... Since then

So I remained the news editor until graduation, May 9. It was stressful and fun. I also worked at two news stations as executive news producer while freelancing for the AP.

Now I work at the Bangor Daily News editing and writing.

I still hope to move to DC, NY or Seattle in the next two years and get to a larger market.

News editor of a college paper

It has been a while since my last entry. Since then I have become the news editor of The Maine Campus, the University of Maine newspaper.
Being an editor has helped sharpen my news senses. I have to find news, assign the articles to the best writer for the job, edit the stories, pick an order from most to least important. This also includes choosing pictures, managing my news team, headline writing and giving input to the layout of my section.
I think of these things finding the news is the hardest part. I've made a lot of connections which help, such as student government executives.
The whole experience has been exhilarating. I've gotten to write about Hilary Clinton, Barack Obama, do some more in-depth investigative pieces, and some awesome features. This has led to another job as an "independent candidate correspondent" for a student online newspaper: Scoop08.com as well as a possible job at the largest Maine newspaper, the BDN.
I have the opportunity to apply for editor in chief next semester, but I think news and I fit perfectly. I'd be a good chief, but I'm an awesome news editor- and more importantly- my heart is in it.

Changed Mind... mostly.

Through my internship I've realized I do not hate broadcasting and that, when in the right hands, it can be considered journalism. The issues I had with it was that I felt that TV news was not as in depth, thorough and honest as print. I find most of this still to be true, however I've seen the process and the circumstances and perhaps my previous thoughts were appropriate 10 or more years ago but now that there is internet to fact check and to read the full stories of everything on air I am less cold to the camera's perspective.

I do have a heavy respect for print journalism and find that to be one of the most important industries in America but TV isn't the most terrible thing.

Recent thoughts on broadcast

Yesterday at my ABC/CNN TV station internship a woman called me on the phone crying. Her son had died in a car accident and my station had played it many times on the news. She had just seen it and was yelling at me for not showing it sooner. I thought this was a little strange, but I told her we had shown it earlier and that this was an update.
Anyway, what it really comes down to is ethics. Each of the broadcasts I've watched there has been at least one mistake. In the newspaper world we correct them in the next issue, in broadcast they just seem to be too proud to admit on air, or at all, that they mess up occasionally. By occasionally I mean on a regular basis. I find this disgusting, too many people rely on our broadcasts to be issuing incorrect statements.
I'm thoroughly disappointed.

Amazing

The town zoning board meeting went something like this:
7pm boring
8pm nothing
8:30-9:15 what I need to write about
10pm: deadline... it is a 30 minute drive home
I wrote the article in 13 minutes and was only 1 minute late for deadline. They gave me 20 minutes to revise it thankfully.

Now I need to finish my feature... this is really exciting and draining.

Deadline Stress

I was informed today that I have to finish a feature story and cover a zoning board meeting tonight by 10 p.m. I've never had these kinds of deadlines before. This is probably how 'real' print journalism works. I've come to the realization that my editor is not a jerk, he is an editor.
I made the A section in today's paper for the selectmen's meeting I covered last night. I know that the editor I interviewed with, head honcho, told me that he would love t hire me after graduating from UMaine but now I believe it... I don't think they would push me this hard if they weren't planning on it.

Real World Journalism

Today my editor informed me that I will write about a town's selectmen's meeting and I will have it in by 10pm no matter what it takes.
He also informed me that I will finish a feature story on one of two towns by Thursday.
It just is so different from the Maine Campus (MEC). At the MEC you are given choices and write what you want- not told what you will do... or else. This is probably the next 10 years of my life *sigh*. It is going to be tough to manage a job an internship and a demanding editor.