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There is a new face at the editor's desk of The Oxford Press for the first time in 38 years.
Meagan Engle, 24, was recently named editor of the Cox Ohio Publishing paper, becoming the fourth person and first woman to hold the position in the publication's history.
Engle, a Middletown native and graduate of The Ohio State University, began working for Cox Ohio as an intern at The Middletown Journal and moved through the ranks shortly after graduating in December 2006.
Engle's former duties include night police reporter, Franklin and Carlisle area reporter and education reporter.
Engle, who currently resides in Franklin, said she hopes to move to Oxford when it becomes feasible and said she is excited to become a part of the neighborhood.
"I'm really excited about covering a community again," Engle said. "Everyone I've met so far has been very welcoming."
One of Engle's goals as editor is to continue the dynamic between the people of Oxford and The Oxford Press.
"It seems the community has a great relationship with the paper, and I want that to continue," Engle said.
The position will be a new experience for Engle, who has not worked in an editing position since she proofread copy for The Lantern, the campus newspaper at Ohio State.
"The most challenging and exciting thing is the editing side of the job," Engle said.
Engle has also enjoyed working with The Press's current interns from Miami University who have been working at The Oxford Press since the semester began.
"I'm excited to work with the students we have here at the paper," Engle said.
While Engle expects to continue the tradition and reputation of the paper, residents may notice some small changes.
"I think the change people might notice is more of an emphasis on the Web," Engle said.
Engle hopes to post more stories and updates online while still keeping print stories interesting and relevant.
"I'm going to try to operate more as a daily paper," Engle said.
Kira Lisa Warren, editor of Cox Ohio's group of daily and weekly newspapers in Butler and Warren counties, also focuses on the effort to give the paper more of a daily feel.
"We want daily stories coming out of there to go into the Hamilton Journal News and our other products," Warren said. "We want to look at it as a 24-hour news organization and she (Engle) brings that type of energy to the job."
Warren said she expects the story output from The Oxford Press to grow drastically and believes Engle is the right person to achieve this goal because of her energy and ability to organize and run an office while reporting and editing.
"Meagan is going to be doing 70 percent reporting, which is a lot more than previous editors," Warren said. "It's a heavy workload, but Meagan is very resourceful, very smart and very quick."
Warren said Engle was also selected because of her potential to bond with student interns.
"We thought she could relate to the interns well because she is closer to their life experience," Warren said.
Warren expressed assurance in placing Engle in the position and is expecting significant results.
"We have great confidence in Meagan," Warren said. "She has done a great job while at The Middletown Journal and I think she is going to do great things at The Oxford Press."
