Familiar Faces

Photos by Pat Christman

NAME: Maxwell Mayleben

HOMETOWN:

Farmington

YEAR IN SCHOOL:

Senior

LAST BOOK YOU READ:

“Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” Douglas Adams

FAVORITE KATO RESTAURANT

Jonny B’s

FAVORITE STAR WARS CHARACTER Mad Max

Mayleben’s second term as editor of The Reporter should bring needed stability

If you’re familiar at all with the world of college newspapers, you probably know that most of the people who end up running them are passionate about changing the world through bulldog journalism and have a long list of journalism courses under their belt to prove their passion.

Current Reporter Editor Max Mayleben is a different breed.

While he definitely has an idealist streak, he hasn’t taken many journalism courses, and he’s probably never dreamed of becoming the next Bob Woodward.

But it doesn’t seem to matter. During Mayleben’s tenure, The Reporter has weathered a pandemic that saw their staff numbers dwindle and beefed up their news coverage and social media presence.

Mayleben, in fact, is a rarity among editors. Most serve one academic year, but Mayleben is serving two. He’s hoping to bring stability and strategic planning to help the newspaper come out of the pandemic stronger than ever.

What made you want to run a college newspaper?

I originally had no thoughts of eventually working my way up to this position. I was hired on originally as an advertising sales representative and moved around to various positions, finding I was better at some and worse at others. However, when it came time for a new editor in chief to be chosen, I found that because I knew so many different facets of the gig, moving up to this job seemed like a natural progression.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of the job?

I honestly love interviewing the different people around campus and the surrounding community. This job is such a great excuse to get out and get to know a ton of different people. I love sitting with someone, getting an insane amount of information, and then trying to figure out how I’m going to take that and translate it into a way for the average person to read.

Another rewarding part of this job is cheesy, but it’s getting to watch the people around me — and the paper as a whole — grow. There is something really special about seeing a nervous applicant sitting across from me in an interview turn into a writing machine pumping out multiple stories for each issue. It really makes me feel good that the work we are doing here is benefitting people.

What’s the most challenging aspect?

Money is always an issue of course. It seems like The Reporter is always in a fight to make sure that we have adequate funding to keep our lights on and our people paid.

Other than that, the most fun struggle is definitely the difficult nature of covering all the news. In the two years I have

Reporter editor Max Mayleben talks with (from left) news editor Jenna Peterson, sports editor Dan McElroy and media editor Julia Barton about the upcoming issue.

been here, we have seen a pandemic, protests, a presidential campaign come to town and a new university president. There has been no shortage of news to cover, but making sure we cover it all, and cover it well, is a huge task — but such a fun one, and I love it.

College students are notorious for not reading newspapers. Does that hold true at Minnesota State University? What can you do to get them to pay attention to your content?

Of course, it is easy to tout the decline of print journalism, especially among young people. However, those young people still get their news from somewhere. We do have a really good pickup rate when it comes to people picking up our paper on campus, and we even drop off the paper to various apartment complexes around the town, which is always met with great reactions from the students living there.

On top of that, our social media platforms are constantly growing, showing that students do use us as a source for their campus news. At the end of the day, we are the only news source that covers content that exclusively pertains to the campus community, and that is a crucial aspect to a healthy campus, in my opinion.

Tell us something that would surprise people about life at The Reporter.

We stay really late at night. I have been here for two years now, and it is a work of magic if we get out of the office before 1 a.m. on a production night. I’ve even seen it go as late as 4:30 a.m., which was really tough. That being said, there is nowhere else any of us would rather be during those late nights. There is something about all of us working toward the same goal, knowing we are working to put out the best content we possibly can every single Tuesday and Thursday. It is sort of an electric energy, and that’s why I love it so much working here.

Why did you choose to attend MSU?

I was between MSU and University of Iowa, which I was all pre-accepted to attend … but then they sent me the bill, and it was around $20,000 more than I thought it was going to be. That made the decision a whole lot easier. MSU is also where my mom went to school, and it is only an hour and a half away from my parents’ house, so it felt like it was far enough away but also close enough to go home if I needed to.

You’re serving a rare second term as editor of The Reporter. How did that come about and why did you want to do a second term?

The newspaper board encouraged me to take on an extra minor so that they could keep me for an extra semester, therefore being able to stay on as the editor for a full year. But in seriousness, after a year of having the job under the looming threat of “COVID” and distance learning, I really felt that there was a lot that I didn’t get to achieve in just one year as the editor in chief. So this year, I really hope that I can take advantage of my time with an open campus, get a quality team built that can take The Reporter above and beyond once I am gone, and most of all, make a great paper.

What are your goals for The Reporter this year?

A big thing I want to achieve is a set of long-term goals for us. For a long time, we have been floating from editor to editor and hoping we keep getting enough funding to stay afloat. In my mind, creating a direction for the newspaper to work toward long term will sow the seeds of long-term success for The Reporter as a whole. Among the short-term goals, though, would be increasing our online presence and coming up with new and fun ways to get the campus news out there.

What are your personal goals? Will you pursue a career in media or something else?

I don’t know exactly where my career is heading, but I know that I love three things: creating stuff, business and travel. So if I can find something that feeds all three of those, I will be a happy camper. I would love to move out of the state and experience as much as I can for as long as I can. I do eventually want to come back to Minnesota still. Can’t go wrong with having four real seasons.

You’re a major “Star Wars” fan. Why? And which character in the “Star Wars” universe do you most identify with?

I grew up watching “Star Wars.” My dad showed me each one of the original trilogy very slowly, one movie a month, then we could rewatch it as much as we wanted until the next one a month later. I think he did that so my brother and I would feel the pain he had to feel waiting for two years in between the releases in the ‘80s. I would absolutely love to say that I most identify with the dashing rogue-like demeanor of Han Solo, but I have a feeling my friends would say I am more like Chewbacca because I am tall, and no one knows what I’m saying half the time.

When you’re not busy chasing down scoops, what else occupies your time?

Another thing that I am involved with that I am extra passionate about is the YMCA Big Brother/Sister Mentorship program. I’ve been in the program for about three years now, — almost four with the same match — and it has been one of my favorite and most rewarding things I have done through college. This past year, they awarded me with Mentor of the Year. If anyone is ever looking for a way to get involved in the community and really make a difference, consider joining up. There are so many kids on a waiting list just waiting for mentors to join up, especially male mentors.