As the semester comes to a close, the Collegian Media Group has named the 2026-2027 editors-in-chief for its three award-winning publications: The Royal Purple Yearbook, Manhappenin’ Magazine and the Kansas State Collegian.
Continuing her reign as editor-in-chief, Kendra Kemp will take on the next academic year with The Royal Purple Yearbook. Meanwhile, Manhappenin’ Magazine will gain not one, but two co-editors in chief as Emma Baker and Erin Reil take on the role as a team. Finally, Greta Klein will take charge of the newsroom for The Collegian.
Kemp started her journey with The Royal Purple Yearbook shortly after coming to K-State to study news and sports media. The Wellsville, Kansas, native had no experience with yearbook in high school, so she was hesitant to get involved during college.
“Freshman year, I joined Royal Purple on a whim,” Kemp said. “I think my academic advisor told me to do it. But then by the end of the year, I felt confident, and my love for the yearbook had grown exponentially.”
Kemp started in the Royal Purple as a designer and later became the design editor during her sophomore year. Now, as a junior, Kemp is preparing to take on her second year as editor-in-chief. Although the 2026 yearbook was recently published, Kemp already has big plans for the next edition.
“One thing I’ve tried to do more with this book was cover more academics, and that’s something I’ll be very focused on with the book in the fall, the 2027 book, because that is the one thing everyone is at K-State for,” Kemp said. “We’ve been thinking over themes for the fall, for 2027, and that makes me really excited, because the themes we’ve been discussing are very, very cool.”
While the Royal Purple Yearbook will experience the same leadership, Manhappenin’ Magazine will undergo big changes, as sophomores Baker and Reil will work jointly as co-editors-in-chief. The two students both come from St. Joseph, Missouri, where they went to elementary school together. They came to K-State together and lived as roommates during their first year.
Reil, majoring in advertising and public relations, learned about Manhappenin’ Magazine when she went on a campus tour. The magazine excited her because it’s student-led, so Reil convinced her roommate, Baker, to come to the first meeting with her. Since Baker is studying criminology, working with a magazine has made her think of her future career involving her major and journalism.
“It’s really different,” Baker said, “I want to do something like criminal analysis, and I’ve liked victimology recently too.”
Baker currently serves as the copy editor, while Reil serves as the photo editor for Manhappenin’ Magazine. Both agreed that being on the executive team has prepared them for their upcoming leadership positions. They have also found it helpful to watch the current editor-in-chief, Kamryn Fleischer.
“Understanding more of what she does behind the scenes has been very beneficial,” Reil said.
“She’s really good about being strict about our deadlines,” Baker added.
Looking forward, Baker and Reil already plan to gain more readers and have a successful year.
“We have so many ideas already,” Reil said.
“Since we have been best friends for so long, we spend a lot of time together,” Baker said. “When we talk, we just constantly talk about ideas for the magazine.”
As the Manhappenin’ Magazine looks to the new year, so does The K-State Collegian, where Greta Klein will step up as editor-in-chief. Originally from Ellsworth, Kansas, Klein started her journalism career at Hutchinson Community College, where she worked as a sportswriter and later the sports editor for The Hutchinson Collegian.
Although Klein spent her first two years at Hutchinson Community College, K-State had always been her dream school. After graduating with her associate’s degree, Klein left The Hutchinson Collegian to join the K-State Collegian, where she used her award-winning skills to become the current sports editor.
In the next academic year, Klein plans to help The Collegian thrive by bringing together a strong team and creating well-rounded content.
“We have a lot of outgoing seniors this year that have built a very good standard, so I want to continue that,” said Klein. “I’m just very excited for the group that I’m going to bring together for leadership roles next year.”
Another goal that Klein wants to bring into action is recruiting more staff and building a diverse space of different skill sets.
“The unique thing about K-State is we have so many different organizations within news and sports media,” Klein said. “So that’s definitely a goal, is to incorporate different skill sets from different organizations.”
Klein feels honored and blessed to be put into this position and is thankful for the support she has been given and will continue to get.
“I won’t be able to do it without Spencer O’Daniel, of course,” Klein said. “He’ll be right there to help me through and give the best advice.”
Director of Collegian Media Group Spencer O’Daniel also showed his excitement for the new leadership within the media departments.
“The best leaders that I’ve seen truly care about the well-being of their publication and their teams, so with all four of our strong female leaders that we’ve hired for next year, it seems like that’s a theme,” said O’Daniel. “They are embracing new ideas, but they want to continue to do the awesome things that we’ve built this year, so I’m super excited for our leaders here at CMG.”
