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This week’s final episode of The Roundup brings student newsroom leaders together to reflect on a school year of change and learning. In a wide-ranging exit interview, this year’s Mustang News editor-in-chief and the KCPR news director sat down with the 2025–26 student managers to discuss what worked, what didn’t and what’s next for campus media.
The episode, released as the academic year closes, captures a transitional moment: outgoing leaders summarizing accomplishments and handing off institutional knowledge to the next cohort. That makes the conversation relevant now for students, faculty advisers and anyone tracking the future of student journalism on campus.
Highlights from the Exit Interview
The conversation covered routine operations and broader lessons in leadership. Managers described priorities they balanced all year — reporting standards, recruiting volunteers, and adapting workflow under tight deadlines. They also named specific challenges: sustaining audience engagement, training new contributors and coordinating across print and radio platforms.
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- Collaboration: Managers emphasized cross-platform teamwork between Mustang News and KCPR as essential to completing projects on time.
- Training: Several said onboarding new staff consumed more resources than expected but improved coverage quality over time.
- Audience focus: Experimentation with formats aimed to reconnect with classmates amid shifting consumption habits.
- Legacy items: Projects left unfinished or in development became priorities for incoming student leaders.
Beyond practical takeaways, the exit interview surfaces advice for future managers: document processes, keep communication channels simple and protect time for editing and fact-checking. Those themes hint at the practical work required to sustain student-run outlets beyond changes in personnel.
Interactive element and print tie-in
In addition to the audio wrap-up, the paper’s graduation issue includes an interactive word search created by Archana Pisupati that collects words used by this year’s managers to describe their experience. A print version of the puzzle appears in the Graduation edition available at campus newsstands, while a playable digital version is hosted on the outlet’s website.
The digital puzzle was assembled with technical assistance from the AI tool Claude; organizers describe it as a light, retrospective piece meant to complement the oral reflections in the podcast.
Where to listen and read
The full exit-interview episode is distributed on major podcast platforms including Spotify. For readers who prefer print, the Graduation special section features extended coverage and the word-search puzzle. The package is intended as both a record of the year and a resource for incoming student media managers.
As this cohort steps down, the interview offers a contemporaneous look at how student journalists navigated a year of deadlines, digital experiments and leadership turnover — practical lessons that will shape the newsroom’s next chapter.
