Many hours ago, I walked out the doors of the Grand Rapids Press for the last time as a summer copy desk intern. I’m still not sure if that has hit me yet.
Three months ago, I went through a day of orientation, two more days of training on a vastly outdated pagination system and cracked into the inner workings of a newspaper I have come to greatly respect. Suddenly, it’s over, like it just brushed past me. The days of waking up at 3 a.m., sleepwalking into my work clothes and frantically trying to find my key card are, for the most part, behind me. I may be back for a week or two in December. I wouldn’t mind that at all.
I have an extremely bad habit of looking back on things and wondering what I could have done better. But I really don’t have that feeling leaving The Press. I did what I wanted to do. I worked on a handful of section fronts, paginated open pages on deadline, worked on the Web desk with posting stories and aggregating, and even shot, recorded and produced a Soundslides project.
Most of all, though, I learned a great deal about a newsroom’s inner workings, even if the traditional newsroom model is becoming more and more obsolete. I mentioned this before in a previous post. These are things that could be critical to me once I take the next step in my journalism career.
Speaking of which.
As you may or may not know, on Monday, I will take the reins as editor in chief of Central Michigan Life, CMU’s student newspaper. It is my fifth and final year in the newsroom that built me, from the ground up, as a journalist. It is a multiple National Pacemaker award finalist, the Michigan Press Association’s Division I general excellence award winner in five of the last seven years and the Society of Professional Journalists’ runner-up for best non-daily in the country two years ago (last year’s still pending). My job sounds simple: to keep this track record going. But not exactly a simple task.
Like a lot of student newspapers, CM Life is bearing the brunt of the seemingly-in-decline journalism industry. Budget cuts had to be made yet again for this year, including a dock in pay to staffers. Advertising is scrambling right now, doing the best they can to rack up all the extra revenue it can get. And, of course, there is the annual turnover: Many experienced and talented journalists from last year are off to the real world, leaving big gaps to fill. These challenges aren’t for journalists with weak stomachs; the entire industry is going through these sorts of problems.
Being someone who is as passionate about this industry as the next journalist, I am more than willing to meet these challenges head-on. CM Life is directly responsible for my growth, particularly my superiors throughout the years. My goal in my final year is, with the much-needed help from the rest of the Life crew, to put another stamp on this newspaper and find ways to make it a better source for Central Michigan news and discussion. The Web site redesign, launching in just less than two weeks, is only the beginning.
With all that said, I have a general question for those who have served as editors at student newspapers: What advice do you have for me? What challenges did you face that you weren’t expecting to find? What new things should we try, in print, online or both? Is reporter/editor interaction with readers online a good thing (something we may try this fall, for the first time)? The more ideas we get flowing around, the better. Have at it!
Posted by Brian Manzullo at August 7, 2009
Journalism, cm-life.com Redesign