Over the 2024-2025 academic year, The Daily Free Press published more than 1,190 unique articles, including an investigation into Elon Musk’s donations to the University, an in-depth Fall 2024 election issue and 28 photo galleries.
The top story of the year, written by Fall 2025 Editor-in-Chief Lauren Albano, broke the news of BU employee Jared May’s viral X post. The story received 10,825 page views and is the fifth best-performing story in Daily Free Press website history.
The three proceeding top stories of the year were a Boston sports radio host pulling out of a COM teaching course, which received 8,544 page views and was also written by Albano, the “Tesla Takeover” protest in Boston, a third top story written by Albano and Emma Clement, and a column looking into the renewed search for flight MH 370 with 6,264 page views by Daria Romaniuk.
The website garnered 801,000 overall page views this year. This success was possible through the work of Fall 2024 Top 3 — Editor-in-Chief Mara Mellits and Managing Co-Editors Andrew DiBiasio and Siena Griffin — and Spring 2025 Top 3 — Editor-in-Chief Brendan Galvin and Managing Co-Editors Kayla Baltazar and Sana Muneer — along with their respective editorial boards.
The Fall 2024 Editorial Board tackled an election print issue, marking one of the most influential election periods in recent years. Members of the Editorial Board and staff received four awards from the New England Newspaper Association:
Mara Mellits: College Rising Star
Mara Mellits: 1st Place Sports Story: “Are cheerleading and dance sports? Not at BU”
Margaret S. Corona: 3rd Place Best Feature Story: “Meet the jolly man behind the designer beard”
Jiashan Zheng: 1st Place Spot News Photo: “Protester arrested at pro-Palestine rally”
The editors also started a Games section, led by inaugural Master of Games Gracie Rohde, which posted weekly mini crosswords and news quizzes on Instagram for readers to enjoy. Editors also improved the Features section by splitting it into two sections: Arts & Community and Business & Science. Mellits’ final letter from the editor can be read here.
The Spring 2025 Editorial Board published 632 stories, a record-breaking number in recent years. The Top 3 designed and launched The Daily Free Press’ new website, heralding a new era of free digital coverage. The editors also published a 55th Anniversary Edition highlighting 55 years of independent student journalism. Galvin’s final letter from the editor can be read here.
Behind the scenes of The Daily Free Press’ operations is a 501(c)3 non-profit called the Back Bay Publishing Company. This year, BBPC created an official Board of Directors including four alumni — Kyle Plantz, Samantha J. Gross, Josh Cain and Rob Adelson — and five students, an incredible feat for the paper. The board meets monthly to approve financial and long-term decisions to run the newspaper.
The board successfully approved and funded the transition to SNO sites, ending years of technical difficulties for the paper. In May, the board hosted a 55th anniversary event attended by over 100 alumni from all generations of The Daily Free Press. The board has continued to build out the paper’s alumni database with
Along with the Board of Directors, the Management Board, a student-run board, met weekly to discuss operations, finances, standards and day-to-day oversight of the paper. Management Board President Ava Berger and Vice President Payton Renegar oversaw meetings and all aspects of the management board.
Audience and Engagement Chair Jennifer Lambert overhauled the weekly staff newsletter and anchored the paper in analytics, finding where readers were clicking and staying on the website.
Advertising revenue sustained the paper through the work of Advertising Chair Analise Bruno. Bruno raised around $30,000 through various campaigns and partnerships over three semesters. In the Spring 2025 semester, Bruno raised around $6,000 alone. She pioneered the addition of anchor ads on the website, the paper’s first continuous partnership advertisement. Bruno connected with major clients like Amazon Prime Student, Amazon Medical and Uber One and revamped the media kit with evolving web and social analytics each semester.
Fundraising also improved this semester under Fundraising Chair Lindsay Shachnow. Shachnow planned and promoted fundraising events for The Daily Free Press, including a new trivia night initiative that raised just under $1,000 in one semester.
Next semester, Siena Griffin and Sana Muneer will take over as the Management Board’s student president and vice president.
The Board of Directors is proud of all work done by the dedicated writers, editors, photographers, podcasters and graphic designers associated with The Daily Free Press. For questions and comments, they can be reached at [email protected].
Board of Directors
Kyle Plantz — Chair (Editor-in-Chief, Fall 2014)
Samantha J. Gross — Vice Chair (Editor-in-Chief, Spring 2016)
Josh Cain — Board Member ( Editor-in-Chief, 2021)
Robert Adelson — Legal Chair (Associate Editor, 1972-1973)
Mara Mellits — Editor-in-Chief (Investigative Editor, Spring 2024; Editor-in-Chief, Fall 2024)
Brendan Galvin — Editor-in-Chief (Sports Editor, Spring 2024; Editor-in-Chief, Spring 2025)
Ava Berger — President, Management Board (Features Co-Editor, Fall 2022)
Payton Renegar — Vice President, Management Board (Lifestyle Editor, Fall 2022; Podcast Editor, Spring 2023)
Talia Lissauer — Secretary (Campus Co-Editor, Fall 2022)
Emilia Wisniewski — Treasurer (City Editor, Spring 2023; Managing Co-Editor, Fall 2023)
Management Board
Analise Bruno — Advertising Chair (Opinion Co-Editor, Spring 2023; Lifestyle Editor, Fall 2023)
Austin Chen — Training Co-Chair (Sports Co-Editor, Fall 2023)
Jennifer Lambert — Audience and Engagement Chair (Managing Co-Editor, Spring 2024)
Kiera McDonald — Training Co-Chair (Campus Co-Editor, Spring 2024)
Maya Mitchell — Consulting Member (Campus Co-Editor, Spring 2024; Investigative Editor, Fall 2024)
Eden Mor — Public Relations and Standards Chair (Features Co-Editor, Fall 2023)
Macie Parker — Archival Chair (Features Co-Editor, Spring 2024; Business & Science Editor, Fall 2024)
Hailey Pitcher — Grants and Awards Chair (Opinion Co-Editor, Fall 2024)
Smaran Ramidi — DEI Co-Chair (Layout & Graphics Editor, Spring 2021)
Lindsay Shachnow — Fundraising Chair (Campus Co-Editor, Fall 2023)
Sujena Soumyanath — DEI Co-Chair (Opinion Editor, Spring 2021)
Stella Tannenbaum — Recruitment Chair (Features Co-Editor, Spring 2023; Managing Co-Editor, Fall 2023)
Sydney Topf — Alumni and Career Development Chair (Campus Co-Editor, Fall 2023)