Ridiculous Workload Dept.

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Tue Oct 09, 2007 6:22 pm

The Mail Tribune (30,000 daily; 35,000 Sunday), an award-winning AM
newspaper in scenic Southern Oregon, has an immediate opening for a
copy editor/page designer to join its eight-person copy desk. The
desk handles copy and builds pages for the news and features
sections, a weekly entertainment magazine and a rapidly growing Web
site. We also publish four glossy magazines, with more to come in
2008. (ACES Jobs)

*** Eight! ***

JonScribe · **Posted:** Tue Oct 09, 2007 8:44 pm

*** More to come ***

longwords · **Posted:** Tue Oct 09, 2007 10:33 pm

Why don't they just call their staff paginators and stop already with the "copy editor" exaggerations?

New job description:
Editors will skim copy during the course of paginating the daily newspaper and other products. Staff members are expected to produce headlines that win contests, while preventing libel as they edit on the fly. Staff members need to be flexible and change direction whenever the publisher or the corporate parent decides to emphasize a different aspect of the new media or add a niche publication. Editors will cover for each other when staff members retire or collapse, because replacement staff members will not be hired until after the end of the fiscal year, if at all. Multi-taskers who can take notes and video simultaneously, post to Web, write advertorial copy and never miss layout deadlines with the dead tree product are welcome to apply. Must pass drug test.

Powderhorn · **Posted:** Wed Oct 10, 2007 2:11 am

Note they don't mention they're one of the papers Rupert Murdoch is about to spin off from Dow Jones.

The posting is a bit confusing, because the "glossy magazines" they refer to are advertorial products handled by the Product Innovation department and, as of two years ago, those did not go to the desk. However, they're execrable publications.

I decided not to work there, but it's certainly not the worst newsroom or desk environment.

Heartodixie · **Posted:** Fri Oct 12, 2007 10:32 pm

longwords wrote:

Why don't they just call their staff paginators and stop already with the "copy editor" exaggerations?

New job description:
Editors will skim copy during the course of paginating the daily newspaper and other products. Staff members are expected to produce headlines that win contests, while preventing libel as they edit on the fly. Staff members need to be flexible and change direction whenever the publisher or the corporate parent decides to emphasize a different aspect of the new media or add a niche publication. Editors will cover for each other when staff members retire or collapse, because replacement staff members will not be hired until after the end of the fiscal year, if at all. Multi-taskers who can take notes and video simultaneously, post to Web, write advertorial copy and never miss layout deadlines with the dead tree product are welcome to apply. Must pass drug test.

Longwords, where did you find the job description for my copydesk?

I'm still wondering about the whole drug-testing thing. You'd think shitty little papers would encourage drug use to keep staff satisfaction up.

Heartodixie · **Posted:** Fri Nov 09, 2007 3:34 am

This ain't an ad, it's an increasingly typical shift:

2:30-3:30 p.m. Read and move early inside brief sections, update budget and whatever else needs done right away.
3:30-4 p.m. Afternoon meeting.
4-7 p.m. Read, move and send to wire and Web local copy
8-9 p.m. Same for two late stories and a late brief.
9-10 p.m. Proof pages for 3-person universal desk on night when two of them don't know how to use the new pagination system.
10:10:45 p.m. Watch local news and chase down stories we missed and file briefs on them.
10:45-11:15 p.m. Get call about prominent death and slap together 10" news obit.
11:15 p.m.-12:45 Edit, wire and Web obit, un-edit important part deleted by copy desk, find out about huge error after sports guy happens to notice it after it's gone to press. Stop presses, fix error, fix Web site, respond to e-mail pointing out error that went up online.
12:45-1:15 a.m. get rebuffed by public safety folks while trying to confirm missed stories for Web/tomorrow's staff. Type up e-mail to bosses with stuff that should be followed up on.
1:15-2 Look at paper edition, bitch and moan, make Taco Bell run, make sure final Web version of obit's fixed.
2-probably 4 a.m. compile and edit copy for inside Sunday that's due before I leave on Thursdays.
4-5 a.m., if I don't die first, update neighborhood news blog.

I think I might be at the breaking point. I can't remember the last time I got home before sunup.

copynomad · **Joined:** Wed Feb 08, 2006 12:07 am **Posts:** 623

Geez, Heart. That's crazy. How much longer are you gonna stick it out?

trimtofit · **Posted:** Fri Nov 09, 2007 3:59 pm

Heartodixie · **Posted:** Fri Nov 09, 2007 4:59 pm

I can't find time to get a portfolio together.

From all the helpful reader feedback I'm getting today, it looks like the correction I stopped the presses for never actually got to the plate.

