News

The Monday Snitch: Farewell

by Andy Marmer | August 20, 2013

This Monday Snitch will be a bit different than those in the past. Writing and posting this will be my last act as Editorial Manager, something that feels fittingly poetic as I will be stepping down to attend law school this fall. Jack ThePhan will no longer be writing Monday Snitch, as he has expressed interest in various other projects; I encourage you to look for his new material shortly in a different format. One of our assistant editors, Jen Walsh, will be serving as Interim Editorial Manager until my successor is chosen. I hope to stay involved with the IQA Editorial Team; however, only time will tell if I will.

The Monday Snitch most epitomizes my time with the IQA. When I first began in late January, the editorial team had three writers and one copy editor. While I’d like to say that the Monday Snitch was born out of some amazing idea that I had, it really came forth out of necessity: how do we promptly cover all of the matches, with a staff of three writers, one copy editor, and myself?

Since January, the staff has quadrupled in size. In addition to three writers, we now have five correspondents whose sole job is to report on teams and tournaments, three staff photographers, two copy editors, a photo editor, two assistant editors, and, of course, an editorial manager. While we still sometimes struggle with providing prompt analysis of tournaments — something that the team is aware of and working to improve, and undoubtedly a challenge facing my successor — we have grown so much.

Towards the end of April, shortly after World Cup VI, I turned the Monday Snitch column over to Jack ThePhan. While it was difficult for me to give it up, the site needed more of my attention from an editing perspective, and I had found a writer who was not only capable of bearing the mantle, but could take it to a far better place than I could. While I know that Jack has loved writing the column, he has a new project on the IQA website that will be debuting very soon, which I am extremely excited about.

I’d like to use this last bit of space to say farewell and thanks. To all of you that are reading, thank you for sticking with me over the past seven months through triumphs and growing pains. To those in the IQA, thank you for allowing me to experiment in this space and for providing me with the resources and necessary. To all of my writers, editors, and photographers, thank you for tolerating me and for giving your absolute best to make this site as good as it could be — none of this would have happened without you. To anyone I forgot to thank, my apologies and thank you. Finally, a special thanks to IQA Marketing Director Logan Anbinder for putting up with all of my ideas throughout this whole process.

While a new Editorial Manager has not yet been hired; I’m extremely excited to see what my successor will be able to accomplish. I fully expect that this site will continue to grow by leaps and bounds, providing readers with the best quidditch news possible. Having spoken to all of the candidates that applied for the position, I know that whoever takes over for me on a full-time basis will be exceptionally qualified and take this website to new heights.