Editor in chief-elect Mike King

Last night, The Diamondback’s parent company, Maryland Media Inc., named co-managing editor Mike King the newspaper’s editor in chief for the 2013-14 academic year.

King, a junior journalism major, will take over the paper later this month. He began work at The Diamondback the second week of his freshman year after hearing about open copy editing positions at the paper in his first freshman journalism class. Since then, he has climbed the editorial ranks, serving as assistant managing editor the first semester of his sophomore year and managing editor for the past year.

As editor in chief, King said he hopes to continue driving the paper’s online presence and further its commitment to strong journalism, building on momentum from changes the staff undertook in 2012. Among these were a redesign of its print product and website and the launch of a mobile app. Along with expanding student blogs for editing through his work, which he can’t wait to continue next year.

“It’s the culmination of everything I’ve done here,” he said. “I’ve dealt with many of the aspects of the editor in chief position in my time here, but I’ll have to do all of them now, every day.”

Current editor in chief Yasmeen Abutaleb will take on a new position at The Diamondback, of enterprise reporter. The junior journalism and microbiology major said she is excited to see how King pursues goals of increasing readership and investigative pieces.

“Mike is incredibly smart, and he loves The Diamondback very selflessly, which is needed in every editor in chief,” she said. “I think he’s going to continue building on what we started this year.”

King’s application was particularly strong, said Stephen Lamphier, president of Maryland Media Inc., because of his three years of work at the paper and his hopes to maintain a strong focus on the Web.

“He’s so enthusiastic in moving ahead,” Lamphier said.

MMI also named junior journalism major Samantha Piccirillo as editor in chief of The Mitzpeh. Eclipse editor in chief Alana Yzola, a junior journalism major, will continue in that position at the publication.