I don't mind the work, it's the sometimes writing, editing and then page-proofing copy that gets me. I know I'm not that good. Nobody is, and that's why papers built in all the redundancy they're trimming back.

Right now I'm editing, writing display type and proofing with a copydesk that lacks the wherewithal to look critically at my work, let alone proof it or improve on it. I can't stand working that way. Whole reason I came here was to be a cog so I could practice and learn from experienced folks, and already I'm back at the top of the dung-heap like I was at my last small paper.

I can't stand it, but I'm not good enough to get hired at a paper that could teach me something.

KfitzR · **Posted:** Fri Nov 09, 2007 10:25 pm

I agree with trim's post!
You are being exploited.
As are many people. And as long as they insist on being exploited individually, the bosses win.
Bear in mind, the bosses are not wedded to quality.

copynomad · **Joined:** Wed Feb 08, 2006 12:07 am **Posts:** 623

Heart, is there anyway you can take a few days off to recharge and put together some clips? It would be terrible for you to work that hard, be unappreciated, burn out and then get stuck. If you're not good enough to get on somewhere better, are you going to consider leaving papers? I wish there was some way to help.

Heartodixie · **Posted:** Sat Nov 10, 2007 3:27 am

Shucks.

My head's been spinning trying to figure out what to do next. I have a boyfriend and a neighborhood I really love, but there's nothing else for me to do in this town.

Not to give away the paper I'm at, but I'd really like to hang on till I can get something in Birmingham or Montgomery. I've always said I won't give up on newspapers till I have a go at working at a big metro. (Not optimistic about my prospects for either of those papers, though.)

Right now, I'm torn. I'd like to raise hell, kick ass and take names and really do something where I'm at, but after two and a half years of wishing it so, I'm pretty much ready to focus on making nice long enough to leave a good impression behind.

I really wish I knew whether I really need more experience to make a difference at a small crappy paper or am just too lazy or timid to do the job.

copynomad · **Joined:** Wed Feb 08, 2006 12:07 am **Posts:** 623

Heartodixie wrote:

I really wish I knew whether I really need more experience to make a difference at a small crappy paper or am just too lazy or timid to do the job.

How would you ideally find this out? If you want feedback on stories, you can send me some before and after stories if you like. But much of what makes a good copyed doesn't show up on clips and tests.

I recently hired a kid from outta nowhere who's kicking ass. He's got smarts, knows to ask the right questions, knows how to ask them effectively. His heds aren't there yet, but he learns fast, so I'm not worried. Meanwhile, I've got much more experienced copyeds who've shown less sense and initiative, as noted by other co-workers. And when I say sense, I mean sense about copy, people and situations.

trimtofit · **Posted:** Sat Nov 10, 2007 5:38 pm

Whatever your other concerns may be, anyone who routinely endures 14-hour workdays is not "lazy."

copynomad · **Joined:** Wed Feb 08, 2006 12:07 am **Posts:** 623

My sense is that Heart means she's stuck in a rut where she's working her ass off but hasn't made efforts to get out of the bad job. It's a crappy situation. Being in newspapers makes it that much harder because it's not as simple as finding another job in the same town, of course.

Heart, try to save whatever energy you can to get out of that sweatshop. Leaving them with a good impression at this point probably should come second to making a good impression on prospective employers, if you decide to stay in papers. (I don't mean you should burn your bridges, of course.)

If you can manage, I suggest that you try over the next several weeks to build a good clip package, even if it means you're starting from scratch and spending a bit of extra time on just one story a day. If you can get maybe 10 good clips together over the next several weeks, you'll have yourself a clip package. Then spend maybe a weekend putting together a cover letter that briefly explains the workload that you've been carrying. That way, even if your clips aren't tops, hiring editors can have perspective. Highlight all the responsibilities you've got, the various skills involved, etc. It sounds as if you're plenty committed to newspapers, and it would suck if that sweatshop drove you outta the industry.

If you want help editing your cover letter or resume or whatever, lemme know.

Heartodixie · **Posted:** Sun Nov 11, 2007 3:32 am

You know, I have it pretty easy in the scheme of things at small papers these days.

We have a 30-some-page weekly entertainment tab that one copy editor has to design, paginate and theoretically edit in two shifts or less each week. And the last issue of our I think quarterly magazine was 175 pages, and it's put together by one editor who does all the management and pagination but isn't considered devoted full time to that task and has to do periodic shifts on the daily copy desk.

And my last paper, they had three papers funnelled through their 3-4-man copy desk when I left, and shortly thereafter they fired half the reporters and started buying more papers.

