Abby Sourwine will serve as Ethos Magazine’s editor-in-chief for the 2022-23 school year, starting in the summer of 2022.
Sourwine is a rising senior at the University of Oregon majoring in journalism and minoring in political science and math. With three years of sports journalism experience in high school, Sourwine joined the Daily Emerald in the summer of 2021 as a copy editor.
During the 2021-22 academic year, she wrote for the news desk and then advanced to the position of senior reporter during spring term, where she produced two stories weekly on the labor beat.
“That has been my favorite experience as a writer because I read about the different unions on campus and in Eugene,” she said. “There was a lot of stuff happening with the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation and the Starbucks unionization all the time.”
While on the news desk, Sourwine started working as an associate editor for Ethos, where she helped create a new logo and redesigned visuals for the print edition.
She said she applied for editor-in-chief because she saw it as an opportunity to strengthen newsroom camaraderie, understand how a publication operates and, most importantly, promote Ethos’ impact on the University of Oregon student body.
“Mostly, it was just about really valuing what Ethos does as a magazine and seeing our mission statement, and maintaining a positive legacy that I think it’s created over the years,” she said. “I think it’s going to be a really awesome learning opportunity for me, but it’s also just an honor. I think that Ethos is an important part of our community, and I wanted to be part of it in this way.”
Duncan Baumgarten, the Emerald’s former news desk editor, said he has witnessed Sourwine’s dedication to reporting and her care for fellow staff members over the past two school years. He said her efforts to “put her best foot forward” in the newsroom make him confident that she will do well in her new role.
“I think that what I have been able to see with Abby is that she has a lot of integrity in the work that she does,” he said. “She thinks about the impact that the work she does is going to have, both on the people she is trying to reach as readers, but also the people that she is interviewing in the communities that she’s occupying.”
Anna Mattson, former Ethos editor-in-chief, said she has no doubt Sourwine will “just kill it” next year.
“She’s so nice, and she has all the qualities that you would want in a good leader,” Mattson said. “Someone who is stable, someone who is supportive, someone who is insightful. She’s someone I can depend on, and I know so many others will be able to depend on her to be that leader that Ethos needs.”
Mattson said she is heartbroken to leave Ethos because of the relationships she has forged with her staff while amplifying stories they are passionate about. She said the experience is “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” and she is thrilled to see how Sourwine takes the position of editor-in-chief by storm.
“We’ve just gotten so attached to it at this point,” she said, “But the best part about something like the Emerald or college media in general is that it’s meant to be cyclical, and you’re supposed to pass the torch on to someone else to enjoy those same things and really learn from it. So I’m very excited to see Abby take advantage of this opportunity.”
Next year, Sourwine said she wants to continue building on the momentum of strong visuals in Ethos’ print issues. She also hopes to create cohesiveness between the website and magazine and encourage a culture of friendship in the newsroom.
“I’m doing a lot of thinking about how we can make Ethos a really great place to work and show students who volunteer to tell stories that wouldn’t be told otherwise that we really appreciate and value them,” she said. “So that’s one of my goals, to create community in a different way, using the inherent tools of being physically together.”
As Sourwine readies to embrace her new responsibilities, she said she is eager to stand in front of her staff after the release of their first print edition and tell them she is proud of them.
“I just think that’s a moment that I’ve imagined in my head that I know will stay with me forever,” she said. “I’m really looking forward to seeing what students are capable of because they have continually surprised me. I’m just blown away by my peers’ work and really inspired by it, and I know that what we do together is so impressive. I could never do it on my own.”
