Communiqué
WOUB Employee Spotlight: News Editor in Chief Atish Baidya
< < Back toBaidya started working at WOUB in 2012
ATHENS, OH – There’s an old adage about how sometimes people don’t know what they have until it’s gone. WOUB News Editor in Chief Atish Baidya says he realized that adage was true when he left his job as multimedia content editor at WOUB in 2020, right before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I left to be the associate director of editorial for the Student Media Center at the University of Mississippi. In that role, I served as the primary advisor for the student newspaper, The Daily Mississippian, the student yearbook, The Ole Miss, the student radio newsroom, Rebel Radio News, and helped advise NewsWatch Ole Miss, the student television newscast. It was a great opportunity,” said Baidya. “But the pandemic really put things in perspective, and I missed my life in Athens; I missed being close to my best friends in West Virginia. The position of WOUB News editor in chief became available, and it is a culmination of my life experiences, both professionally and personally. I think my seven years as multimedia content editor allowed me to return to WOUB and this position in the most effortless way possible. Coming back to WOUB is coming back home.”
Baidya returned to WOUB in August of 2021 and jumped in with both feet. Baidya could do that because he already understood the importance of the dual mission of the WOUB Newsroom; to serve this region with accurate news and information, while training the next generation of multi-media student journalists from Ohio University.
“I’m proud of all the work my team does to provide our audience with news and information about their communities so they can be better informed citizens,” said Baidya. “I’m also proud of the supportive experiential learning opportunities we provide the next generation of journalists. I love interacting with the students and getting to know them as people. Providing and supporting their learning experiences brings me great joy every day.”
“Each year at our end of the year student recognition event, I always get emotional when the graduating seniors talk about what their WOUB experience has meant to them. And I’m proud of the students’ passion and dedication to their craft and achievement of their goals. It is such a great feeling when a student tells me they’ve secured a job.”
Even though Baidya loves this region, and calls Athens, Ohio home now, he grew up in San Diego, California and graduated with a degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Southern California. Baidya came to Ohio for his first on-air reporting job at WHIZ in Zanesville.
“I was the weekend weather anchor and reporter, and was then promoted to weekend anchor and reporter,” said Baidya. “Then in 2007, I got a general assignment reporter job in Charleston, West Virginia. I worked there until 2012 when I was hired at WOUB.”
While Baidya is happy to have returned to Athens, he still has an itch to explore.
“I recently returned from a wonderful vacation in Key West, Florida,” said Baidya. “And one of my dreams is to do one of those around the world cruises.”