It's effing insanity everywhere. I don't mind working, but how crappy does a paper have to get before its leadership realizes it might be headed in the wrong direction?

jjmoney62 · **Posted:** Sun Nov 11, 2007 2:22 pm

And don't let personal matters keep you "stuck" at your job or in that city. Leave if you must and let the chips fall. If the relationship's going to work, it'll work in the long run.

copynomad · **Joined:** Wed Feb 08, 2006 12:07 am **Posts:** 623

I think Heart mentioned before that she owns a house. I dunno about Heart's situation, of course. But I know people who'd like to make a career move but can't because housing prices have cooled and they'd have to take a big financial hit if they sold.

I've done the long-distance thing successfully and sold houses for work reasons. But everyone's priorities vary, and they change over time. When I was younger, it was much easier to move on. Now, quality of life means a lot more to me than work. I love my job, but if it suddenly sucked, I think I would stay rooted and switch industries. That's just me, of course. In general, I think it's riskier to move for work nowadays because the industry is so much shakier and things suck in many newsrooms.

Bumfketeer · **Posted:** Tue Nov 13, 2007 12:31 pm

HOD:

As a colleague likes to say when a staff meeting surpasses the four-minute mark, "Time to go."

Good luck.

sarahmay · **Posted:** Tue Nov 13, 2007 11:31 pm

As long as I remain in the field of journalism, I'm never buying a house again. I was recently burned -- bought my first house and then four months later, wham, I'm suddenly "not the right person for the job" even though I'd been working for the company for five years, ever since graduating college. Go figure.

The only thing keeping me in the field is I love the work. That's still enough for me right now, but probably not forever.

gdcfa · **Posted:** Wed Nov 14, 2007 9:07 am

HOD: KfitZ is right... bosses are not necessarily wedded to quality, and it sure sounds like yours aren't. I used to work 16 hour days regularly, but that was 20 years ago when I was first learning the ropes. I don't recommend it for everyone, but I viewed it as mutually exploitive. The company could not afford to pay overtime or hire more reporters/editors/photographers (and has since gone belly up), but then I got a well-rounded education in the biz without having to pay for an education.

If you already know the ropes, and it sure sounds like you do, your best strategy (in my opinion) is to stop juggling all the balls at work and let a couple drop. Quality should be the first one to go, which will free up some of your time to build a portfolio. And by lowering your standards I don't mean your own work has to suffer, but you can stop covering for others which only enables them to continue to be sloppy because good ole HOD will pick up the slack.

I finally bailed on my first employer after a paycheque bounced. He covered it right away and was embarrassed, but I recognized then that I had truly stayed too long. It's been onward and upward ever since. It's hard to see a bright future when you're squinting bleary-eyed into the sunrise knowing that the only time you'll spend in daylight is the drive between home and work, but you MUST begin finding small ways to change your situation. You will not last.

I hope you do it sooner rather than later. Best of luck.

paulwiggins · **Posted:** Wed Nov 14, 2007 9:27 am

sarahmay wrote:

The only thing keeping me in the field is I love the work. That's still enough for me right now, but probably not forever.

That's a useful thing to say {the town/colleagues,etc can also apply] when one wants to clear the air about workload.

Editer · **Posted:** Wed Nov 14, 2007 7:52 pm

gdcfa wrote:

... you can stop covering for others which only enables them to continue to be sloppy because good ole HOD will pick up the slack.

This.

copynomad · **Joined:** Wed Feb 08, 2006 12:07 am **Posts:** 623

sarahmay wrote:

As long as I remain in the field of journalism, I'm never buying a house again. I was recently burned -- bought my first house and then four months later, wham, I'm suddenly "not the right person for the job" even though I'd been working for the company for five years, ever since graduating college. Go figure.

The only thing keeping me in the field is I love the work. That's still enough for me right now, but probably not forever.

that really bites. i understand your reluctance to buy again. it's bad enough that many people essentially take vows of poverty to work in newspapers. we shouldn't have to give up on owning homes, too. unless i'm using a paper as a stepping stone, i will not take a job anywhere i don't feel comfortable buying a home.

and i'm with the others. i don't see the point of flogging your guts out for a shitty paper (or any shitty company). if they don't appreciate good work, it's time to leave. build your clips as quickly as possible. that said, i've found that i actually learned a lot more in shitty jobs than otherwise. i'm in a sweet setup now mostly because a shitty boss inspired me. i use good bosses as touchstones, but i also use the shitty boss as an anti-role model. it was well worth the "tuition" i paid. of course i wasn't so happy about it at the time.

Testy Copy Editors

Ridiculous Workload Dept.

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