Valley native takes spot as managing editor of online student newspaper

The OU student heard about the newspaper from a
newsletter.

ATHENS, Ohio — As the face of traditional journalism continues to change, one Ohio University student is at the forefront.

Senior Meghan Louttit, daughter of Ken and Cheri Louttit of New Middletown, was in on the ground floor of starting one online news source and now has been named managing editor for Scoop08, the first international daily online student newspaper devoted to providing coverage of the 2008 presidential election.

She has the distinction of being the only student in the state of Ohio to be named a managing editor of the online paper.

Louttit is a journalism major specializing in world religions. She is a 2004 graduate of Springfield High School.

“Today, students are in the best position to step back and think ‘What can we do to change this?’ We want to tackle the topics the mainstream media ignore, all while using a balance of traditional journalism to cover groundbreaking ideas,” she said.

Founded by two young men who met while interning for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s re-election campaign, Scoop08 reports on such topics as political theory, technology and financial aid in the coming election — all from the student perspective.

As a managing editor, Louttit will oversee the newspaper’s content, manage the editorial board, consider story ideas and edit every story before it is published online. Her colleagues include students from Harvard University, Wellesley College, Northwestern University and The Johns Hopkins University, among others. More than 400 student writers across the globe have already joined Scoop08 as correspondents.

Louttit is the co-founder and former managing editor of the Ohio University student-run SpeakeasyMag.com and is a member of the Online News Association. She works for Ohio University Without Boundaries, which develops online educational programming.

Last May, she read about Scoop08 in Scripps Notes, the weekly newsletter for students in the Scripps College of Communication, and decided to apply for a correspondent position.

“I thought it was a fabulous idea and something I had been wanting to see happen ever since we started Speakeasy — a national student newspaper with a truly virtual newsroom that has impact,” Louttit said.

While interning at American Express Publishing and mediabistro.com in New York City last summer, Louttit met with Scoop08 co-founder Andrew Mangino, a junior at Yale University, to discuss her involvement and a potential editing position. A week later, Mangino and co-founder Alexander Heffner offered her one of the two managing editor spots.

Scoop08’s goal is to bring a fresh perspective to light from an important voting contingent.