Vivian Whitney


I was involved with Jerk for four years at Syracuse. I started as an eager freshman intern, became the youngest managing editor my sophomore year, and eventually became editor-in-chief my senior year. Below are all the issues I helped create.


︎ Editor-in-Chief

I personally led a team of over 130 students to produce these issues during my senior year at SU. As editor-in-chief, I increased publication from one issue a semester to two, increased staff applications by 300%, and staff membership by 500%. I also focused on strengthening both editorial reporting and cohesive design of the magazine while offering ways for increased member involvement by implementing Slack for team communication. I monetized our digital publication, jerkmagazine.net, which receives an average of 21,000 monthly unique views



︎ Managing Editor

I earned the position of managing editormy second semester sophomore year and fully came into the role my junior year. While training sophomore year, I helped facilitate an on-going rebrand of the magazine and the addition of horoscopes to the magazine, along with writing pieces and designing spreads. Junior year, I completed budget requests, communicated with the publisher, managed deadlines, and designed the entire November 2019 issue. While studying abroad in spring 2020, I continued work on the February 2020 issue, handling the budget, designing spreads, editing pieces, and managing deadlines from Italy.



︎ Front of Book Editor

The fall of my sophomore year was the first time I was in charge of a section. Though a small step up, I was in charge of all the content in the “Jerk This” section, and created and gathered the copy and photos for and helped design the Hit/Bitch, Jerk Recs, Sex, Framed, Totally Unscientific Poll, and 21 +/- pieces.

︎ Asst. Arts and Culture Editor

My freshman spring semester, I became more comfortable with my work on Jerk. I pitched more stories and got more involved with copy flow, helping to manage the deadlines and copy for the arts and culture section as well as copyedit and factcheck. I designed spreads for my and other sections.


︎ Freshman Intern

I knew before getting to SU I wanted to join Jerk and thankfully hired as a freshman intern. My job was, simply, to help out, and I really tried to wherever I could (total over-enthusiastic freshman type of deal). I helped copyedit stories, designed simple spreads each issue, and pitched some pretty undeveloped ideas that were never picked.






© VIVIAN WHITNEY 2023