Mara Gawarecki, 30

Managing Editor-digital, NFR Communications Education: University of St. Thomas, master of arts in English and Thomas Aquinas College, bachelor of arts in liberal arts

What advice do you have for other young professionals in the news industry?

I sort of stumbled into my career covering the community banking industry. It certainly wasn’t what I envisioned doing in college, and it wasn’t what I thought of when I thought of journalism. But my openness to trying new things and tackling challenges outside of my expertise led me to a rewarding role in a relative niche corner of the news world. I would encourage someone just starting in their news career to embrace change and openness to things outside your original vision and goals.

How did you bridge the gap between traditional and digital journalism?

By learning to understand the differences between the two media forms — stories might work well in print one way and differently in digital formats. It can be easy to get caught up in what story receives the most clicks or social media engagement, and that can be gratifying in knowing that people are seeing and appreciating your work. But it’s also easy to see that things that are buzzy or tailored to the moment (or SEO) aren’t always the best content from a craft or content perspective. Those metrics have definite value, and they can help guide choices, but they shouldn’t be the sole measure of what’s worthy of space on the website or in our magazine.