles or staying up late to finish the news layout, I’ll miss working with Candy, Susan and the associates a lot. They are all so amazing, and I’m lucky to have been a part of this hard-working and motivated group of people.”

Lim and Ramos Barroso will strive to enhance and ‘lede’ the News Section beyond the high bars set by former editors.

Yun said, “I have a lot of faith in our new editors. Hopefully they’ll keep remembering to hide the Gushers. Although I’m biased, I believed the most important section of the paper, News, should have priority over snacks.”

Lauren Lee ’18 and Hannah Zhang ’18, former Associate Arts & Leisure Editors, will now succeed Kalina Ko ’17 and Morgan Kuin ’17 in capturing the aesthetics of Andover.

“Having worked with Lauren and Hannah since they started writing, Kalina and I are both confident that they will bring plenty of creative and fresh ideas to the paper. We’re excited to see how they will shape and expand Arts and Leisure,” said Kuin.

Katie Hartzell ’18, Emily Ndiokho ’18, and Adrienne Zhang ’18, former Associate Commentary Editors, will continue their formidable work ethic, friendly leadership skills, and strong writing techniques to inherit the Commentary Section from former editors Sewon Park ’17 and Nancy Kim ’17.

“It certainly required a lot of patience and hard work to be a commentary editor, and the experience was definitely more about communicating and collaborating with other editors than about editing articles. But in retrospect, it was a good learning experience,” said Kim.

“Adrienne is a strong writer, Emily communicates effectively with her peers and our writers, and Katie has a solid foundation in English grammar. I have no doubt that they will create a section that our readers will enjoy. I can’t wait to see what they’ll do once CXL really takes on the reigns of the paper,” she continued.

Former Associate Sports Editors Anjunae Chandran ’18, Nithish Kalpat ’18, Jennifer Lee ’18, and Reuben Philip ’18 will now lead the Sports Section in even replacement of former Sports Editors Laura Bilal ’17, Cassie Chin ’17, Howard Johnson ’17, and Andrew Zhang ’17. From winter to fall sports, the quartet will report fresh and live performances of the Andover Athletes.

“To cover Phillips Academy Athletics for such a long time – that’s certainly a privilege. I’ve written and tweeted about some of the top athletes in Andover and New England history, and I hope that stays with me as I grow older. In terms of the Sports Section, it is left in the capable hands of Nithish Kalpat ‘18 and Jen Lee ‘18. I believe Reuben Philip ‘18 and Anjunae Chandran ‘18 are also carrying a bit of the load, but to be truthful I always saw the duo as much more of an Upper Management tandem — I was shocked when they didn’t apply,” said Johnson.

With Emma Wong ’18 as the Head Copy Editor, Isabelle Bicks ’18, Zoe Hutchins ’18, Nicholas Schoeller ’18, and Larson Tolo ’18, former Associate Copy Editors, will replace Peter Rossano ’17, and Jair Suazo ’17 to lead the Copy Section. Rossano expressed the strong faith he had in the team’s ability to interact with and support a diverse range of editors in the newsroom.

“Copy Gang? They’re lively as ever! We’ve got Emma, Larson, Isabelle, Nick, and Zoe. Everyone’s great, everyone’s extremely hard workers, if not the hardest workers down there because we’re suffering through every single article there is. I have great faith in them to keep running the paper. It’s going to be hard for them initially, as it always is right after turnover, but they’ll pull through,” he said.

Former Associate Photo Editors Ale Macaya ’18 and Tyler Rynne ’18 will continue the teamwork Leah Hamann ’17 and James Wolfe ’17 have shown for the past year as Photo Editors. The duo will actively capture memorable events such as Head of School John Palfrey walking into Commons with his Blue Squash Racket.

“I think Ale and Tyler will do a great job. They worked really hard as associates and I think they work really well together. They both really love what they do, and they’ve definitely handled the stresses of last-minute photo stuff well,” said Hamann.

Connor Devlin ’18 and Charlie Mayhew ’18, former Associate Features Editor, will add humor and liveliness into the paper as they will step on as Features Editors, a position previously held by Emma Rosz Kelley ’17 and John Wu ’17.

“Charlie and Connor… [are] the perfect fit for the job because between the two of them you get, obviously, a lot of humor, but also edginess and at the same time, sensitivity,” said Wu.

Former Associate Layout & Design Editors, Isabelle Beckwith ’18 and Lucy Jung ’18, replacing former Editor Niko Skrivanos ’17, will be responsible for the paper’s appealing and constructive layout. Evelyn Wu ’18 and Amy Xia ’19, former Associate Illustration Editors, will continue the colorful legacy of Sarah Al-Mayahi ’17 and Alice Lu ’17 by drawing and refining illustrations that accompany heavy texts.

Meanwhile, under CXL, the paper will place heavier emphasis on digital-first content, especially through vitalizing the Digital and Video Section, spearheaded under the leadership of Executive Digital Editor, Cedric Elkouh ’18. Fully utilizing his background as Associate Online Producer, Elkouh will be replacing Ally Klionsky ’17 and Rudd Fawcett ’18 to continue and expand news content beyond physical paper.

“Cedric has a ton of ideas for the paper, and I think he’s going to make a great Executive Digital Editor,” said Klionsky.

Fawcett said “I’m really excited to be working very closely with the Digital Editorial boards to further that relationship and to reconfigure how we’re thinking about digital journalism in the context of The Phillipian, and also how we’re thinking about The Phillipian as a newspaper, content-wise, and how we’re thinking of The Phillipian as a business. And so there’s some stuff in the works. I think there’ll be some pretty exciting changes to come.”

In support of such mission, Julia Morrissey ’18 and Jessica Wang ’18, former Associate Video Associates, will succeed Mika Curran ’17, Syler Sallick ’17, and Charlotte Suan ’17 as Video Editors.

At the same time, Lior Hirschfield ’17 and Jerry Yang ’17, former Online Editors, will pass down the paper’s online platform to the hands of Eliza Bienstock ’18, former Associate Online Producer, and Caroline Yun ’18, former Features Staff Writer. The Phillipian will also appoint Samantha Bloom ’18 as its first Data Visualization Editor, who will be responsible for initiating engaging graphing projects as well as designing the State of the Academy issue.

The Business Board, previously a four-person team under the leadership of Sabrina Lu ’17, will almost double in size with Matt Shea ’18, former Business Associate, as Chief Financial Officer.

Lu described her time in The Phillipian as a transformative moment in her life, which led her to find “a second family” that would provide “endless support. Stepping down from her position as Chief Financial Officer, Lu had the utmost confidence in her successor.

“Matthew [is] a very kind and compassionate person, qualities that are very important as a leader, and because of this he gets along very well with the people in the newsroom,” said Lu.

Alongside Shea, Alexandra Loumidis ’18 and Michael McCullom ’18 will inherit Advertising Managers from former Managers Kristy Lam ’17 and Wendy Zhang ’17, while Pierce Bausano ’18 and Lara Robinson ’18 will become Business Managers. In place of former Subscription Manager Connor Haugh, Moyo Oyebode ’18 will assume a new role as Circulation Manager.