I've been reading all the sad tales of newspaper cutbacks at http://asnereynoldsphoenix.blogspot.com/ and elsewhere, and I got to thinking about my own situation at the Laredo Morning Times, where I work part-time. Tonight (Friday) I'm working on The Zapata Times, which LMT creates and sends to Zapata, a town 40-something miles to the southeast of Laredo. I'm also translating a Spanish-language story from El Tiempo de Laredo into English for Saturday's LMT. Phew!
Wednesdays and Thursdays I fill in for the full-time desk guy so he can have his weekend. We normally work by ourselves since there are no longer any more desk people. Newsroom cutbacks have thinned out our ranks in the newsroom. Nobody's been fired that I know of but attrition has taken its toll.
Either the city editor or editor will look over stories before we get them, but it's the desk person's behind if there are problems.
In June and July 2007 I worked six days a week for two months before the paper found the news editor (Basilio) before Patrick, our current news editor. I trained Basilio then it was time for school to begin. I didn't mind as that was before I met my now wife and the money came in handy as I refinanced my home loan and give some to my daughter for college.
After Basilio was considered trained, he and Patrick (then-copy editor) worked together and I'd work Sunday and Monday by myself. Sunday was an "easy" day and then Monday the editor would back me up. The city editor works Tuesday-Saturday, so she and/or the editor were on duty.
During the school year I get to the paper about 5, as school doesn't end until 4:20 and I can't leave until 4:30. So often it's a real scramble for me to make deadline.
We're short handed on reporters so sometimes things don't get covered, unfortunately, and with me taking off in mid-June for the institute I'm not sure how my absence will be covered.
Newsroom cuts are real. Don't think they aren't!
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Thanks for your post, Mark. I'm sure more than one article for the institute's online publication will address newsroom cuts. ASNE conducts an annual newsroom employment survey that found daily newspapers shed about 5,900 jobs in 2008, 11.3 percent of the total. Here is the Editor & Publisher story: http://bit.ly/cXkIf. And here's the information, including detailed tables, on ASNE's site: http://bit.ly/6MGG. I found it interesting -- and not surprising -- that ASNE tracked an increase in online-only journalists during 2008. You'll have access to plenty of people during the institute who can address this issue, including ASNE President Marty Kaiser, two former ASNE presidents, top editors at The Arizona Republic and other institute speakers.
ReplyDeleteOkay Mark, I must confess that the prospect of editing and proofreading my students' work is sometimes daunting. I cannot imagine having to switch back and forth in two languages like you do.
ReplyDeleteI got out of the TV news business because I saw, in 1993, that didn't have the stomach to battle the constant shuffling of reporters and the competition for "the" story of the day. In my two years as a news photographer in a small market, I saw at least 15 reporters in the revolving door trying to "move up" in the pecking order at the station and then onto a new, bigger market.
I imagine that television news is even more competetive at the local stations now. Reporters must be skilled enough to be "one man bands" so that they can shoot, edit, write, do voice over, etc.
Steve provides valuable information in the links embedded in his post, and Trampus' experience in television is what I see taking place at the local NBC station.
ReplyDeleteI think LMT's biggest competition is the local NBC affiilate and, ironically, the newspaper's own Web site in which the day's page one stories (local and AP) are posted along with all other local stories for a 24-hour period before they go to a subscribers'-only part of the site.
Readers and others can read and comment on the stories in a public forum without having to log in to anything. Subscribers to the print edition can log in to see .pdf files of the day's paper plus those going back two years, and have access to a story search going back two years. (A free public archives area is available that runs to the point where the paid area begins.)
In effect, a person can get the local news free online then go to Yahoo! or other sites to get more free news from the Associated Press, Reuters and other sources.
So, then, we as journalism instructors need to look towards what our students could face in the future. My goal this coming school year and after is to have students practicing the components that make up converging media, and with the hsj.org Web site network set up to handle handle text, digital photos, pdf and audio and video files we'll be able to become involved in a big way. I'm know the institute will provide us with the tools (and names of software we can purchase) to help us equip our students for the future.
As a postscript to my post of Friday night, after Patrick finished Saturday's paper and I finished the Zapata paper he proofed laser printouts of Monday's business tabloid and I assisted the editor, city editor and two paginators with two graduation sections for Sunday's paper. So in a professional setting, fewer people and the same expectations from management to maintain the same output as during good economic times results in more pressure more those remaining. (A correction, I met my now-wife in May 2007.)