by Elizabeth Rembert, Daily Nebraskan
When Santa Claus gave Karissa Schmidt a camera for Christmas, he also gave her the path to her journalism career — along with stuffed animal portraits and family vacation photos.
Schmidt, a junior journalism and sports media and communication double major, turned that camera into a dedication to journalism that ultimately led the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Publications Board to select her as the 2019-2020 editor-in-chief of The Daily Nebraskan on Monday, Feb. 25.
No other students applied for the position, and the board voted unanimously for her appointment.
The position comes after eight consecutive years of work in journalism for Schmidt and three years of work at The Daily Nebraskan, where she currently works as the senior photo editor.
Long before The Daily Nebraskan, Schmidt began journalism as an eighth grader on the Mill Creek Middle School yearbook staff. Then she took “21st Century Journalism” as a freshman at Mill Valley High School in Shawnee, Kansas, before joining the newspaper as a sophomore and working to become the paper’s co-editor-in-chief as a senior.
Schmidt said she enrolled at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln knowing she wanted to join The Daily Nebraskan staff, and she quickly advanced to become a leader on the publication’s senior staff.
“I came in a freshman knowing I wanted to go up the ranks in the photo section,” she said. “Even though I was looking up at my own photo editors thinking, ‘They’re too good, there’s no way I can ever be like that.’”
Now, she’s looking forward to leading the newsroom.
Schmidt said she wants to use multimedia content and social media engagement to continue the reader-driven culture that current editor-in-chief Jessica Larkins emphasized in the 2018-2019 newsroom.
She said her photo experience informs her goal to increase The Daily Nebraskan’s multimedia content and build on the foundation of multimedia training that she’s worked to instill in her current photo staff.
Schmidt said she hopes next year’s editors and reporters will open their minds to multimedia opportunities, to allow the photo staff to publish the multimedia content that she said readers want.
“It’s engaging; it’s more than just a photo and a story,” she said. “It’s something readers enjoy when they don’t want to read the whole story, and it can bring in more information and the human life aspect. There’s a lot of power in multimedia.”
Schmidt will also prioritize Hearken, the company that drives The Daily Nebraskan’s Curious Cornhusker initiative that allows readers to ask the publication questions about UNL’s news, culture or people. Larkins implemented this initiative in October 2018, and Schmidt said it’s an important part of covering UNL.
“Understanding Hearken is really important staff wide and student body wide,” she said. “We need to understand why we use Hearken, and that it creates really great story ideas that involve the readers and get out the stories that they want to know.”
Within the newsroom, Schmidt said she will continue to grow The Daily Nebraskan’s positive community that she’s seen Larkins work on throughout the 2018-2019 academic year.
“Jessica was a really huge part of me wanting to apply,” she said. “She’s set a good example on how things work and how to present yourself.”
Schmidt said she will also focus on staff positivity by continuing things like “DNer of the Week” and emphasizing unity among senior staff.
As a photo-focused journalist, she admitted that she may encounter a learning curve in working with all The Daily Nebraskan’s sections, but Larkins said Schmidt’s motivation to keep learning makes her confident in Schmidt as the new editor-in-chief.
Schmidt said she’s been guided by strong mentors throughout her long journalism career — Kathy Habiger as a staff member at the Mill Valley High School newspaper, Amber Baesler as a new photographer on The Daily Nebraskan’s staff and then Larkins as a leader on the paper’s senior staff — but now it’s her turn to be a mentor.
“I’m in charge, so I don’t have someone to go to,” she said. “I’m the one people come to for help, and I’m going to be that mentor for other people.”
Larkins said she’s seen Schmidt’s ability as a leader, and believes the 2019-2020 newsroom will have a capable mentor.
“Karissa has always been a calming presence in the newsroom,” she said. “She’s a strong leader and a great mentor for her section.”