By Laura Acuff, Student Reporter

Preparing to lead next year’s Optimist staff for its first full year in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication’s converged media newsroom, Daniel Johnson, junior journalism major from Abilene, earned the title of 2008-09 editor- in-chief.

“To be honest, it’s a little stressful, but it’s [a challenge] that I feel that I am qualified for and eager to do,” Johnson said. “I’m someone who enjoys doing my job well and enjoys being able to take a problem that someone gives me and do it, and do it well, and give it back to them.”

After beginning with the Optimist as a freshman, Johnson served as sports editor for two years, and Optimist adviser Kenneth Pybus, assistant professor of journalism and mass communication said he has no doubts about Johnson’s qualifications.

“He’s definitely qualified,” Pybus said. “I have no reservations about his journalistic abilities. He came to ACU with a natural inclination for what’s newsworthy, a natural inclination for how to tell stories.”

Current Optimist editor-inchief Jared Fields, senior journalism major from Paducah, said Johnson’s term as editor marks a new phase for student media at ACU.

“I hope Daniel brings together the news room its first full year, that he really integrates our Web site and things you can do with video and brings it on par with the good name that the Optimist has,” Fields said.

Johnson’s current responsibilities include assembling next year’s staff. With the addition of the converged media newsroom, Johnson said he anticipates that staff will include new positions, like a broadcast manager, and multimedia editors, to address the challenge of utilizing the capabilities of the updated newsroom.

Additionally, a small returning staff may result in many positions being held by students without previous media experience.

“The key word of what we do is ‘student’ in ‘student media,’ which means we’re always learning, and so I’m not expecting people on staff to know everything,” Johnson said. “I don’t even know everything. I’m still learning, and the whole purpose of this is to learn together, not to be expected to know everything but to be expected to make mistakes and learn from those mistakes.”

Johnson said what is interesting about college journalism is that it is a learning process.

“A lot of people criticize us as if we are professionals, and we try to be professionals, but the truth is, we’re still learning,” Johnson said. “If I have a staff that isn’t that experienced, I’m not going to be afraid to give them responsibilities.”

Johnson’s term as the 91st editor of the Optimist will mark the publication’s 98th year in print, and Johnson said he welcomes the new challenges.

“I just hope that I can do as good a job as I know I can,” Johnson said. “I hope the staff that I assemble is really inspired to do new things and do things that we’ve never really seen before.”