yeah, yeah

[aruan]

Another one of my writers got picked up by UWire yesterday, this time about the unconstitutionality of the federal sentencing guidelines, the ramifications and how that would affect Florida's court system. That story was brought to me three inches too long and way, way too technical. I sat with that writer for close to an hour, and she fought me on almost every single change I made, but I think in the end we came out with a much more relevant, well-structured and coherent piece. Good enough for UWire, anyhow.

This job keeps surprising me with how much I love it. Sure, there are bumps and very long nights, days when nobody calls my writers back or people just slack a little too much so something isn't as done as it should be. But it's so satisfying to sit down with their product, which we're still refining in the way of the correct angle of approach, and make it something not just fit to be published, but something I'd want to read. I'm slowly teaching my writers to appreciate being scooped and turn it around for themselves by localizing, talking to student groups or professors, finding out how something national translates to our readership. For example, Justin's people have been doing tsunami coverage by following the progress and events held by the Greek organizations and a new group called Gators for Tsunami Relief. This way, we're not obviously catching up on a story we missed or printing Associated Press stuff, but making it something the community can find a local resource to partake in or get to know how an issue will affect their bottom line, etc.

And dude. Dude. The chairwoman of the Alligator's Board of Directors just sent an e-mail (titled "late fan mail") to the entire editorial staff to say "how pleased I am with the way the paper looks and reads so far this semester... Good work." *basks*

Comments

[topaz119.livejournal.com]

so something isn't as done as it should be

Managing this, knowing how to get it as done as possible *given the circumstances* (let me repeat that again, just for kicks, GIVEN THE CIRCUMSTANCES) is the key to excellence without insanity. Pulling a piece together is cool, though, isn't it?

[gjstruthseeker.livejournal.com]

And I do understand the circumstances issue - I've had deadlines that were only barely met because of people not calling me back or leads not panning out. This is why I keep telling them that if they can't get hold of the head researcher or the president of an organization, to call around to the assistants or treasurers or just down a member list, or change the angle altogether. Get it as done as you can, even if it's not the story you set out to do or not sourced the way you would've liked.

Pulling a piece together is deeply cool. What I really like is being surprised, finding out that by asking one question of the right person, you've only scratched the surface of something much larger.