That's The Jyst of it

Online editor Sam Green, College Living editor Jayna Barker and I got lost on our way to Clermont Northeastern High School today. No big deal.

We ended up finding it and were only, oh, you know, 20 minutes late. Sigh. Being lost and late make me cranky. But, I mean, a lot of things make me cranky.

We talked to the students who make up The Jyst, the monthly student newspaper at CNE. They were cool, had a lot of really good questions. Sam, Jayna and I had fun. I wanted to interview some of the students on what they thought the future of journalism might be like, but that didn't work out. So, I talked to sophomore Kathleen Arthur and juniors Alexa Hawley and Jenna Varner about the paper and what they want to accomplish next year.

Hopefully News Record editors will make this a regular thing, and not just at CNE. It was cool to reach out and talk about something we're so passionate about.

-- Taylor

Your staff is how big?

I posted this to my new blog, but thought it was worth cross posting since, well, it's about The News Record.

I’ve been on a blog kick since I started this thing. Mostly I’ve been interested in reading blogs by other journalists — student or professional — to see how things are going in their world.

In the past two days, I’ve come across two different blogs by two different student editors at two different universitys and read that they have staffs that are in the 150-175 range. What the heck kind of newsroom is that?

The News Record has a staff of 11 editors — myself (EIC and opinion), the managing editor, two news, two sports, entertainment, college living/spotlight, online, multimedia and photo. We also have one chief photographer and four designers on payroll. There are five people in the business department. As far as bi-weekly paychecks go, that’s it.

We have stringers who can be paid if they reach the minimum number of published stories/photos (10 per quarter), but even then there are, between reporters and photographers, we have, maybe 40 stringers who do work on a regular basis. What’s even more surprising is that we’ve had more people interested in working with us this year than ever before, at least in my memory.

How in the heck do you convince 150 people to be interested? It’s like pulling teeth to get students to come into the newsroom with a genuine interest in working and sticking around. You would think that the students in the University of Cincinnati’s journalism program would at least want to be involved, but even still, I don’t know anyone in program who doesn’t or hasn’t worked for The News Record.

Not only how do you convince that many people to give a damn, but how do you afford a staff that huge? Am I missing something?

I’m not complaining (except that I kind of am), I’m just mostly astonished. I can’t even imagine what TNR would be like if that many people were reporting or shooting or doing video work. We do a damn good job with what we have, but with 150 people we might be able to take over the world.

I’ll have to share this thought with editor-in-chief-elect Gin A. Ando. Maybe he’ll have better luck recruiting than I did. UC journalism students, if you happen to be reading this, if you’re not working with The News Record, what are you doing?

Enough said.

-Gin A. Ando

Insanity reigns....

Tonight truly is the busiest evening I've had yet as a news editor.

Around 2:30 this afternoon, a nice steaming pile of a story dropped into my lap concerning faculty who harshly grade students.

Had to start from scratch, too. Somehow I had to wrangle up three sources before business hours ended, get their input and turn it into at least a 400 word story.

Considering that we normally set a deadline of noon for our reporters to get their stories in, it's obvious that I was tremendously behind the power curve.

Strike one, right?

It kept raining and pouring after that.

One of our intrepid reporters had to bow out of covering tonight's student government meeting. Normally wouldn't be an issue, except the new prez, v.p. and at-large senate winners of the SG election were to be announced. Ice that cake with a possible vote on a smoking bill and more discussion about a diversity board.

Shiver me timbers, Batman!

So, now I have to cover two stories with 400 words each (SG meeting, election results) in addition to finishing a grading story back at the homestead.

How did I wrong you so, dear God?

I got back to the office and went to work fiendishly. Three word documents pulled up at one time, typing away on all of them simultaneously. The phone is attached to my ear, as I get quotes from both Dean Hardcastle and a newly-elected senator for the respective stories.

Mercifully I was able to finish them all with some wiggle room before deadline. It was exhilarating. Thrown into a seemingly hopeless situation and proving my mettle truly made my evening.

It helped remind me of why I found this job so attractive in the first place, and why I love writing.

Now I need a damned drink.

Keep your powder dry, folks.

--James

Everyone needs an editor

I noticed there was a new comment on one of my old columns today. It was kind of funny, so I thought I would share. And, being that I am an editor, I couldn't help myself.

Plus, I could name at least three people who would notice if I died and only two of them are friendless hippie sluts.

-- Taylor

Power?

Hello Off The [News] Record readers,

There has been a recent development.

The designers have received blogging power.
Finally, the recognition we deserve!
Stay tuned for the unveiling of our master plan.

This is all.

-J.Ritz

Out of sight, out of mind

It's strange to think that I'm still in school right now.

News Record takes up a lot of time. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but I'm not looking forward to going to class and taking two back-to-back examinations tomorrow morning. It's kind of... blehhh. Reality check.

But more importantly, we're scheduling to run another streetcar article this week. I think it's quite an interesting topic, honestly.

It seems like without constant reminders that it's still an issue and being worked out people might forget about it.

The next big thing is right around the corner. But that doesn't mean we should neglect other stories worth following.

Big day tomorrow. I hope I remember what wages expenses and all that other accounting terminology goes on.

Assets = Liabilities + Stockholders' Equity. I think I'll be OK.

See you in the funny pages, jerks.

-Gin