Sydney Schaefer, KLN ‘18, recently received a promotion to assistant managing editor at Watertown Daily Times, a local news publication in northern New York state. Schaefer, now 25, is the youngest person and first woman to hold the role of assistant managing editor in the publication’s history. Schaefer says that her extracurricular involvement as a journalism major at Temple University got her “ready to go” in her professional career.

Since her start at Watertown Daily Times in 2018, Schaefer has served as a staff photographer and multimedia manager. Her progression is largely due to her enthusiasm for telling impactful stories and her impressive background in photojournalism. At the publication, she started out photographing multiple stories daily while fostering relationships with community members in Watertown. 

“It’s all about building those relationships and you’re not going to be able to get that access into people’s lives if you’re not genuine or building those relationships with them,” she says. “The same goes for daily assignments on the day-to-day. I always say that you can’t document a community accurately until you’re a part of it.”

However, Schaefer made sure that she was involved in other efforts at the publication. She was one of the early contributors to the development of NNY360.com, an outlet that houses local coverage produced by northern New York publications. Schaefer’s drive as a photojournalist and her mission to improve the digital presence of the publication led to her promotion to multimedia manager and now assistant managing editor. 

Alec Johnson, editor and publisher of Watertown Daily Times and NNY360.com, considers Schaefer’s dedication to be an asset to the publication. 

“Overall she’s a hard worker and that’s what really, really stands out. When other people take the shortcut she always does the right thing,” he says.

Schaefer received thorough journalistic training at Temple, especially as a staff reporter and photography editor at The Temple News. 

“The Temple News played such a big role in shaping me as a journalist along with so many others that I graduated with,” she says. “I remember being there late every single night and as we were making the papers on Sunday and Monday trying to get everything laid out. We worked together as a family and we all became really close. 

“Journalism is one of those things where you can only learn so much in the classroom and you really need to gain a lot of your experience by doing those extracurricular activities. And if I wasn’t on staff at The Temple News I really don’t think I would be where I am today.”

Additionally, Schaefer was the visuals editor for 1217, a project that was a part of Temple’s Solutions Journalism: Covering Addiction class. The project won a 2018 Editor and Publisher’s EPPY award for best photojournalism for a website with under one million monthly visitors. Along with other internships and freelance work, Schaefer was also a photography intern at The Philadelphia Inquirer in 2018.

Schaefer looks forward to growing at Watertown Daily Times. Her promotion coincided with that of co-worker Brian J. Kelly, who was promoted from the publication’s city editor to managing editor. The two are working together to continue the publication’s tradition of honest and rigorous reporting.