Meet the Eagle’s new community engagement editor

Kirk Seminoff, sports editor for The Wichita Eagle and Kansas.com for 17 years, has been promoted to community engagement editor.

Seminoff will oversee opinion and commentary content and will lead The Eagle’s editorial board. He will write columns and will begin a blog, as well.

A key element of Seminoff’s work will be to find new ways to engage and interact with readers online, specifically on social media platforms, and in person.

Steve Coffman, executive editor of The Eagle and Kansas.com, said Seminoff will have the opportunity remake what has traditionally be the opinion editor’s role to reflect the new and varied ways people consume information and participate in public discourse.

“Kirk is a seasoned journalist and an excellent writer who knows and loves Wichita,” Coffman said. “That is a tremendous combination for someone taking on this new role.”

Seminoff is a graduate of Heights High School and Wichita State University. He began working for The Eagle as a freelance reporter during college and became a full-time employee in 1988.

He worked as a sports copy editor and page designer and went on to cover high school sports, the Wichita Wranglers baseball team and WSU athletics. He became assistant sports editor in 1999 and sports editor in 2000.

Seminoff said he is looking forward to his new role.

“It puts a lot of my passions together,” he said. “I’ve always had an interest in political science, I love to write, and as a lifelong Wichitan I get to try to help our community. We’ll point out the great things going on in Wichita and the state, and we’ll point out the problems and hopefully get a conversation going on how to solve them.”

This story was originally published July 18, 2017 at 4:47 PM with the headline "Meet the Eagle’s new community engagement editor."