Brian Poliakoff, a junior majoring in media management and political science, has been elected the new editor-in-chief of The Miami Hurricane by the Board of Publications Committee.
“Brian is going to be a fantastic editor,” said Jordan Rodack, current editor-in-chief of The Miami Hurricane and member of the board. “He’s a passionate journalist who has the integrity and objectivity to make this a top-notch paper.”
Jorge Arauz, current Hurricane news editor, and Danielle Scott, Hurricane managing editor, were the other candidates for the position.
“This election was a very competitive one,” Rodack said. “We had three great candidates who would’ve done a tremendous job had any of them been elected- it’s a shame that only one of the candidates could win.”
Rodack said he decided not to run for the editor-in-chief position for the upcoming semester because he wanted to enjoy his final semester.
“Brian’s a great guy and I know he will be a good leader,” Arauz said. “Judging by the way he transformed the sports section, I know he’ll raise the level of professionalism of the paper.”
“My focus as editor-in-chief will be to continue Jordan Rodack’s vision,” Poliakoff said. “I feel that currently there is complete trust and camaraderie within the staff.”
“I can use the fact that we’re friends as a leadership tactic,” Poliakoff said. “If deadlines aren’t met, not only is the boss being betrayed, but friends are also being let down.”
Poliakoff graduated in 2000 from Lower Marion High School in Philadelphia. There he was sports editor and news writer for the Merionite, the school newspaper. Poliakoff has also written for the Main Line Life, a weekly newspaper that covered the suburban Philadelphia area.
Poliakoff started writing for the news and sports sections of the Hurricane his freshman year. Last fall, he held the position of assistant sports editor until he was promoted to sports editor in March.
“I walked in here as an eager, dorky freshman ready to become involved,” Poliakoff said. “I don’t think I’ve left the office ever since.”
“I feel that I have diversified the sports section by covering a wide range of varsity and intramural sports that were not as recognized in the past,” Poliakoff said.
“Brian’s done an excellent job with sports,” Scott said. “I firmly believe that he can extend what he’s done with sports to the other three sections of the paper.”
Poliakoff said that he has been contacted by several parents of student athletes who have requested clips of articles that have been printed.
“I felt that taking over the editor-in-chief position was the next step to take toward my professional goals,” Poliakoff said. “I felt I did all I could with the sports section and was ready to move on to improve upon the paper as a whole.”
Among the changes that Poliakoff plans to make are developing a camaraderie between the News section and Opinion and encouraging Life and Art and Sports to continue with the diversity and span of topics they have tried to cover throughout the year.
“Overall, we’ve done a great job this past semester,” Poliakoff said. “We just need to work on incorporating more on-campus events and continuing to reach out to our most important demographic, the students at UM.”
Poliakoff says he plans to meet with all the section editors and members of the staff on an individual basis before the beginning of the spring semester.
“I want to get feedback from everyone working with the paper,” Poliakoff said. “This is in no way going to be a dictatorship.”
Poliakoff believes that the Hurricane has the potential to win any award that’s out there at the collegiate level.
“I know that there are awards within the state of Florida and throughout the country that we are interested in submitting work to,” Poliakoff said. “There’s nothing more rewarding than getting our paper recognized.”
Poliakoff encourages all those who are interested in a staff position at The Miami Hurricane to stop by UC 221 and fill out an application.
Leigha Taber can be contacted at l.taber@umiami.edu.