By Emily Goldberg, Editor-in-Chief and Hannah Mamet
If we had a dime for every time someone saw us together and said, “The editor-in-chief of the YU Observer and the managing editor of The Commentator sitting next to each other? How could that be?” we’d both be rich. Many make the innocent assertion that there must be competition between the two of us and our respective papers.
Their curiosity is met with our joint confusion, because although we are editors at different papers, we are also great friends. In fact, our response is always the same, said with a smile and in unison: “We are roommates for G-d’s sake!”
This hasn’t just happened once or twice; even when we are not together, people cast doubt on our ability to be friends despite working at different papers. Both of us are still met with an abundance of questions — sometimes even from professors — to the tune of, “Aren’t you two friends? How does that work?”
While we are aware that most of these comments are made in jest or mild curiosity, the truth is that we just think about it differently. Our friendship came before we were editors on the student papers, and it will outlast our positions on both.
But we won’t lie to you and say that the circumstances of our friendship, especially this year, have never been strained by our respective positions at the newspapers. Therefore, even though most of these comments are not said with much forethought, the truth is that they consistently remind us of the hardships we faced this year. They strike a sensitive cord, and are a part of why we feel compelled to write this editorial.
For our first year of college, we were not executive board members at either newspaper. Both of us enjoyed pursuing our newfound passion for journalism. We often talked about our experiences on both papers and our excitement about stories, and we even asked advice from one another constantly.
But, things suddenly changed when we attained executive positions at the respective newspapers this year.
Article topics became private and many times — without saying it out loud — we became hyperaware that we couldn’t share both the exciting and the upsetting aspects of our separate experiences. It was as if the newspapers became almost an elephant in the room — insofar as we had to make a rule for ourselves not to discuss the “C” or “O” word with each other. But that didn’t work perfectly either — it seems strange that we have to ask for each other’s permission when we speak about something that would be mundane to anyone else.
Holding the positions that we do on different student newspapers has been more challenging than we may ever be able to explain. When you are best friends with someone, if you have exciting news to share or are dealing with difficult circumstances, you want to feel that you can confide in your best friend. However, the problem with being in the “newspaper business” is that there is a lot we can’t share with each other. The everyday triumphs and the travails of the job became secret.
It took until now as we are writing this to talk openly about the feelings of stress and discomfort that come about when people pit the newspapers against each other. When you approach us and tell us that the other newspaper covered a story better or when you call attention to something the other newspaper did that perhaps we didn’t like straight to our face, you’re not talking about a distant editor, you’re talking about my best friend.
We didn’t know each other before YU. One of us is an art and English major and the other is a biology major. Our friendship started with the classic complaining about difficult classes and annoying assignments, but soon we found that we had many shared passions — journalism being one of them. We would be careful not to wake up our roommates late at night as we would discuss complex topics such as the state of the world, why we hate AI and the death of individual thinking in this school. We found that we could have nuanced discussions about our unique perspectives on politics and religion, which we both thought no one else shared.
It is only now — as we sit and write a joint editorial from the two of us — that we can breathe a sigh of relief, because by writing this article, we are doing the very thing that everyone constantly doubted we could do.
Throughout the many difficult conversations we ultimately found ourselves having over the newspapers, we always made sure of one thing: “We won’t let it ruin our friendship. It’s not something we can’t get through.” When you care about something so intently — both a friendship and your passion — you can prevail in both.
It’s okay to have struggles in life, and you inevitably will, but all meaningful things are worth struggling for. Neither your passion nor your friendship should have to be sacrificed. And, nothing that was ever worthwhile in life came easy. So don’t let others deem what should or shouldn’t be meaningful for you.
True friends work through difficulties no matter what. Our friendship means way more than ruining it based on something that others deem a competition. It was never even a question for us.
Editor’s Note: Emily Goldberg (SCW ‘25) is the current editor-in-chief of the YU Observer and Hannah Mamet (SCW ‘25) is the current managing editor of The Commentator. This article was published jointly in both newspapers.
Photo Caption: Emily Goldberg (left) and Hannah Mamet (right) sitting by the newspaper stand in 245 Lexington
Photo Credit: Tonya Hatchett