The staff of The Daily Princetonian elected Jerry Zhu ’27 as the 150th editor-in-chief on Saturday following four hours of deliberation in Burr Hall. Zhu will lead the ‘Prince’ through its milestone 150th year of publication.
Zhu is an Economics major from Beijing. He currently serves as the guest Opinion editor, where he manages opinion contributions from community members outside of the ‘Prince,’ and occasionally contributes an Opinion piece of his own. He previously served as an assistant head Copy editor for the 148th Board and as a contributing Copy editor in the fall of the 147th Board.
In a post-election interview with the ‘Prince,’ Zhu said that the responsibilities between his Opinion and Copy roles are similar and have been instrumental in shaping his principles surrounding the organization: rigorous fact-checking, careful editing, and building trust.
“The job of guest Opinion editor requires a strong awareness of what could be potentially wrong in a guest submission,” Zhu said. “I think I was chosen for the job because I had demonstrated I was a very rigorous copy editor.”
“Members of this [149th] board thought that I could use those skills to really edit guest opinions very thoroughly and avoid issues where these opinions have errors or hidden biases in them,” Zhu added. “I’ve edited a lot of people who maybe don’t trust the ‘Prince’ very much, who are suspicious of us. Part of the art there is to have a conversation with them, make sure that [they] understand you’re on their side, and just have a dialogue with them and let them know that we as editors are not trying to push an agenda.”
Zhu’s platform centered around increasing rigor in the editing process to reduce inaccuracies in reporting. He also plans to be more explicit when there are major corrections to pieces following publication.
“I think we should really raise the bar, and we can raise the bar, to make sure that we’re holding ourselves to the highest possible standards,” he said.
Throughout the election, Zhu expressed his belief that improving how fact-checking and corrections are approached will foster greater community trust in the ‘Prince.’ One of his specific ideas includes releasing daily corrections logs.
Another significant change he proposed during the election process was the creation of an executive editor position that coordinates sections and makes decisions on some of the smaller day-to-day issues within the newsroom. Currently, these responsibilities are within the purview of the editor-in-chief. However, he emphasized that the exact details of the position, or whether the position would exist at all, were still open to discussion.
“I’m absolutely open to keeping the exact parameters of the position open,” he said. “People have raised useful criticism about the role, and all of that is something I will consider.”
Looking forward to the coming anniversary, Zhu said he’s excited about the publication of a book commemorating 150 years of the ‘Prince,’ while also acknowledging it will be a major challenge.
“The 150th anniversary book will be a very important part of how this board will be remembered,” he said. “It’s going to be difficult to put it together and make sure that everything’s right, but it’s one that we as an institution are up for, and we’re going to do a great job.”
Zhu expressed optimism about the future of the ‘Prince,’ citing high levels of engagement during the election process.
“Whether the next board, and the ‘Prince’ in the long run, will be successful is dependent on whether each of us cares enough to really think about how to make the paper better,” he said. “I was really happy, and a little bit surprised, at how many people were very engaged in the process of the governance of the ‘Prince.’”
In his Opinion columns, Zhu has criticized actions of the University administration, including dining changes that eliminate the independent dining option and a new recording policy that broadly limits recordings of University events. However, he has also praised the University’s approach to the Trump administration’s attacks on higher education, and he plans to continue a similar approach as editor-in-chief.
“We need to make sure that we’re reporting on what they’re doing, and if they’re doing things that are harming students, or if they’re doing things that might be objectionable, it’s very important that we communicate this,” he said of the University administration.
“We have to be willing to stand up to the University when we need to, but we also have to be willing to work with them where our interests align, and that’s exactly my personal view too,” he said.
Victoria Davies ’27, a head News editor, ran against Zhu. Last year, there were three candidates in the election, while there was only one candidate the year prior.
In a statement to the ‘Prince,’ Davies expressed her support for and unwavering belief in Zhu’s leadership.
“I have no doubt at all about Jerry’s ability to lead the 150th board,” Davies said.
She expressed that Zhu’s role as guest Opinion editor has “prepared him really well for managing people and making sure things happen” and noted that she thinks fact-checking will improve over the course of the board as a result of his background in copy editing.
“I’m really excited to see what's going to come out of this board — It’s just going to be great things,” Davies added.
“I have full confidence in Jerry to lead the paper through the 150th anniversary year,” said current editor-in-chief Miriam Waldvogel ’26. “He is an exacting editor and thinks deeply about what goes on on Princeton’s campus.”
Zhu will assume his role as editor-in-chief on Jan. 1, 2026.
Oliver Wu is a News contributor for the ‘Prince.’ He is from Stony Brook, N.Y. and can be reached at oliver.wu[at]princeton.edu.
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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