TMM Featured Career: Newspaper Editor

Hi guys! I’ll likely have just arrived in Amsterdam by the time most of you read this! Wheeei!

Please welcome Kara from Chatter – I actually know Kara in real life because she is a fellow Kamloopsian and she did the same journalism program as me but was a year above me. In fact, we were co-editors on the school paper in my third year!

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1. What exactly is your job?

I am the Editor of the Downtown and North Shore Echo, two little newspapers that go to two different neighbourhoods in Kamloops. I have to copy edit stories that come in from our freelance writer and hunt down articles to fill up the rest of the paper. I also do weekly streeters (asking people on the streets questions), photography, layout, attend press conferences and answer the phones. I also do a small amount of accounting! I enter the cheques that we receive into the computer and charge them towards our advertiser’s invoices. It’s a small newsroom (5 people including the freelancer!) so I gotta multitask!

2. What’s a typical day in your job like?

My days vary depending on the day of the week. First thing Monday morning I check the voicemails and open up my email. I receive the emails from our main address, so I forward them along if necessary. Then I print out the story lists and get ready for our Monday Morning Meeting. The meeting usually goes from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. and we go over what we need ad and editorial-wise. After that I usually address all my emails, finish the North Shore paper and get it to our graphics/layout person so she can throw it all together and we can print! When that’s all done I start pulling together the editorial content for the Downtown paper. Lather, rinse, repeat! Add in answering the phone, doing random missions of madness and taking the odd photograph, and that’s pretty much my day!

3. When did you decide you wanted to be a journalist? Do you think that you will always work in the media field?

When I was in Grade 12 and was trying to decide what I wanted to do in university, I had originally picked Marketing. Then I took the yearbook production class and discovered that I really enjoyed throwing a publication together. I decided to work out my first-year of university classes to accommodate a transfer to the journalism program if I didn’t like Marketing. It’s a good thing I did! I was HORRIBLE at Economics so I switched right away. After the first couple months in the journalism program, I realised I made the right choice.

I think I will always be in the media field or communications. I really enjoy interacting with people and organizing things.

4. What’s something that most people assume about your job that’s not true?

That it’s easy. Sometimes, when the “newsroom” is slow, it’s hard to find content to fill the pages of the paper. It’s stressful when I have two-hours to deadline but I’m missing three photos and four stories. And because we’re concentrated on two specific areas, we can’t run content that happens outside of it unless it’s a non-profit organization.

5. What would your dream job be?

Cat wrangler! Haha, I kid. I’d love to have a position at a big company in communications or the likes. Union would be nice too, with benefits and a wicked pension plan. We can dream, right? I’d also love to take over Jim Pattison’s job. He’s my secret idol.

6. Most bloggers would love to write for a living, is it as glamourous as it sounds?

It’s hard! I’m only responsible for writing one column a week, but sometimes, it’s really hard to think of topics to write about that are acceptable for print. And, because we’re the “good news” newspaper, I can’t be overly negative.

7. What’s your favourite thing about your job? Least favourite?

The people I work with has got to be my favourite thing. Like I said, there’s only five of us, and we’re all women, so we get along really well. The office is full of sarcasm, which I thrive off of. It’s great!

My least favourite is the fact that because we’re just a little weekly neighbourhood paper, big organizations don’t take me seriously at press conferences or photo ops. I usually have to weasel my way into the photo line and steal the other photog’s shots. I love taking original photos, so that gets me down. Oh, and I really don’t like how smelly the printers are! ?

Thanks so much, Kara! Very interesting!

Any other journalists/newspaper editors out there? As you all know, I was on the path to be a journalist but took a different career path, as many journalism students do but it’s interesting to hear about what a day in the newsroom is like! Any bloggers out there dream of writing for a living?