Yesterday, Kate Winkle, current managing editor of the Collegian, was chosen to be the Executive News Editor of Rocky Mountain Student Media Corporation for the 2014-2015 school year.

Next year, as RMSMC transitions to having all branches of student media become one, Winkle will be the first to be at the top of it all.

“Next year is going to be a big transition year, with us moving towards having all of student media under one umbrella organization,” Winkle said. “My real vision is for us is to have a smooth transition, to learn to work together and to really produce a quality product that meets our audience where they are at.”

To bring all the branches of student media at CSU together, Winkle plans to completely revamp the work flow by having the focus be on the online deadline, rather than the individual deadlines.

“I envision those people who are in CTV, who are in College Avenue, who are in the Collegian, we’re all going to be one big family working together,” Winkle said.

With the online push that Winkle is planning, she hopes that campus will find that they can go to collegian.com for their news.

“The great thing about digital is that it’s on your laptop when you’re in class, it’s on your phone, it is via social media – it’s on Twitter, it’s on Facebook, we’re even on Instagram,” Winkle said. “So just being able to reach our audience where they’re at is really the goal.”

For more outreach to the CSU community, Winkle plans to meet with various people on campus to learn how to best work with them and find story ideas. As well, she would like to have a physical presence on campus.

“I want us to have events, I want us to show up at freshmen orientation really strong so that people know that the Collegian is a thing and that it is a really great thing that serves its audience,” Winkle said.

With the merging of all branches of student media, RMSMC will take the shape of where all media are going according to Winkle.

“Reporters who are really good at one skill can learn another one, and that just makes them more rounded as a whole,” Winkle said. “And that’s kind of where the industry is going as well, so we want to prepare them for that.”

Noting that next year will be difficult, Winkle said that she can’t let that get her down.

“It’s not going to be easy, but I think that with the people we have now, the people working with all the different student media now, it’s going to be really great.”

Collegian Features Editor Corrie Sahling can be reached at news@collegian.com.