Eastern Michigan University alumni Amalie Nash is a perfect example of how most journalism majors want their careers to go. Maybe not everyone wants to end up exactly where she is, but she is exemplary in the general idea.
After graduating from EMU’s journalism program, Nash has gained quite a reputation as an investigative journalist. For the past three years, she has worked as the assistant managing editor of the Detroit Free Press. More of a news editor than a reporter, she was pivotal in supervising coverage of Detroit’s bankruptcy and the trial of ex-mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. Nash has won awards for several of her projects, including “A Family’s Nightmare” and “Free to Kill” last year, both of which focused on holes in the criminal justice system.
Now the 37-year old has gotten a new job as editor and vice president for audience engagement at The Des Moines Register. Iowa’s largest newspaper, The Des Moines Register has won sixteen Pulitzer Prizes since 1954 and tends to lean right more than left.
The paper has a daily circulation of around 90,000 and a Sunday circulation of over 200,000 copies. The Registers’ president and publisher Rick Green sounded pleased with his new hire.
“Amalie is a hardcore journalist who loves investigative storytelling and protecting the interests of taxpayers,” Green said in the Detroit Free Press.
Nash is a longtime employee of newspaper giant Gannett Company, Inc. It owns both The De Moines Register and the Detroit Free Press. She has also worked on several of their other papers that the company owns, including The Ann Arbor News and annarbor.com.
“The Register is part of the fabric of the state and plays a key role in informing the public,” Nash said. “We’re going to ensure the great tradition continues.”
