Trial By Fire

The first full week of work with the Tribune-Phonograph went by in a flash. It tested my mental fortitude and patience as we put together a 20-page paper in three days.

I found myself thinking on Thursday and Friday before our first edition that we had worked on came out thinking, ‘This isn’t so bad. We barely have any work to do.’ Little did I know what Monday and Tuesday had in store for Nathaniel and I.

We spent the days (and nights) leading up to publication sending copy to be proofread by staff in the building, working on placing photos and ads in the paper and organizing everything to look like a normal newspaper.

I had done all of this before with my college newspaper but we had a staff of six editors that put together a 12-16 page paper in five or so hours which made it much easier to handle. The old ‘trial by fire’ method of training worked as we learned where and how to spend time efficiently.

Between sporting events, school board meetings, even a concert in Branson, Mo., there were many things that we had to keep track of and ensure that they made their way into the paper. One thing is for certain: Organization will be a major part of my regular work regimine moving forward. There can never be enough calendars, sticky notes and lists of events made to help keep everything straight. This week’s paper will be that much easier to assemble because of that ‘trial by fire.’ The ensuing day off was a welcome addition to the work week but ideally, we would like to be in the office every day of the week and spend less time on the assembly of the paper.

We received tons of help from staff members here at TP Printing, The Star News in Medford, and the staff at The Record-Review which covers the Stratford, Edgar, Marathon and Athens municipalities.

My biggest complaint was that I had to miss an NBA playoff basketball game on TV. In the long run, it might be a good thing because catching every single Brewers, Bucks and Packers game is probably taking a toll on my mental health, especially with the playoff struggles of the Packers in recent years.

It’s all a learning experience and with time, who knows? Maybe we’ll become experts at putting together a newspaper!

Side note: I promise, next week I will start talking about things outside of the workplace.

SPEEDING

THROUGH

L

IFE

NEAL H OGDEN EDITOR