Newsmakers: Alumni making a difference

Upstatement: Tito Bottitta, Jared Novack and Mike Swartz

THEN D.O. design gurus in the early 2000s (which included stints as presentation director and in management)

NOW Partners at Upstatement, the Web design firm responsible for bostonglobe.com’s look

Although he’ll readily admit none of them ‘had worked on newspapers for a while,’ Mike Swartz thinks he and partners Jared Novack and Tito Bottitta were armed with the right tools to design bostonglobe. com because of what they learned at The Daily Orange.

Last year, when The Boston Globe revamped its online business model and introduced a new website and paywall, the boys at Upstatement, a small Web design firm based in Boston, were there for each step of the way.

The trio, along with fellow D.O. alumnus Rob Howard, started Upstatement in 2008 after working at the Globe as designers and developers. Because they’d grown so familiar with its content, they knew exactly what to design for the new site, they said. That’s the same way it was after working at The D.O. for so long. Bottitta described creating the website nearly from scratch as ‘exactly what we did at The D.O.’ He and Novack embarked on a redesign of the paper’s framework, design and content during their time at 744 Ostrom.

Next on the agenda for Upstatement is something they call Vision Quest — working on more personal projects and taking a step back from client-based work. That includes an app to revamp the company’s original business model and typical scheduling, which they hope to release to the public, and an experimental typography website, described by Swartz as a ‘weird type-nerd fansite.’ They’ve also set up a screenprinter in their South Boston office to expand into another medium.

The exploration into personal projects has created a welcome work environment for the Upstatement crew. The switch to less client-based work has made it ‘cool to come to the office every day and work on stuff you want to work on,’ Swartz said. ‘It’s a unique job.’

— By Katie McInerney (’12), a former Daily Orange editor in chief and presentation director. Contact her at k.n.mcinerney@gmail.com.

Meredith Goldstein

THEN Editor in chief, Class of ’99

NOW Relationship columnist for The Boston Globe and author of ‘The Singles,’ due out in April

In Meredith Goldstein’s four years at SU, it is her roller-coaster experiences at The Daily Orange — where she worked in feature and management — that stand out most.

‘It turned me into the person I am,’ said Goldstein, now a relationship columnist at The Boston Globe.

At The D.O., Goldstein met individuals who significantly shaped her college experience. When a few of them met years later for a friend’s wedding, she couldn’t stop thinking about various relationships and what they mean.

So she decided to write a book about a group of old friends at a wedding. Three years later, ‘The Singles’ will be released April 24. Three of the five main characters are D.O. alumni, and a number of minor characters hail from The D.O. Though names and majors have been changed, the book’s flashbacks occur in Syracuse. Goldstein also gave the book an alternate ending to what happened in reality. In fiction, reality generally holds little literary value, she said.

The book caught Hollywood’s attention before its release. After being contacted by production companies, Goldstein recently traveled to Los Angeles, where Lime Orchard Productions bought the film and television rights. Though a movie is not guaranteed, Goldstein said Lime Orchard is looking to move forward with the project.

Goldstein cites much of the success, happiness and chaos in her life to The D.O.

‘I can trace every good thing about my adult life back to that newspaper,’ Goldstein said. ‘It’s why I have my job and it’s why I’m thoughtful about my job. It’s given me my best friends. And even the most negative experiences, well, they gave me a book deal.’

— By Amrita Mainthia (’12), the new media editor and a former managing editor for The Daily Orange. She can be reached at media@dailyorange.com.

Stephen Dockery

THEN Editor in chief, Class of ’10

NOW Reporter for The Daily Star in Lebanon

New York City. Chicago. Boston. Los Angeles. Journalists strive to find opportunities in cities like these. But for Stephen Dockery, his dream job existed in a time zone 10 hours ahead — Lebanon.

‘I wasn’t entirely sure how I’d get here, but I knew I wanted to get back there,’ he said.

Dockery could spend years at The Associated Press, working up the domestic ranks, or he could simply go to Lebanon and figure things out.

He chose the latter.

In October, Dockery moved to Beirut, where he lived in 2009 for an internship through a Syracuse University scholarship.

‘I was terrified I wouldn’t find anything, but I was very fortunate that things worked out,’ he said.

Now a Lebanon reporter for The Daily Star, Dockery has written about topics such as how those who identify as Muslim celebrate Christmas.

Despite Lebanon’s distance from the United States, Dockery said working at The Daily Star is similar to working at a traditional newspaper because it involves beat reporting and building contacts. Well, besides covering Lebanon’s political instability, which contributes to what he describes as ‘exciting journalism.’

Dockery said he’s trying to improve his Arabic, especially because more than half of his colleagues are Lebanese. However, instead of being up at the crack of dawn like many U.S. reporters, he and his peers work in the afternoon and through the late hours — a schedule similar to that of The Daily Orange, a place he looks back on fondly.

‘It has taught me an incredible amount, it gave me some of my best friends in college,’ he said. ‘It’s a place unlike anywhere else.’

— By Colleen Bidwill (’14), an assistant feature editor at The Daily Orange. She can be reached at cbidwill@syr.edu.